The Gospel Explained in Christian/Muslim Dialogue

So you're ahead of most of the Muslims here. OK, and by the way, for the Muslims in the audience, I want to ask these very basic questions because I feel that many of us here really just don't understand this basic Christian doctrines.

And we end up asking questions that are just indicative of our own ignorance. When somebody says, well, when Jesus died on the cross, there were only two gods, that shows that we don't understand Christian doctrine.

Even if we disagree, we should at least understand and ask the right questions. That's why I'm asking these questions here.

And that's why I was asking you to clarify last evening the same thing. We have the exact same problem going the other direction. Exactly. I appreciate that, yes.

And I'm giving you the opportunity to spread your teachings here. And again, it's all honesty because you're just as confident in your beliefs as we are in ours, and that's the whole point. There's nothing to be scared of.

There's absolutely nothing. Here we are. We want to better understand so that we can better dialogue and also just live together. So I had another question that many Muslims have is a very key Quranic doctrine is that no soul shall bear the sin of another.

This is a verse repeated in the Quran like seven or eight times. It's literally, no soul shall bear the sin of another. And the motif is extremely Quranic. On the day of judgment, it doesn't matter what your father or your son did if you didn't cause it.

It doesn't matter what your brother did if you weren't involved in it. You are responsible for yourself and yourself only. So Muslims have theological trouble understanding the concept of original sin.

Why should any one of us be responsible for what our father did, even if it's a million generations ago or one generation ago? So if you can explain to the Muslims what exactly is original sin and why is it so fundamental for Christian theology.

There are obviously a lot of Christians today who don't emphasize the concept. I would say many really don't even let it enter into their thinking. But I think it's part of the biblical text. It's very clearly laid out in Romans chapter 5.

And I think it is important. I think the technical term we use is federal headship. What does that mean? Well, Adam represented us. In Christian theology, Adam represented us in the fall. And I think, is there not a Hadith where Adam and Moses are talking?

Yes. And doesn't Moses say to him, in some sense, sort of he represented mankind in the fall or his fall caused all these problems? There's something along those lines.

The blame is not original sin. The blame is like your sin caused you to be expelled from paradise. And so because you were expelled, were your children.

So that's, yeah. Right, right. There is almost a sense of federal headship. And here's what we understand. Just as Adam represented us in the fall, then Christ becomes the head of a new humanity. So in Adam, all we have is what he can give us, and that is death.

The person who is in Christ receives from him what he can give us, and that is eternal life. The idea that this is unjust, well, if you look at, for example, the law of Moses, if you look at the taking of the promised land, if you look at what happened, for example, in Jericho, if you remember the story in the Bible when the children of Israel took Jericho, a particular man by the name of Achan broke God's law.

And when God exposed his sin, who was punished? Achan and his entire family. He represented that entire family. So this idea of representation is very, very clearly laid out in scripture. But I also wanted to add to that this idea that when you talk about representation and the idea of a person bearing the punishment of their own sin, you mentioned, I'm not sure if, I think you just mentioned it briefly yesterday, and then over lunch, you mentioned it more fully, the idea of a legal system, that you see tremendous parallels between the Jewish and Islamic legal systems, and that Christianity has moved away from that.

You mentioned Paul, so on and so forth. I think it would help us, it would help our two communities to talk if you recognize that biblical Christians have a very high view of law. I have a very high view of the Mosaic law.

I just finished an entire sermon series on the law and its relevance today, and how we are to honor God's law today. But what you need to understand is we believe that the gospel is a message of mercy and grace that transcends the law, but does not get rid of the law.

So in other words, from our perspective, everyone in the universe, well, okay, everyone on Earth, okay, let's put it that way, everyone on Earth will receive either justice or mercy. No one will receive injustice.

No one will be unjustly treated. God is under no obligation to extend mercy or grace to someone. We cannot force God's hand on anything. Instead, what we understand is that when Jesus bears our sins in the place of God's people, that he does so, he has a perfect life to give, he is fulfilling God's law, and most importantly, he gives his life voluntarily.

It is not taken from him. He lays his life down of his own accord. That's extremely important to understand, because this was what was decided before the incarnation between the Father, Son, and Spirit in eternity past.

So it's not like someone took it from him. It's not like he failed, anything like that. This was his intention. And so when he bears our sins in our place, we receive mercy and grace, but God's justice and his law is fulfilled.

The person who does not avail themselves of that atonement receives justice for their sins. But from our perspective, and this is where last evening we didn't get a chance to expand upon it, but you were talking about, you used the term chance excuses at the judgment in the sense of being able to offer up an excuse to your ignorance or chances to be able to do so.

Here's where, interestingly enough, the legal understanding that underlies Christianity is there is an absolute standard of perfection to enter into God's presence. Absolute standard of perfection. And that's why, for example, the man who killed 99 people, we look at that and recoil from that, because we have nothing unclean.

The book of Revelation says nothing unclean will enter into the presence of God. So how could anyone ever enter the presence of God? The understanding of the gospel is that Jesus, in his sacrificial death, not only provides forgiveness of our sins, but in his perfect life, he fulfilled all the commandments of God.

For example, what's the greatest commandment in the New Testament? I'd be interested from a Muslim perspective. From the New Testament is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

What is the first commandment in the Quran? Would there be a parallel to that?

So the first commandment that is mentioned in the Quran, if you start reciting the Quran from the beginning, is, oh, mankind, worship your Lord who created you.

But first and important would be?

Oh, the first important would be worship God.

So to worship God, would that include love of God? Well, one of the pillars of worship,.

If you remember from the Levitic guidance, is love, that's the primary pillar of worship.

Okay, so there's a connection there. And yet, I will be perfectly honest with you, I have not loved God perfectly. And so if that's the standard, how could I ever enter into his presence? Well, Christ, the Son, did love the Father perfectly.

And so his perfect righteousness, both negatively in the removal of my sin, and positively in the perfect life that he lived, is imputed to me by faith. And so when I stand before God, I stand clothed in that righteousness, and that's how I can have peace with God.

So that's one of the areas that I think, again, when I think of most of the interactions that take place, that's where the conversation should be, and it's almost always off on something else.