The temptation in the desert: Could Jesus have sinned?

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Whether or not they were ontologically morally perfect now becomes moot point.
Exactly.
The fact of the matter is, they, like Jesus, could have chosen to sin, because both found sin attractive and were physically able to carry it out.
Right. God did create some (or, at least one) folks like this. But only “like Jesus” in the sense that an ant is “like humans” in that it is alive. Actually, the ant is to humans is an inadequate analogy because the difference between Jesus and Mary is infinite, while the difference between an ant and a human is finite.
 
Jesus had a human will like yours and mine, and I believe the devil appealed to it the same way he did to us. But Jesus has perfectly submitted his human will to his divine will, thus he would never choose to sin.
 
I have shown that Jesus could sin in the second sense as well, because he was truly tempted, that is to say, he was attracted to sin.
EGADS! No, no, no, no, no.

Jesus was never attracted to sin. :eek:
 
I don’t agree with the idea that God can’t defy logic.
What you mean is God can defy the laws of nature. He cannot defy the laws of logic.
Lots of miracles defy logic, walking on water defies logic yet Jesus did it. 🤷 The virgin birth defies logic yet it happened. 😉
Right. God defied the laws of nature.

But if he were to defy the laws of logic it would look like this: Jesus walked on water and he also didn’t walk on water at the same time.

God couldn’t do that.

Because it violates the laws of logic.
 
Our whole idea of what we see as logic is based on our experiences and what we know and understand of how things should be, but God is beyond the scope of the rules of our understanding. 🙂 We only consider as logic the things we can understand, if we can’t understand it then we see it as illogical. The internet would seem illogical to people of the distant past, yet it makes sense to us because we can understand it. What we consider as logic is simply things we can understand so to say God can’t defy logic puts Him in a box saying He can’t do anything that we can’t understand. 🙂 God is infinitely smarter than us and we humans don’t know or understand everything there is to understand. When we get to heaven we will see how a lot of things we thought illogical are perfectly logical including Jesus’ ability to sin and not sin at the same time. 🙂
I think it would help you to understand better if you limit your definition of logic to “the laws of non-contradiction”.

That way you can see that God will *never *violate this type of logic. It cannot be both X and not-X at the same time.
 
I don’t agree with the idea that God can’t defy logic. Lots of miracles defy logic, walking on water defies logic yet Jesus did it. 🤷 The virgin birth defies logic yet it happened. 😉 The idea that God is everywhere at the same time and in all periods of time at the same time defies logic yet it’s true. Our whole idea of what we see as logic is based on our experiences and what we know and understand of how things should be, but God is beyond the scope of the rules of our understanding. 🙂 We only consider as logic the things we can understand, if we can’t understand it then we see it as illogical. The internet would seem illogical to people of the distant past, yet it makes sense to us because we can understand it. What we consider as logic is simply things we can understand so to say God can’t defy logic puts Him in a box saying He can’t do anything that we can’t understand. 🙂 God is infinitely smarter than us and we humans don’t know or understand everything there is to understand. When we get to heaven we will see how a lot of things we thought illogical are perfectly logical including Jesus’ ability to sin and not sin at the same time. 🙂
none of the examples you gave are examples of a violation of logic. They are examples of a violation in nature, which is very different.
 
Because then we would be God. And there cannot be multiple gods. That defies logic.
we would not be Gods if we were created only ontologically morally perfect, with none of the other aspects of ontological perfection.
 
Right. God did create some (or, at least one) folks like this. But only “like Jesus” in the sense that an ant is “like humans” in that it is alive. Actually, the ant is to humans is an inadequate analogy because the difference between Jesus and Mary is infinite, while the difference between an ant and a human is finite.
There is no difference between Jesus’s human nature and Mary’s human nature. Both are finite.
 
we would not be Gods if we were created only -]ontologically /-]morally perfect, with none of the other aspects of ontological perfection.
And God did that. For at least 1 individual. Possibly more.

Why didn’t he do that for everyone?

So he could proffer for us so great a redeemer.
 
EGADS! No, no, no, no, no.

Jesus was never attracted to sin. :eek:
of course he was. As you yourself pointed out, moral perfection is acheived when one is attracted to sin, but decides to do the right thing anyway.
 
And God did that. For at least 1 individual. Possibly more.

Why didn’t he do that for everyone?

So he could proffer for us so great a redeemer.
No, as I’ve said before, that doesn’t make any sense. God does not want us to sin, under any circumstances. If we were created with a less than morally perfect nature so that God could provide us with a redeemer, that means God wanted us to sin.
 
of course he was. As you yourself pointed out, moral perfection is acheived when one is attracted to sin, but decides to do the right thing anyway.
For the human person.

Not for God.
 
No, as I’ve said before, that doesn’t make any sense. God does not want us to sin, under any circumstances. If we were created with a less than morally perfect nature so that God could provide us with a redeemer, that means God wanted us to sin.
No, God created us with a morally perfect human nature…and then it was ruined for us by Adam and Eve.
 
doesn’t this mean that Jesus had no free will?
No, it doesn’t. His human will chose to comply with his divine will. Also it has been said that given the wisdom his divinity has supplied to his humanity, it was impossible for a human to choose sin given that wisdom. That is why those of us who make it to heaven will also live forever free from sin, not because we lose our free will, but because our communion with God will be so profound, we will never even think of choosing anything else other than God.
 
For the human person.

Not for God.
why would there be a difference in moral sandards of perfection between the devine and the human?

In any case, if this is true, than Jesus could not have been both a morally perfect human being and a morally perfect God, as is the typical claim.
 
No, God created us with a morally perfect human nature…and then it was ruined for us by Adam and Eve.
I know. But what you are saying is that the reason why God didn’t make all of us immaculately concieved is because he wanted to provide a great redeemer for us. And That just doesn’t make sense.
 
No, it doesn’t. His human will chose to comply with his divine will. Also it has been said that given the wisdom his divinity has supplied to his humanity, it was impossible for a human to choose sin given that wisdom. That is why those of us who make it to heaven will also live forever free from sin, not because we lose our free will, but because our communion with God will be so profound, we will never even think of choosing anything else other than God.
Then the same basic question arises. “Why didn’t God create all of us with that level of knowledge?” A possible answer is that God wants us to search for and find him. That makes sense, but the consequences of that belief system is that we have a quality greater than that of Jesus. We are able to search for God without his devine wisdom guiding us along the path, and Jesus’s human nature wasn’t, or else Jesus had some special quality that no one else has and which could easily be given to us.
 
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