UCLA School of Law

Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted like other human beings yetnever sinned. Sinlessness is not the same as impeccability. Chalcedonian Christology orsome variant of it seems necessary to show that Jesus was metaphysically unable to sin.Metaphysical impossibility to sin, though, appears to rule out temptation as experienced byordinary human beings. This paper argues that Oliver D. Crisp, T. A. Hart, Brian Leftow,and Gerald O’Collins all fall short in trying to show how Jesus was both impeccable andtempted as we are.