Was Jesus born perfect?

"None need fail of attaining, in his sphere, to perfection of Christian character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. God calls upon us to reach the standard of perfection and places before us the example of Christ’s character. In His humanity, perfected by a life of constant resistance of evil, the Saviour showed that through co-operation with Divinity, human beings may in this life attain to perfection of character. This is God’s assurance to us that we, too, may obtain complete victory. {AA 531.2}

Every human being has a record in heaven. This is "the Book of Remembrance" and everything we do or think in life is written there. It is the perfect DNA blueprint of the life of every man. Perfection is a journey. We are born with a clean slate but we are hindered by the inherited characteristics of our father and mother. Jesus had a Father with a perfect character, and a mother with a developing character. This was his only advantage in life in comparison to all other men. Mary was not perfect but she was on the road to perfection and God spoke to her so her character development was beyond other women in faith, even though she questioned God later, convinced Jesus was delusional, set against Him by his half brothers.


"Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was manifest in the flesh. What was his work in this world?—To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself on the cross of Calvary. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. By his prayers and strong supplications, he overcame. In his human nature, he perfected a character after the divine similitude. By a life of perfect obedience to every requirement of God, he procured redemption for all who will be obedient. The divine nature is imparted to those who receive and acknowledge him as their Saviour. (JT; it is immediate if we accept the gift) They become partakers of the divine nature, overcoming the assaults of Satan and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. Christ energizes by his Spirit those who seek him with the whole heart. {RH August 31, 1905, par. 13}
Those who truly receive Christ are given power to become the sons of God. As they look to Jesus, they catch the divine rays of light, and are attracted by the loveliness and purity and goodness of the Saviour. They seek to copy his pleasantness, rather than the harsh violence manifested by those who disregard the laws of God. And as they keep before them the fear of God, and walk as obedient children, others will mark their Christlikeness of character, and will be drawn to the Saviour by the revelation of their love, their justice, and their mercy. Yet some will refuse to come to the Saviour, choosing darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. {RH August 31, 1905, par. 14}
Christ and his righteousness,—let this be our platform, the very life of our faith. That which he taught, we are to teach. His commission to his followers is: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;” “and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” {RH August 31, 1905, par. 15}

Jesus came from Heaven with the character of God, but when He was born as a man, He had the right to do anything He wanted in the realm of being human, He was led by every possible advantage a human can have for discovery and through answer to prayer He realized His divinity early in life. He realized He could not use His divinity to overcome sin and immediately He was tested on every point beyond what we would ever be tested, yet He did not fail to do what is right. THIS IS WHAT PERFECTED HIM AS A MAN! The record in heaven was spotless for Him, using only that which is for all men's use from God. Prayer in faith. He is our example of faith. If you really want to receive greater faith you have to trust God like Jesus did. Every word life.

"We should seek most earnestly to have Christ abiding in our hearts by faith, that we may be kept through temptation without sin. We should be constantly looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, so that we can attain unto righteousness. The closer we draw to Jesus, and the more clearly we see his life and character, the less we shall think of ourselves. There are a class that say that they are sanctified, they are holy, and yet they are living in transgression of God’s law. Shall we take their word as truth, or shall we compare their characters and doctrines with the word of God? “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” But the apostle says, “Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in him.” Every soul must be brought to the test of God’s great standard of righteousness; and if the character is not in accordance with God’s law, it is not in a right condition before God." {RH July 15, 1890, par. 1}

When we receive the words of God in the shadow of the perfected character of Jesus, trusting in the fact that He gave us the right to become right with Him, or perfected, when we receive these truths in our hearts that is when we stand perfected through the merits of Jesus, before the Father. It is then that the record of our sins are transferred to the Mercy seat and our names are recorded into the Lambs book of life, which is a record of everyone who has entered into His faith, our sins covered by His righteousness.

These are the fruits that we shall know them by.

I will miss talking with you all, Peace.

I agree with you, that Christ took our fallen human nature! It is interesting how this debate continues.

...Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses, Isaiah 53:3-4, Matthew 8:17. Burdened with the sins of the world, He must pass over the path where Adam fell, and redeem his failure. When Adam was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon him, but he was surrounded by the glories of Eden. {BEcho, November 15, 1892 par. 1} He would have us comprehend something of his love in giving his Son to die that he might counteract evil, remove the defiling stains of sin from the workmanship of God, and re-instate the lost, elevating and ennobling the soul to its original purity through Christ's imputed righteousness. {RH, November 8, 1892 par. 2}

"We are born with a clean slate but we are hindered by the inherited characteristics of our father and mother."

So we are not born with a clean slate. See Romans 5:12-21; Romans 8:7.

"The divine nature is imparted to those who receive and acknowledge him as their Saviour. (JT; it is immediate if we accept the gift) They become partakers of the divine nature, overcoming the assaults of Satan and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust."

It immediately is given!. That does not mean we are perfect. The greatest battle that is ever fought, is the battle against self, which we must fight every day. (See the opening paragraphs of Steps to Christ, chapter 5)

The defiling stains of sin in the workmanship of God, is real, it is physical, it is in our very fabric. Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer. {MH 113.1} Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as the unwearied servant of man's necessity. He "took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses," that He might minister to every need of humanity. Matthew 8:17. The burden of disease and wretchedness and sin He came to remove. It was His mission to bring to men complete restoration; He came to give them health and peace and perfection of character. {MH 17.1}

Jesus was born perfect (sinless) and He became perfect (mature).

You miss all the SOP quotes that say He was born of the Spirit from the womb, so it is not a correct complete picture, need to dig below the surface .

Mike - it depends on how you define sin. Is sin just a mental disease? Or is sin real, and physical? Why do dogs get cancer and die? SIN. The whole creation is infected with sin. Jesus came and took our sinful nature, but did not yield to it even for a moment.

1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.

I read this verse now literally. EGW put it this way:

What a sight was this for heaven to look upon. Christ, who knew not the least moral taint or defilement of sin, took our nature in its deteriorated condition. {16MR 115.3}
There was not a drop of bitter woe which He did not taste, not a part of the curse which He did not endure, that He might bring many sons and daughters to God. {16MR 116.1}
By taking upon Himself man's nature in its fallen condition, Christ did not in the least participate in its sin. He was subject to the infirmities and weaknesses of the flesh with which humanity is encompassed, "that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by the prophet Esaias, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are. And yet He was without a spot. {16MR 116.3}

Hebrews 2:14-18
(14) For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
(15) And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
(16) For truly he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
(17) Why in all things it behooved him to be made like to his brothers, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
(18) For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

John 17:18-19
(18) As you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
(19) And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

EGW commenting on this verse says this: "Christ declared He sanctified Himself, that we also might be sanctified. He took upon Himself our nature, and became a faultless pattern for men."

When was this sanctification completed? Right up to the end in several stages.
John 14:30
(30) Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

Right at the end, there was nothing in Christ that would respond to the Devil. Sin was silenced. The final step was to completely remove it. This started in Gethsemane where it was seen he was lack of a better term, disintegrating. Isaiah 52:14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: (See DA 690.1) Christ was strengthen, only to go through it again on the Cross, and even that was hidden by darkness for several hours. When He accomplished His work on the cross, He declared, "It is finished", John 19:30.

Of this, the Bible states, Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Are your sins purged? Are mine? No, but He bore our sins in His body on the tree, and purged those. Now he is working as our High Priest applying His work in those who will trust Him to allow Him to heal us. Taking our fallen condition, He sanctified Himself, so that we may be sanctified. He took our sinful (full of sin) fallen condition, in order to know how to "succor" us. To help us, to heal us.

Brother Mike.

How fair would it be for God to contend with the temptations of Satan as God?

If He was to redeem mankind He must live FULLY as a man, to show the path to overcoming sin. He only used what powers have been made available to every man so that we can have faith that what happened for Him could happen and did happen for us.

He was born in the flesh, living life as a man, without record of sin at the finish line. This resistance to evil perfected Him as a man, and proved that He always felt this love for us because the plan was shown to be eternal, laid from the beginning of time.

But just as Adam, He had to go through the test to become the second Adam, He chose to subject Himself to His own laws just like every created being, and in it showed the perfect path to peace with God. So even though He was fully God, simultaneously He was ONLY fully man, and only used the pre-planed schedule and agenda to fulfill what the Father had proposed in His heart from the moment they wanted to create men in their image.

How many people realize the Apostles performed miracles for Christ after the Early Rain? They would lay the sick in the path of Paul and Peter and John so that when their shadow passed over them they were cured! The point is, miracles happen when the Spirit of Christ resides there, because of how Jesus refused evil. But when in a town that did not believe in the plan of salvation and redemption through Christ "He could do no miracles there".

"Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem; who worked with his earthly father at the carpenter’s trade; who sat in weariness by Jacob’s well; who slept in weariness in Peter’s fishing-boat; who hungered and thirsted; who took little children in his arms and blessed them; who was rejected, scourged, and crucified,—ascended in the form of a man to Heaven, and took his place at the right hand of God. Having felt our infirmities, our sorrows, and temptations, he is amply fitted to plead for man as his representative. Jesus, when upon earth, was the most perfect type of man; and it is the Christian’s joy and comfort that this patient, loving Saviour is to be his King and Judge; for “the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” {6Red 73.2}
We are not inclined to associate kingly glory and judicial authority with the self-denial, patience, love, and forgiveness shown in the life of Christ; yet these attributes qualified the Saviour for his exalted position. The qualities of character which he developed on earth constitute his exaltation in glory. His triumphs were gained by love, not by force. In coming to Christ the sinner consents to be elevated to the noblest ideal of man. {6Red 74.1}
“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” The attributes which exalted Christ, if obtained by his followers, will place the scepter in their hands, and they shall be kings and priests with God. Christ pledged himself to keep the law which Adam transgressed, and to magnify that law and make it honorable by demonstrating that it was not arbitrary, and could be kept inviolate by man. Christ showed by his life that the law of God is faultless, and that man, by disobeying it, brings upon himself the evils which its restrictions seek to avert from him. {6Red 74.2}

I love the thought that love is ever growing. The love of God is ever perfected through Jesus, His Son whom He delights in.

Jesus was perfected beyond the level of perfection He had in heaven in His life here on earth and learned to love even more, so perfection grows.

Please pay attention, The beauty of this Brothers, is that this train of thought ties to the key of the power of it all. Jesus had to be judged by the same laws that Satan was accusing Him of breaking, to be judged like a man in man's stead. Then the record can be laid open for all to see who is right.

He became the second Adam by living the life Adam longed for after his fall. This is how Jesus can enter into our hearts now if we let Him. Vicariously He enters into our hearts, to show us our true selves in comparison to what He endured for us. Then we can see how important faith in His strength really is.

That is the message my Father has given to me and all of you. I do not even begin to claim to understand. But this is where the Power that God wants us to have dwells.

Here is a mental picture if you will...

We are on this planet, cut off from the Father because of sin, destined to die the second death, because that is what every single man who has ever been born into sin deserves.

The new Jerusalem is hovering over the place that it will settle forever after the earth is made new.

Imagine being resurrected into that place. The second death. Totally cut off from anything righteous. No Holy Spirit to motivate, no heavenly angels to protect and every other mother's son who had done wicked things is out there with you, with evil angels orchestrating the lost. Waiting for the fires of hell to consume you. This is when the realizations settle in.

CUT OFF!

OK, now you see what Jesus saw for us in Gethsemane, and He carried that for a whole day. From Thursday evening at sundown leaving the upper room and exiting the eastern gate, crossing over the brook Kidron and entering Gethsemane to sweat blood, till dying on the cross Friday at even (3PM) He was living our experience for us. Then He slept for two days, thank you Father for your mercy. This is the sign of Jonah's three days and three nights. This is when He was in the HEART of the earth.

I have to keep pointing these things out because of how important they are, and seeing everyone sleeping or slumbering. I know there is nothing more important than this... Jesus walked more than a mile in my shoes so I can have His mercy and grace, which motivates me to want to keep His commandments perfectly. That's all I know. Peace.

I agree Jesus bore our sins in His sinful flesh nature. He maintained mastery over it and them always and continually. He conquered it and them on the cross. He will place them on Satan at the end of time. Satan will suffer and perish with them in the lake of fire. When he dies, they will cease to be.

Nevertheless, Jesus was born perfect, without the stain of sin upon His character. The sin He bore in His body never contaminated His character. Also, He never chose to sin, thus His character remained sinless. Moreover, Jesus became perfect by maturing daily in the fruits of the Spirit.

Weren't we all born without stain of sin? But the bible still says we are sinners even then. He was counted among the transgressors for our salvation, remember that.

At birth our parents are responsible for our souls. Who they are, we are until the age of accountability.

Jesus had one earthly parent who was not perfect and you seem to forget this part. This is important because it connects Christ to us. That is why the family tree of Mary is in the book of Luke, To show the connection of the bloodline of the seed. From Adam to Christ.

What is funny about this is the fact this is the greatest honor to have Jesus truly part of our race, but men want to erase this element to faith.

Hear this messianic prophecy...

Psalm 88 O Lord, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror[b] to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O Lord;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.

These are the things Jesus pondered while carrying the weight of our sins on His head from Gethsemane to the cross.

We were all born with the carnal nature. We must be born again (John 3) The carnal nature is enmity towards God and cannot please God (Romans 8) We must be born again, renewed, transformed by the Holy spirit.

Christ was born perfect. His was the "born again" nature from the beginning. We are not to bring Christ down to our level, He will lift us up to His level through the born again experience.

We are totally incapable of living according to God's righteousness. We can only live it when we die to the old nature and rise with Christ in newness of life with Holy spirit filling our lives.



"A new heart will I give unto thee." The image of Christ is to be stamped upon the very mind, and heart, and soul. The apostle says, "And we have the mind of Christ." Without the transforming process which can come alone through divine power, the original propensities to sin are left in the heart in all their strength, to forge new chains, to impose a slavery that can never be broken by human power. . . . {EGW in Reflecting Christ 303.4}


" Our Lord was tempted as man is tempted. He was capable of yielding to temptations, as are human beings. His finite nature was pure and spotless,... But here we must not become in our ideas common and earthly, and in our perverted ideas we must not think that the liability of Christ to yield to Satan's temptations degraded His humanity and He possessed the same sinful, corrupt propensities as man.... Christ's perfect humanity is the same that man may have through connection with Christ. [16MR 181-182}