Christ could have lost His deity
Bible Evidence
We find the answer in Genesis chapter 15. God made a promise to Abraham, and as an assurance that He would fulfill that promise, He did something very special:
5. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
6. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
7. And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
8. And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
9. And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
10. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
11. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
12. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
17. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
The burning lamp passing between the pieces was an indication of God’s presence. The presence of God passed between those pieces.
As a pledge of this covenant of God with men, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, symbols of the divine presence, passed between the severed victims, totally consuming them. (PP 137.2)
The act of passing through the divided pieces of an animal was used in ancient times to ratify a covenant. See Jeremiah 34:18.
The one who passed between the pieces was really saying, “If I don’t keep my word, let this be my end.” The guarantee for the fulfillment of the promise was his own life, his own existence.
God did that with Abram. He made a promise—a covenant—and told him, “If I do not fulfill my word and keep the terms of my covenant, I do not deserve to be God.” He put His own existence as the guarantee for its fulfillment. Paul talks about this in Hebrews 6:
13. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
14. Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
16. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
This is very profound. How could God lose His deity? It sounds almost blasphemous. Is it even possible?
Evidence from the Spirit of Prophecy
Christ could have lost His deity if He did not stand faithful and true to His loyalty.
His Deity could not be lost while He stood faithful and true to His loyalty. (ST May 10, 1899)
He could have sinned; He could have fallen. […] (Letter 8, 1895)
Christ has found his pearl of great price in lost, perishing souls. He sold all that he had to come into possession, even engaged to do the work, and run the risk of losing his own life in the conflict. (Letter 119, 1895)
Remember that Christ risked all; “tempted like as we are,” he staked even his own eternal existence upon the issue of the conflict. (General Conference Bulletin, December 1, 1895)
Had there been the least taint of sin in Christ, Satan would have bruised His head. As it was, he could only touch His heel. Had the head of Christ been touched, the hope of the human race would have perished. Divine wrath would have come upon Christ as it came upon Adam. Christ and the church would have been without hope. (Signs of the Times, June 9, 1898)
The new tomb enclosed Him in its rocky chambers. If one single sin had tainted His character the stone would never have been rolled away from the door of His rocky chamber, and the world with its burden of guilt would have perished. (Ms. 81, 1893, par. 11)
When the Father sent Jesus into the world, He did so at an infinite risk.
Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life's peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss.
The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his little child, and trembles at the thought of life's peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Satan's power, to hold him back from temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful risk, God gave His only-begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. “Herein is love.” Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth! (DA 49)
Never can the cost of our redemption be realized until the redeemed shall stand with the Redeemer before the throne of God. Then as the glories of the eternal home burst upon our enraptured senses we shall remember that Jesus left all this for us, that He not only became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure and eternal loss. Then we shall cast our crowns at His feet, and raise the song, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” Revelation 5:12. (DA 131)
If Christ chose to depart from God’s plan and commit a sinful act, we couldn't be saved.
We often think of the consequences of this in terms of our own salvation. But what would have been the consequences to the universe? Christ was the Sustainer of all creation.
And let us think of the consequences to God the Father. Christ had ever been one with the Father. He was the Father’s Only Begotten Son—His unique Son. If Christ chose to sin, losing His deity and dying the second death, his existence would have been completely obliterated from the face of the universe. God the Father and God the Son would never be One again. What a pain to the Father’s heart!