Could Jesus have sinned?

Theologians have genuinely disagreed about this for centuries, and it isn't a settled question with one required Christian answer.

The "impeccability" view holds that Jesus, as fully God, could not have sinned—sin would be a contradiction of his divine nature, which cannot fail morally. On this view, his temptations were completely real experiences, but never carried a genuine possibility of failure, similar to how a real fire can't actually burn something fireproof, even though the fire's heat is genuinely real.

The "peccability" view holds that Jesus, in his genuine human nature, could have sinned but freely chose not to—arguing that a temptation with no real possibility of failure isn't a full, meaningful temptation at all, and that Hebrews' description of him being "tempted in every way as we are" implies the temptation was genuinely real, not merely apparent. Both views affirm Jesus never actually sinned; they disagree about whether sinning was ever a real possibility for him.