d the peccability, or the possibility of the fall. Had he been endowed
with absolute impeccability from the start, he could not be a true man,
nor our model for imitation; his holiness, instead of being his own
self-acquired act and inherent merit, would be an accidental or outward
gift, and his temptation an unreal show. As a true man, Christ must have
been a free and responsible moral agent; freedom implies the power of
choice between good and evil, and the power of disobedience as well as
obedience, to the law of God. But here is the great fundamental
difference between the first and the second Adam: the first Adam lost
his innocence by the abuse of his freedom, and fell by his own act of
disobedience into the dire necessity of sin; while the second Adam was
innocent in the midst of sinners, and maintained his innocence against
all and every temptation. Christ's _relative_ sinlessness became more
and more _absolute_ sinlessness by his own moral act, or the right use
of his freedom in the perfect active and passive obedience to God. In
other words, Christ's original possibility of _not sinning_, which
includes the opposite possibility of sinning, but excludes the actuality
of sin, was unfolded into the _impossibility of sinning_, which _can_
not sin because it will not. This is the highest stage of freedom, where
it becomes identical with moral necessity, or absolute and unchangeable
self-determination for goodness and holiness. This is the freedom of God
and of the saints in heaven, with this difference: that the saints
attain that position by deliverance and salvation from sin and death,
while Christ acquired it by his own merit.

In vain we look through the entire biography of Jesus for a single stain
or the slightest shadow on his moral character. There never lived a more
harmless being on earth. He injured nobody, he took advantage of nobody,
he never spoke an improper word, he never committed a wrong action. He
exhibited a uniform elevation above the objects, opinions, pleasures,
and passions of this world, and disregard to riches, displays, fame, and
favor of men. 'No vice that has a name can be thought of in connection
with Jesus Christ. Ingenious malignity looks in vain for the faintest
trace of self-seeking in His motives; sensuality shrinks abashed from
His celestial purity; falsehood can leave no stain on Him who is
incarnate truth; injustice is forgotten beside His errorless equity; the
very possibility of