Hello Paidion,
A) I agree with you that it would be ludicrous to assert that an earthworm could sin, or even could be tempted to sin. Same with any non-human earthly creature, and any inanimate object.
B) I agree with you that it seems logical that Jesus’ temptation would be meaningless if He were not able to fall to temptation.
C) You may have noticed that I have waffled a bit on this forum as I have tried to reach a conclusion about this matter of whether or not Jesus could sin.
D) My problem has been that because I see Jesus as God, I could not see how God could sin, since Scripture clearly indicates God can’t sin. Therefore, I felt compelled to conclude that Jesus' temptations were not akin to ours. Because God cannot be tempted, this led me to surmise that perhaps the temptations to which Jesus was subjected might have been tests to prove that He could not sin, rather than tests to discover if He might sin. (I used the locomotive on the railroad-bridge analogy).
E) The discussion on this thread has caused me to re-look into Scripture concerning this subject. In the process, I came again across James 1:13 (“God cannot be tempted with evil…”). I’ve read James several times, but it wasn’t until this discussion came up that I saw the pertinence (I think) of James 1:13 in terms of this topic. That verse informs me that if Jesus (during His earthly walk) was God and solely God (without humanity), then He could not have been tempted. But we clearly know that Jesus was tempted. On some previous post, I told Benstenson that James 1:13 may have solved this dilemma for me, because it makes it impossible for Jesus (in His humanity) to be God. God cannot be tempted; Jesus (in some way) was tempted; therefore Jesus, humanly, was not God.
F) Several things seem clearer to me now. 1) Jesus’ humanity was truly distinct from His deity. There was no blending, otherwise in some way God would have been tempted, which is impossible. 2) Jesus was completely human in every way; therefore, His temptations must have been genuinely like ours. 3) But unlike us (and because of His being Spirit-filled and perfectly submitted to the Heavenly Father) Jesus consistently overcame temptations and always chose not to sin. 4) As long as Jesus remained filled and submitted, He was immune from sin, though subject to temptation, to which (it seems) He could have chosen to surrender. If He could not have chosen, then it seems He was not really fashioned like us. In His humanity, Jesus single-handedly did what Adam and Adam’s race have not. 5) Simultaneous with being truly human, however, Jesus was (and is, and ever shall be) truly God (Col. 2:9; Isaiah 9:6). 6) Like “eternity” and “infinity,” Jesus’ duality of natures is, to me, an unfathomable mystery. We are told He was Emmanuel.
G) So, I conclude that, speaking of His humanity, Jesus was tempted and could have sinned, but never did. In terms of His deity, however, Jesus cannot be tempted, much less sin. Seen one way, Jesus could have sinned; seen another way, He could not. Jesus’ dual nature solves the issue (for me) about whether or not He was actually tempted and whether or not He could have actually sinned. It has Scriptural support and seems to me to make good sense. We see Jesus described as God, and we see Him described as a man.
By the way, I looked up your code name (Paidion) in an online Greek dictionary and discovered what it means. I see its connection to Matt. 18:2-5. I bet you already knew that, didn’t you?
What a great name!
Candlepower
