Christmas 2025: THE INNOCENCE OF THE NEWBORN AND THE SINLESSNESS OF CHRIST
One of the most tender themes in Scripture is the innocence of a child. When Jeremiah spoke of those “who do not know to refuse the evil and choose the good” (Jeremiah 7:24; cf. Isaiah 7:16), he revealed a truth shouted throughout the Bible: sin is not something we inherit like eye color—it is something we commit when knowledge awakens and the heart turns away from God.
To say that babies are born guilty would make them sinners before they have ever chosen sin, and Scripture never lays that burden on them. Instead, children are portrayed as precious, innocent, and embraced by the Lord Himself (Matthew 19:14).
This truth leads naturally to an important theological reality: if babies are born sinners, then Jesus—who was born a baby—would have been born a sinner too.
Some attempt to solve this by claiming the virgin birth prevented Him from inheriting a sin nature from Joseph. But this argument raises a serious question: Was Mary not a sinner? She was a godly woman, chosen by grace, but she herself rejoiced in “God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). If sin is inherited biologically, then Jesus could have inherited it from her as easily as from Joseph.
But Scripture never teaches that sin is a biological substance passed from parent to child. The Bible teaches instead that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23)—not because they were born guilty, but because they eventually chose sin.
Jesus remained sinless not because His DNA was shielded from corruption, but because He perfectly obeyed the Father’s will at every moment of His earthly life (Hebrews 4:15). His sinlessness is moral, not mechanical; it is rooted in His divine nature and His flawless obedience.
The virgin birth served a different purpose entirely: it was God’s sign that the Messiah had come in a miraculous, God-ordained way (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22–23). It testified that Jesus was both fully God and fully man—conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a woman, the eternal Word made flesh (John 1:14). It was not about avoiding inherited guilt but about announcing the arrival of the incarnate Son.
If infants are born lost, guilty, or stained with sin, then Jesus Himself—born as a true human infant—would have shared that stain.
But He did not.
Therefore the premise must be rejected. Babies are born innocent; Jesus was born innocent. We fall into sin when we choose it knowingly, just as Adam and Eve did—not because it seeps into us biologically, but because we walk the same path of temptation.
This is why the gospel calls for repentance, faith, and new birth: not because we were born in guilt, but because we eventually walked into guilt.
And this is why every soul must come to Christ personally—because sin is a personal act, and salvation is a personal rescue.
Through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection, Jesus restores us—not to the innocence of infancy, but to the righteousness of a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
BDD
