Did Christ Have a Conscience? Revisiting the Debates on Christ’s (Un)Fallen Humanity

Abstract

This article draws on the Dutch neo-Calvinist dogmatician Herman Bavinck’s notion of conscience to explore the question of whether Christ’s assumed humanity is fallen or unfallen. It will demonstrate that, for Bavinck, Christ’s conscience was silent and did not accuse or exonerate him according to the moral law (the word of God) as occurs in the postlapsarian conscience. Such a unique conscience reflects the unfallenness of Christ’s humanity and his impeccability. Moreover, Christ’s impeccability is concomitant with Christ’s permanent response to God’s word in faith. This suggests that in the eschaton, the human conscience will become silent in a faithful trust in the word of God.