First of All, We Look at His Witness of Himself
John 8:46
"Which one of you convicts Me on sin?"
He received no answer. When He invited them to accuse Him, He could stay and bear their scrutiny. He was without sin; thus He was able to open Himself in such a manner.
He also said, "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him" (John 8:29). He seems to have lived in unbroken communion with GOD.
Christ's self-conscious purity is astonishing in that it is totally unlike the experience of the other believers. Every Christian knows that the nearer he approaches GOD, the more aware he becomes of his sin. However, with Christ this is not the case. Jesus lived more closely to GOD than anyone else and was free from all sense of sin.
Along this same line of thought, we are told of the temptations of Jesus (Luke 4) but never of His sins. We never hear of Him confessing or asking forgiveness of His sins, although He tells His disciples to do so. It appears that He had no sense of guilt that accompanies a sin nature.
The Witness of His Friends
Throughout the Bible, the inconsistencies of all persons are brought out. None of the great Jewish heroes are presented without blemish, not even David or Moses. Even in the New Testament, the shortcomings of the apostles are written about in almost every book, and yet nowhere do we find mention of one sin in Christ's life.
First of all, we must establish why we would study the accounts of His disciples. We see that their witness must be studied for the following reasons:
THEY LIVED IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH JESUS FOR ABOUT THREE YEARS
THEY WERE JEWS AND SINCE BIRTH HAD BEEN MADE AWARE OF THEIR OWN SIN NATURE AND THAT OF OTHERS
THEIR TESTIMONY TO HIS SINELSSNESS IS INDIRECT
They do not set out to prove He was sinless; rather, their remarks on the subject are such that they acknowledge His sinlessness.
Of their writings A. E. Garvie states: "...It seems absolutely incredible that any one of the disciples could have first invented and then depicted the personality of Jesus as it appears in the Gospels."
In their close contact with Him, they never saw in Him the sins they saw in themselves. They got on one another's nerves, they grumbled and argued, but never did they see this in Jesus. Because of their strict Jewish background, they would be hardset to say that Jesus was without sin unless He really was sinless.
His closest associates, Peter and John, attest to His being without sin.
I Peter 1:19
"But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (KJV).
I Peter 2:22
"Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (KJV).
I John 3:5
"And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin" (KJV).
John went so far as to say that if anyone declares himself to be without sin, he is a liar and he is calling GOD a liar also. However, John also gave testimony to the sinless character of Jesus when he said that in Christ "there is no sin" (I John 3:5).
Even the one responsible for His death recognized His innocence and piety. Judas, after betraying Jesus, saw His righteousness and fell into deep remorse because he had "betrayed innocent blood" (Matthew 27:3,4).
The apostle Paul also bore witness of Jesus' sinlessness in his epistles (II Corinthians 5:21).
More Important, Perhaps, Than the Witness of His Friends Is That of His Enemies
One of the men crucified with Jesus gives testimony to His sinlessness. In Luke 23:41, one of the robbers rebuked the other robber, saying, "...This man has done nothing wrong."
Pilate's own testimony of Jesus' sinlessness was, "What evil has this man done?" (Luke 23:22).
The centurion at the cross proclaimed, "Certainly this man was innocent" (Luke 23:47).
It is also evident that His enemies would try to bring forth some accusation to convict Him of wrong. However, they could not (Mark 14:55,56).
In reference to this: Mark assembles four criticisms that His enemies brought forth (in 2:1-3:6). First, they accused Him of blasphemy because He had forgiven a man's sins. However, if He was divine, He had every power to grant forgiveness. Second, they were appalled by His evil associations - sinners, publicans, harlots, etc. The religious leaders of that day thought it righteous to avoid contact with such people. To these accusations He refers to Himself as a physician to the sinners (Mark 2:17). Third, He was accused of retaining a frivolous religion in that He did not fast like the Pharisees. However, there is no doubt that He did take His religion seriously. Last, they were upset by His sabbath-breaking (healing, picking grain, etc.). Yet no one can doubt that He was submissive to the law of GOD. Because He was "LORD of the Sabbath," He chose to destroy false traditions and give GOD's law its true interpretation.
Last, We Have Available the Witness of History
He is seen as sinless in the religion of Islam. In the Koran (Mary, V. 19), the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that her son, Jesus, would be "without fault," i.e., sinless.
Philip Schaff assures us: "Here is the Holy of Holies of humanity..."
"There never lived a more harmless being on earth. He injured nobody, He took advantage of nobody. He never spoke an improper word, He never committed a wrong action."
"The first impression which we receive from the life of Jesus is that of perfect innocency and sinlessness in the midst of a sinful world. He, and He alone, carried the spotless purity of childhood untarnished through His youth and manhood. Hence the lamb and the dove are His appropriate symbols."
"It is, in one word, the absolute perfection which raises His character high above the reach of all other man and makes it an exception to a universal rule, a moral miracle in history."
"He is the living incarnation of the ideal standard of virtue and holiness, and the highest model for all that is pure and good and noble in the sight of GOD and man."
"Such was the Jesus of Nazareth, - a true man in body, soul, and spirit, yet differing from all men; a character unique and original from tender childhood to ripe manhood, moving in unbroken union with GOD, and overflowing with love to man, free from every sin and error, innocent and holy, devoted to the noblest ends, teaching and practising all virtues in perfect harmony, sealing the purest life with the sublimest death, and every acknowledged since as the one and only perfect model of goodness and holiness."
John W. Stott contributes: "This utter disregard of self in the service of GOD and man is what the Bible calls love. There is no self-interest in love. The essence of love is self-sacrifice. The worst of men is adorned by an occasional flash of such nobility, but the life of Jesus irradiated it with a never-fading incandescent glow. Jesus was sinless because He was selfless. Such selflessness is love. And GOD is love."
Another writer, Wilbur Smith, states: "The outstanding characteristic of Jesus in His earthly life was the one in which all of us acknowledge we fall so short, and yet which at the same time all men recognize as the most priceless characteristic any man can have, namely absolute goodness, or, to phrase it otherwise, perfect purity, genuine holiness, and in the case of Jesus, nothing less than sinlessness."
C. E. Jefferson writes: "The best reason we have for believing in the sinlessness of Jesus is the fact that He allowed His dearest friends to think that He was. There is in all His talk no trace of regret or hint of compunction or suggestion of sorrow for shortcoming, or slightest vestige of remorse. He taught other men to think of themselves as sinners, He asserted plainly that the human heart is evil, He told His disciples that every time they prayed they were to pray to be forgiven, but He never speaks or acts as though He Himself has the faintest consciousness of having ever done anything other than what was pleasing to GOD."
In this regard Philip Schaff states: "It is an indisputable fact, then, both from His mission and uniform conduct, and His express dedication, that Christ knew Himself free from sin and guilt. The only rational explanation of this fact is that Christ was no sinner."
Another testimony is that of A. E. Garvie: "If there were any secret sin in Him, or even the memory of sins in the past, this would show a moral insensibility in irreconcilable contrast with the moral discernment His teaching shows."
C. E. Jefferson states: "There is nothing in Jesus' consciousness which indicates that He was guilty of any sin."
Jesus' personality betrayed His thoughts and beliefs, as Stott tells us: "It is clear then that Jesus believed Himself to be sinless, as He believed Himself to the Messiah and the Son of GOD."
Kenneth Scott Latourette, the famous historian, testifies: "Another quality which has often been remarked was the absence of any sense of having committed sin or of a basic corruption of Himself...It is highly significant that in one as sensitive morally as was Jesus and who taught His followers to ask for the forgiveness of their sins there is no hint of any need of forgiveness for Himself, no asking of pardon, either from those about Him or of GOD."
"The Sermon on the Mount is Christ's biography. Every syllable He had already written down in deeds. The sermon merely translated His life into language." Thomas Wright
Henry Morris writes: "If GOD Himself, incarnate in His only Son, could not measure up to the standard of His own holiness, then it is utterly futile to search elsewhere for meaning and salvation in the universe."
Bernard Ramm says: "...Jesus led the one perfect life of piety and personal holiness on the sole consideration that He was GOD-incarnate."
Of this Griffith Thomas writes: "...Not for a single instant did the faintest shadow come between Him and His heavenly Father. He was without sin."
Griffith Thomas again states: "If Christ's own life had not been sinless, it is obvious that He could not be the Redeemer of mankind from sin."
From Philip Schaff we hear: "The better and holier a man is, the more he feels his need of pardon, and how far he falls short of his own imperfect standard of excellence. But Jesus, with the same nature as ours and tempted as we are, never yielded to temptation; never had cause for regretting any thought, word, or action; He never needed pardon, or conversion, or reform; He never fell out of harmony with His heavenly FAther. His whole life was one unbroken act of self-consecration to the glory of GOD and the eternal welfare of His fellow-men."
"I know of no sincere enduring good but the moral excellency which shines forth in Jesus Christ." William Ellery Channing
Wilbur Smith observes: "Fifteen million minutes of life on this earth, in the midst of a wicked and corrupt generation - every thought, every deed, every purpose, every work, privately and publicly, from the time He opened His baby eyes until He expired on the cross, were all approved of GOD. Never once did our LORD have to confess any sin, for He had no sin."
With the Witness of History We Find the Testimonies of Some of the World's Most Renowned Skeptics
Rousseau stated: "When Plato describes his imaginary righteous man, loaded with all the punishments of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he describes exactly the character of Jesus Christ..."
The famous writer, John Stuart Mill, asks: "But who among his disciples or among their proselytes wa capable of inventing the saying ascribed to Jesus, or imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels?"
"Jesus is the most perfect of all men that have yet appeared." Ralph Waldo Emerson
The historian William Lecky states, "He...has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice..."
"Even David Strauss," writes Wilbur Smith, "the bitterest of all opponents of the supernatural elements of the Gospels, whose works did more to destroy faith in Christ than the writings of any other man in modern times 0 even Strauss, with all his slashing, brilliant, vicious criticisms and his sweeping denials of everything partaking of the miraculous, was forced to confess, toward the end of his life, that in Jesus there is moral perfection. 'This Christ...is historical, not mythical; is an individual, no mere symbol...He remains the highest model of religion within the reach of our thought; and no perfect piety is possible without His presence in the heart.' "
To conclude, Bernard Ramm writes: "Sinless perfection and perfect sinlessness is what we would expect of GOD-incarnate, and this we do find in Jesus Christ. The hypothesis and the facts concur."
IF GOD BECAME MAN, THEN WE WOULD EXPECT HIM TO MANIFEST THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE FORM OF MIRACLES
The Scriptural Witness
"Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Luke 7:22).
Thus we see that His miracles demonstrated a great variety of power: power over nature, power over disease, power over demons, powers of creation and power over death. This was also an appeal to prophecy and its messianic fulfillment in Christ.
A listing of these would include:
MIRACLES OF PHYSICAL HEALING
MIRACLES IN THE NATURAL REALM
MIRACLES OF RESURRECTION
Comments and Quotes on His Miracles
"Christ demonstrated a power over natural forces that could belong only to GOD, the author of these forces."
With this are the words of C. S. Lewis: "All the essentials of Hinduism would, I think, remain unimpaired if you subtracted the miraculous, and the same is almost true of Muhammedism, but you cannot do that with Christianity. It is precisely the story of a great Miracle. A naturalistic Christianity leaves out all that is specifically Christian."
Another purpose of the miracles is stated by Bernard Ramm: "Miracles are believed in non-Christian religions because the religion is already believed, but in the Biblical religion, miracles are part of the means of establishing the true religion. This distinction is of immense importance. Israel was brought into existence by a series of miracles, the law was given surrounded by supernatural wonders, and may of the prophets were identified as GOD's spokesmen by their power to perform miracles. Jesus came not only preaching but performing miracles, and the apostles from time to time worked wonders. It was the miracle authenticating the religion at every point."
Philip Schaff states that Christ's miracles were "in striking contrast with deceptive juggler works and the useless and absurd miracles of apocryphal fiction. They were performed without any ostentation, with such simplicity and ease as to be called simply His works."
To continue this thought, Griffith Thomas relates: "It is noteworthy that one of the words very frequently used of these miracles in the Gospels is the ordinary term, works (erga). They were the natural and necessary outcomes of His life, the expression in act of what He Himself was."
They also mirrored the character of their worker.
Griffith Thomas continues: "The inquiry resolves itself simply into this: granted such a supernatural Person, were supernatural deeds congruous with His life? The character of the works attributed to Him, their beneficience, the restraint under which they were worked, the comparatively insignificant place they occupied in His ministry, and the constant stress laid by Him on spiritual kinship as primary - these are all entirely congruous with the manifestation and working of so miraculous and superhuman a Person as Jesus is seen to be."
>Philip Schaff tells us: "All His miracles are but natural manifestations of His person, and hence they were performed with the same ease with which we perform our ordinary daily works."
Again, from Philip Schaff: "His miracles were, without exception, prompted by the purest motives and aimed at the glory of GOD and the benefit of men; they are miracles of love and mercy, full of instruction and significance and in harmony with His character and mission."
F. H. Chase states: "The motive and scope of the LORD's miracles recorded in the Gospels are ever the same. The notices of the miracles are scattered up and down over the Gospels. But when they are considered in relation to each other, we discover in them an undesigned Saviour, renewing each element in man's complex being and restoring peace in the physical order. They are not presented in the Gospels as primarily designed to enhance His dignity and His power. If they had been the invention of pious fancy, yearning to illustrate by imposing stories of His greatness and His glory, it is a moral impossibility that this subtle unity of purpose should have been so consistently and so unobtrusively observed."
Thomas concludes: "For us today the Person of Christ is the great miracle, and the true line of thought is to argue from Christ to miracles rather than from miracles to Christ."
Islam even recognizes His ability to perform miracles as we see that the Koran (the Table V110) bears reference to them. It speaks of healing the blind, the lepers and raising the dead.
Early Jewish Witness
"We find many references," writes Ethelbert Stauffer in Jesus and His Story, "to Jesus' miracles in the Jewish law books and histories."
"Around AD 95 Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus of Lydda speaks of Jesus' magic arts."
"Around the same period (AD 95-110) we encounter the ritual denunciation: 'Jesus practiced magic and led Israel astray' " [Sanhedrin 43a].
"Around 110 we hear of a controversy among Palestinian Jews centering upon the question of whether it is permissible to be healed in the name of Jesus."
"Now, miraculous healings in the name of Jesus imply that Jesus Himself performed such miracles."
We also have a roundabout reference from Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor from 361-363, who was one of the most gifted of the ancient adversaries to Christianity. In his work against Christianity, he states:
"Jesus...has now been celebrated about three hundred years; having done nothing in his lifetime worthy of fame, unless anyone thinks it a very great work to heal lame and blind people and exorcise demoniacs in the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany." He unwittingly ascribes to Christ the power to perform miracles.
To Silence the Critics
"If miracles," says Bernard Ramm, "are capable of sensory perception, they can be made matters of testimony. If they are adequately testified to, then the recorded testimony has the same validity for evidence as the experiences of beholding the events."
Thus, many of His miracles were performed before the public for open scrutiny and investigation by skeptics. First let us look at the biblical account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
Bernard Ramm observes: "If the raising of Lazarus was actually witnessed by John and recorded faithfully by him when still in soundness of faculties and memory, for purposes of evidence it is the same as if we were there and saw it."
In reference to raising Lazarus from the dead, it is significant that His adversaries did not deny the miracles, but, rather, tried to kill Him before all men believed in Him (John 11:48).
Thus, Jesus' contemporaries, His enemies included, attested to His ability to perform miracles. However, this power was attributed to Satan by His enemies and to GOD by His friends (Matthew 12:24).
In answer to the charge Jesus said, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then shall his kingdom stand?" (Matthew 12:25,26).
On the basis of the evidence and testimonies available we see that the Gospel miracles cannot be discounted because of the extravagant and superstitious claims of pagan miracles. Just because some miracles are counterfeit is no proof that all are fraudulent.
Miracles are often discounted because thy are against natural law. However, laws cannot cause anything to happen. Therefore, when the miracles of Jesus are discussed they must be observed as GOD coming in and altering the ordinary course of things.
We can see then that miracles are an inherent part of GOD's communication with us. Thus, the whole question depends ultimately on the existence of GOD.
On this thought, Griffith Thomas says, "If, therefore, we are to allow the scientific doctrine of the uniformity and continuity of nature to bar the way, we shall inevitable come to the conclusion that miracles are impossible, and from this would follow, as it usually does follow, the conclusion that a miraculous Christ is impossible. The question is thus really decided on a priori grounds before the evidence if even looked at."
Paul Little states the fact that "science can only say miracles do not occur in the ordinary course of nature. Science cannot 'forbid' miracles because natural laws do no cause, and therefore cannot forbid, anything."
Also in regard to natural law we hear from Philip Schaff. "True miracles are above nature, not against nature...They are manifestation of a higher law, which the lower laws must obey."
In conclusion are two quotes, the first from John A. Broadus and the second from A.E. Garvie.
"Take the Gospels as they stand...and if Jesus of Nazareth did not perform supernatural works, He many times spoke falsely. Either He who spake as never man spake, and in whose character no criticism can discern a fault...either He did perform supernatural works or He spoke falsely."
Garvie states: "...A Christ who being Son of GOD, and seeking to become Saviour of men, (and) wrought no miracle, would be less intelligible and credible than the Jesus whom the Gospel records so consistently present to us."
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