Is It Possible For God To Sin?

By Carl O. Cooper  

            Is it possible for God to sin? Well, the Bible gives us the answer to that, doesn’t it? Let’s look at James 1:13 to refresh our memory on this.

James 1:12-13 (NKJV)

12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  

So the answer is, NO! It is not possible for God to sin.

            Can we sin? You know we can. The bible is clear about that too.

            Recently we heard in the news about babies being beheaded and burned. If we killed babies would this be a sin? Yes, you better believe it would be a sin. But what would happen if God told us to kill babies? Would it be a sin if God told us to do it? Do you remember the story of Saul and the Amalekites? In 1 Samuel 15:3 God gives Saul his orders to kill all the Amalekites.

1 Samuel 15:2-3 (NKJV)

2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”   

            “Now hold on here just a minute”, says the tender hearted.  “God would not kill babies! That just can’t be the God I know”. The Bible must be wrong here. This must be an error in the translation from the Hebrew and Greek to English. Or maybe it is some type of figurative language or a synecdoche or irony, because I just can’t believe that God would instruct a man sin and kill babies.

            And what if God Himself killed infants and babies? Would God be guilty of sin? You know that God did this many times in the Bible stories we read. A case in point would be Sodom and Gomorrah. God rained fire and brimstone on these cities and completely destroyed all the inhabitants. This included babies and young children as well. Was it sin when God killed these children?

            To answer these questions we need to remind ourselves just what the definition of sin really is. The Bible defines sin for us and we really don’t have to guess. Look at 1 John 3:4 for the answer.

1 John 3:4 (KJV)

4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

          Another way to phrase this is to say that sin is a deliberate violation of the will of God.

            Now tell me this; when Saul killed all those babies in Amalek did he violate the will of God? If he did not, then it was not a sin.

            And how about this; when God killed all the babies in Sodom, did He violate His own will? The answer is No! It was not a sin.

            Is it possible for God to violate His own will? The answer to that is also NO! Therefore, it is impossible for God to sin.

            Would it be a sin if God hardened Pharaoh’s heart as He did in Exodus? No it would not be a sin. If it is God’s will to harden Pharaoh’s heart to carry out His own plan then it becomes God’s will and it is not a sin. Therefore, it is impossible for God to sin.

                        The next question would be, are you willing to judge God as a man? Are you willing to say that killing babies is evil, and if God killed babies then that makes God evil. If this was your mindset then (once again) you would have to find some way to make the Bible “not really say” that God told Saul to kill the Amalekite children. You might try to call these Bible verses some kind of poetic language or find some other name for the style of writing that would cause these verses to mean something else. Men do that, you know. We all have a “world view” of the God we think we understand.

            For many, God just could never do such a thing as kill babies. For these people, there must be, there has to be some other explanation that makes the Bible not say that God told Saul to kill infants. If we are free to judge God as a man, we cannot let the Bible say these things. Perhaps if we search hard enough we will find a fragment of ancient text where these verses are left out. My answer to this is, do not be afraid to say “I don’t understand”. There are things in the Bible that we just don’t understand and we do not have the wisdom and understanding great enough to “judge our God’s motives and reasons”.  God made us and the entire universe and we have no right to question what He says and what He does.

Carl O. Cooper