and how did it come about. We have the following to use as base for this discussion...

Man and woman were made in the image of God with individuality, the power and freedom to think and to do. Though created free beings, each is an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit, dependent upon God for life and breath and all else. When our first parents disobeyed God, they denied their dependence upon Him and fell from their high position under God. The image of God in them was marred and they became subject to death. Their descendants share this fallen nature and its consequences. They are born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil. But God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself and by His Spirit restores in penitent mortals the image of their Maker. Created for the glory of God, they are called to love Him and one another, and to care for their environment.—Fundamental Beliefs, 7

Adam's descendants share the sinfulness of his nature. In prayer, David said, "In Your sight no one living is righteous" (Ps. 143:2; cf. 14:3). "'There is no one who does not sin'" (1 Kings 8:46). And Solomon said, "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'?" (Prov. 20:9); "There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin" (Eccl. 7:20). Job exclaims, "'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!'" (Job. 14:4). David said, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5). The New Testament is equally clear, stating that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23) and that "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). And Paul stated that "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:7, 8).

So if man, though created perfect and in God's image, and placed in a perfect environment, through Adam and Eve became transgressors of Gods Law and inherited sin, how did Jesus who became fully flesh, not have sin at birth.

At what point in our lives do we need Jesus' death on the cross to cover us? In other words, do newborns who die before committing acts of sin inherit eternal life on the basis of their innocence or on the basis of Jesus substitutionary death on their behalf? Had Jesus failed in His mission, would infants who died before sinning still inherit eternal life, or be lost with those whose sin, on the part of Jesus' hypothetical failure, could never be covered?

Do not ALL human beings need salvation? ALL?

The answer is obvious, I think. However, the implications of that answer are the main reason I cannot subscribe to the idea that Jesus was born with a sinful humanity if what is meant by that is that He possessed self-originating temptations to sin. If he, in His infancy, was just like every other human being as far as being predisposed to disobedience at birth, then either such a condition is exempt from the penalty of sin, or Jesus must have been exceptional in His innate humanity. Otherwise, He would need a savior.

Jesus took on our sinful condition.
Isaiah 53:3-4 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Matthew 8:17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.

He literally bore our sickness.

John 17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

The fact Jesus did not sin during the age of non-accountability is a mystery left unexplained.


The expression "the force of all temptations wherewith man is beset" must necessarily include "the clamors of our fallen nature."


Jesus passed over the same "ground". That is, He was tempted from within in the same way we are.

The problem is that people construe these quotes to mean that Jesus was born with an inclination to rebellion. When clear statements to the opposite are brought up, then fabricated ideas such as the "higher-lower nature" arguments are brought in.

The issue is not whether Jesus had a pre- or post-fall humanity. It was post fall because, holistically speaking, the humanity He lived in had tremendous circumstantial disadvantages (what we blame when we sin) to what Adam in his unfallen state had. But to say that Jesus had innate, self-generated inclinations to sin is treading on ground which Sister White has warned us against treading on.

Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, pp. 508, 509:

Now lets look at the following.......

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Luke 1:15
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

How do you read these verses......

Jesus had no advantage over us, otherwise we would have an excuse.

"He who triumphed over the adversary of souls in the wilderness of temptation, understands what the Christian has to meet; for he has conquered the enemy in our behalf, and as an overcomer, he has given us the advantage of his victory, that we may be able to resist the temptations of the evil one." {RH, September 23, 1890 par. 1}

Jesus was an "overcomer".

What does it mean to you that He had a "post fall" nature?