impeccabilitas

Impeccabilitas, or impeccability, is the state or quality of being unable to sin. The term comes from Latin, with peccare meaning “to sin” and the prefix in- plus the abstract noun suffix -bilitas forming the concept of an inability or incapability. In English scholarship the noun impeccabilitas is sometimes used alongside its English counterpart impeccability to discuss moral and theological issues.

In Christian theology, impeccability is most often discussed in relation to God and Jesus Christ. For God, impeccability is tied to divine holiness and moral perfection, understood as an essential attribute that precludes sin. For Christ, the issue is more nuanced: many traditions maintain that Jesus lived a sinless life, and thus is impeccably holy; debates focus on whether his human nature could have sinned and how temptation relates to his sinlessness. Proponents typically argue that Jesus remained without sin, even if tempted, while some historical discussions allowed for a form of peccability in human nature that did not result in actual sin.

Scholarly discussions have varied over time. Medieval and early modern theologians often framed Christ’s life in terms of liberty and obedience within the union of divine and human natures, emphasizing that sin was not possible for him in a salvific sense. In contemporary theology, the topic is sometimes connected to wider debates about omnipotence, freedom, and the problem of evil, as well as the broader distinction between moral incapability and freedom from moral fault.

See also: peccability, impeccability, Christology, sinlessness.