How Was Jesus Able to Make Himself Pray So Hard, Since He Already Did not Have the Sin Nature, Not Being Born of Sex?
1) Direct Answer
Jesus prayed so intensely because, though He had no sin nature—being conceived by the Holy Ghost and not by sex—He truly took our human nature with a human will, and He chose perfect obedience through prayer. As God manifested in flesh, He stood in our place, faced the cup of judgment, and, as a Man, He submitted His human will to the Father’s will. Prayer was not for cleansing from sin; it was the channel of surrender and strength to finish the work.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- He had no inherited sin: “That holy thing… shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). His blood was not Adam’s line.
- Yet He took our nature: “In the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3); He partook of “flesh and blood” to be our High Priest (Hebrews 2:14–18).
- He was tempted, but without sin: “In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
- He prayed with agony: In Gethsemane He prayed, “Not my will, but thine, be done,” and “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly… his sweat was as it were great drops of blood” (Luke 22:41–44). An angel strengthened Him.
- He offered strong cries: “Who in the days of his flesh… offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears… and learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:7–9).
- He bore our sin: “He hath made him to be sin for us” (a sin offering) “who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
- He lived in perfect dependence: “I can of mine own self do nothing… I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father” (John 5:30). “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- No sin nature does not mean no human will or no human feeling. He hungered, wept, grew weary, and faced death’s horror as a real Man—yet without sin.
- The fiercest battle was not personal guilt—He had none—but taking our guilt and tasting death for every man. That is why the prayer was so deep.
- Prayer was the way the Man Christ Jesus kept the human will perfectly yielded to the indwelling God: “Not my will, but thine.” That is not two Gods; it is one God revealing Himself—Father above, and the same God veiled in the Son—showing us perfect obedience in flesh.
- If the sinless One prayed with strong crying, then prayer is not merely for the guilty; it is the lifeline of surrender and strength for every son and daughter. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
Short reinforcing statement
You see, He had no sin by birth, yet He took our battle into His own body. He prayed hard because He chose, as a real Man, to put the human will under the Father’s will and to drink the cup for us. God was in Christ, and through prayer the Man yielded completely to finish our redemption.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Identification
63-0123 §36
But when he stung that flesh, it pulled his stinger out. He has no more stinger. He was God in flesh, tabernacling among men. His stinging days were over. That's why God had to reflect Himself into a body which is ... we know as the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And He did that so that He could take away the penalty, because you see now (we're going to another part of the Scripture), but you see now why that that man was more than just a teacher---as people say He is today---a philosopher, or a good man, or a prophet....
The signs of His coming
62-0407 §53
And then, when you are borned again, Jesus said He'd give him eternal life. And the Greek word "zoe" is God's own life. You are a part of God, and shall never perish. And "I'll raise them up again at the last day"---can't perish, because it's eternal. It never did start. It never did start, so it never can end. You were God's thinking before He expressed it into a word. Then when it become a word, then it become flesh. And that's the reason Jesus had not to pray. I have to pray, you have to pray, because we are per...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
61-0205E §57
And this man was laying on a pallet. Perhaps he might've had prostate trouble, or he might've had tubercular. It was retarded---he had it thirty eight years. But remember, Jesus knew all about it, knew where he was laying. And He came to him and said, "Wilt thou be made whole?", passing by the rest of them. "Wilt thou be made whole?" He said, "I have no one to put me in the water." He could walk. Said, "While I'm coming ..." somebody else outruns him, gets to the pool first. And He said, "Take up thy bed and go int...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 2
57-1002 §38
...reproduce themselves. They are the by-product of original creation. Get it? Now, when a man is born, he's born with a spirit in him of this world. That's the reason he has to be born again. For this spirit come from the conception by father and mother, which was the sexual conception, and absolutely could not live forever. So he's got to be born again. And before he could do that, God had to come down and make a way for him to be born again, because he had no way to redeem himself. He was without hope. He was with...
A total deliverance
59-0712 §55
Jesus was completely, totally man. He could cry like a man; He could eat like a man; He could be tired like a man. He was completely, totally man in His physical being. And, in His Spirit, He was completely, totally God, so He made His flesh submissive to the Spirit that was in Him. You see, He was tempted in all manners like we are. He was man, not an Angel. He was a man! He had desires and temptations just like we do. The Bible said He did. He was a man, not an Angel above temptation. Hebrews 1 said that He was.....