Conservative Christians derive their belief about the sinless nature of Jesus largely from their concept of salvation and atonement. As quoted above: "It is through the willing death of this sinless One and His subsequent burial and resurrection that we can be relieved of our sins and their consequences." Religious conservatives understand that Adam and Eve's transgression in the Garden of Eden brought sin into the world for the first time; this has caused succeeding generations of humans to inherit a sinful nature. Further, the sin of the first parents has alienated all humans from God. There was only one way that this sin can be cancelled, and the separation from God overcome: Everyone's sin had to be transferred to God's son, a perfect human being. Jesus had to accept all of the sins of the human race (past, present and future) and be murdered on our behalf. Then, if an individual repents of their sin and trusts Jesus as Lord and Savior, she/he will be saved and inherit eternal life in heaven. [Some conservative Christians have dropped the requirement for repentance on the basis that this requires effort on the part of the new Christian. They view salvation as being totally a gift from God.] In order for Jesus to be an acceptable human sacrifice, capable of creating a path by which we can cancel our sin and re-unite with God, he had to be devoid of sin. Their belief is reinforced by various passages in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament), some of which are listed below.
Beliefs of some liberal Christians:As with so many other elements of Christian belief, there is an unbridgeable gulf between conservative and liberal Christians on the topic of Jesus' sinlessness. Many liberals view Jesus as a 1st century Jewish rabbi, as a follower of the great Jewish philosopher and theologian Hillel, as a native healer, and/or as a philosopher of the Greek "cynic" school, etc. -- a prophet with such advanced teachings in the areas of spirituality, religion and community that his followers were inspired to found what was to become the largest religion in history. They view Jesus as a great human being, not as a deity. Thus they believe that it is quite unlikely that he could have lived his entire life without sinning.The concept of salvation is not of great importance to religious liberals. Most view Hell symbolically, not as a real place. Most interpret Satan as a symbol of evil, not as an all-evil quasi-deity. Many are repelled by the concept of God being so incapable of forgiveness and empathy that he required the torture death of an innocent man in order to allow believers to be saved. They also believe that sins are not transferable. Thus:
With these beliefs about Hell, Satan, God and sin, there is no need for Jesus to have been a perfect human while on earth. Thus there is no need for him to have led a sinless life.
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Muslim beliefs:The Qur'an is accepted by Muslims as the direct words of God, dictated by an Archangel to the prophet Muhammad. It does not contain a passage that directly states the sinlessness of Jesus. However, there are two passages in the Qur'an which imply his sinlessness:
What does the public believe?The Barna Research Group conducts nationwide surveys among American adults on a variety of religious topics. Some results from 1999 phone surveys are:
In 2001, the same question was asked again. The percentage of adults who strongly disagree that he committed sins during his life on earth remained at 40%. However, Barna Research also listed results by denomination:
In 2004, a Barna Research survey of the "unchurched" found that 51% believe that Jesus committed sins while on earth. Barna defines the "unchurched" as "... an adult (18 or older) who has not attended a Christian church service within the past six months, not including a holiday service (such as Easter or Christmas) or a special event at a church (such as a wedding or funeral)." They include many Agnostics, Atheists, non-church going Christians, Jews, Muslims, Wiccans etc. They constitute 75 million American adults, an massive increase from 39 million in 1991. 9
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