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.