Cling to the Cross! A Message for Muslims

The Necessity of a Mediator and Peace with God

But my friends, as we go to our collars, please try to understand, it is one thing to defend the crucifixion historically and we must because Islam denies that. But you need to understand why it is that any believer clings to the cross.

Because the cross, the cross was a despicable and horrible way to die. Why then do I glory in the cross? Why is it my greatest joy? Why do I look to the cross the way that I do? Well, you need to understand, whatever else you've heard in the past, please just put aside for a moment.

The fact of the matter is that we need to have a mediator. We need to have a means of salvation between ourselves and a holy God. And in an earlier program, Pastor Joseph and I were talking about one of the fundamental differences between Islam and Christianity.

Justification by Faith and the Great Exchange

And that is, I have a means of peace with God through Jesus Christ. Romans 5, one says, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Hebrew term is shalom, those of you who are Arabic would understand the root.

Salaam, peace. It's a term that Muslims say to one another. The irony is though Muslims say that to one another and like to say, ah, that's what Jesus would have said to others, because he did at one point say to the disciples, peace be to you after resurrection.

The great irony is that the theology you embrace denies you the very meaning of the word. How can you have peace with God? Is it not true that Muhammad, on one hand, said that a man who killed 100 people was going to go to paradise?

And yet, on the other hand, said that people who had gone on hajj, people who had prayed, people who had given zakat, who had said the shahadah and lived as faithful Muslims were not going to make it into the presence of God?

How do you know that you have salaam with the holy God? What assurance do you have of acceptance, true salaam with God? It is not presumption on the part of the Christian to say that I have peace with God, because I have brought nothing to God that was worthy of his acceptance of me.

Nothing. I have nothing to give. I am a condemned sinner. The greatest works I can do are soiled in unrighteousness and selfishness and ignorance. The only reason that I have peace with God is because of what Jesus Christ has done in my behalf.

I have placed my trust solely and completely in him, and I know that someday I am going to stand before a holy judge. God is holy, and nothing unclean will enter into his presence. But I know that I am unclean, so how can I have peace with God?

Imputed Righteousness in the Great Exchange

Because of what we call the great exchange. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 tells us, He made him who knew no sin to be sin in our place on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. My sins imputed to him.

His perfect righteousness imputed to me. I stand before God clothed in the seamless righteousness of Jesus Christ. I cannot add to it. It is perfect in and of itself, and the only way I can have that robe of righteousness is by faith in Jesus Christ.

Not by anything I can do. It is not just by tipping my hat toward him. I have to repent. I have to believe. Those are all true things, but it is only in Jesus Christ that I can have that perfect righteousness and therefore have peace with God.

If you are in Christ who is sinless and perfect, then the wrath of God finds no place in you. You cannot be next to him, in front of him, beside him. The wrath of God will sweep you away at the judgment day.

You must be in him, not knowing about him only. You must have a relationship with him, and the reason that I then can have faith in him and receive his righteousness is because of what he did when he set his face to go to Jerusalem and to voluntarily give his life a ransom for many.

The Denial of the Crucifixion and the Source of Eternal Life

So when you deny on the basis of 40 Arabic words written by a man who did not even know the content of the New Testament, 600 years later, when you deny the crucifixion of Christ on that basis, you are being robbed of the only source of eternal life.

That is why this is so vital. That is why this is so important. That is why we are doing this on ABN This Evening, because we trust and believe that there are those out there who need to hear this message.