CONSIDER THIS: Did Jesus Have ‘Doubts’?
If Jesus is both fully God and fully Man, did He ever have doubts about who He is and the Purpose of His life during His 33 years on the Earth? Believe it or not, that is a question that has received some serious discussion in recent years among some religious scholars.
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Rob Bowman, the executive director of the Institute for Religious Research (IRR), responded to these kinds of questions in a blog post in which he observed:
“Of course, we agree that Jesus ‘breast-fed as an infant,’ ‘learned to walk,’ ‘went through puberty,’ and the like. That’s all noncontroversial. But then Swoboda and Gupta assert that ‘part of what He received from us in His humanness was our ability to doubt—and doubt He did.’ This is the thesis of the article: that Jesus doubted. Did He? I doubt it.”
Go here to learn more about why Bowman doubted it and about an unusual issue.
Jesus was born of a virgin, worked miracles in life (“Lazarus, come forth!”), was resurrected after his atrocious death. “Why has thou forsaken me?” does not betoken doubt, but an ultimately humane sense that pain-and-suffering are mankind’s mortal lot– redemption, salvation, must be earned.
The sacrifice Christ made for us is far, far more than we can make for Him. But Love abides… “Perverse and and foolish, oft I strayed, / “But yet in love he sought me; /”Gently o’er his shoulder laid, and home rejoicing brought me.”
No, Pyrthroes, salvation can never be earned. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesian 2:8-9 ESV.
Bowman says that “being tempted to doubt is not the same thing as doubting.” I’m afraid that’s not correct. To doubt is not to deny; rather, it is to say that the truth of a proposition is unknown. But if, on the other hand, I believe that a proposition is certainly true — it cannot be doubted — then I cannot be “tempted to doubt” it, because I cannot be tempted to do that which I believe is impossible. Therefore to be “tempted to doubt” a proposition, I must necessarily admit that it is doubtable, that its truth is unknown, that it could be true or false — that I doubt it. So, contra Bowman, doubting and being tempted to doubt are indeed the same thing. In any event, if Jesus is the High Priest who “has been tempted in all things as we are,” then he doubted. No doubt.