The suggestion that Jesus never sinned is a jarring claim, particularly when you recall that the first adherents of this belief were Jewish. The Jewish Scriptures repeatedly affirm that everyone sins both intentionally (1 Kings 8:46; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20) and unintentionally (Psalm 19:12). And so, the initial spread of the belief that Jesus was sinless happened among people who assumed every human being sins. What could possibly cause such people to come to the conclusion that they had known a man who committed no sins?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the New Testament claims regarding the sinlessness of Jesus. What has occurred to me is that these statements are more apologetically valuable than I had considered before.

More Than Blameless

When it comes to descriptions of Jesus, the authors of the New Testament don’t simply suggest he was “righteous” or “blameless.” As true as those traits may be of Jesus, such claims had been made many times before regarding persons who were ordinary human beings, faithful yet far from sinless (see, for example, Genesis 6:6; 2 Samuel 22:24–27; Job 1:1).

But the claim in the New Testament is not merely that Jesus was blameless.

The New Testament authors declare that Jesus was sinless.

“He Did Not Commit Sin”

The apostle Paul declares that Jesus “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The author of Hebrews speaks similarly, stating that Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). According to the first letter ascribed to John, there was “no sin” in Jesus (1 John 3:5). The author of 1 Peter says without reservation that Jesus “did not commit sin,” and he seems to assume his readers share this perspective (1 Peter 2:22).

If I receive these epistles as documents that accurately preserve the teachings of eyewitnesses of Jesus (which I do), these conceptions of Jesus can be traced back to individuals who personally knew him. If I were to take a skeptical perspective that ascribes 1 John and 1 Peter to authors other than the apostles, I still must concede that these epistles emerged in communities where people trusted the words of those who had known Jesus and had experienced some contact with eyewitnesses.

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