I was chatting with four Saudi Arabian students. We got to talking about Isa, Jesus. Predictably, they spoke of their high regard for Isa as a great prophet. They told me that if Muhammad and Jesus met they would kiss each other as an expression of their love for each other. I was told Muhammad was the only man who has lived who never made a mistake. They also reiterated the common Islamic view that Jesus did not die on the cross; that it was someone else, mistaken for Jesus, who was crucified.
We spoke about why God sent Isa. I quoted what Isa himself said in the Injil, the Gospel, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). I told the story about how Isa had sought and saved me when I was lost as a 19-year old boy. I also quoted Isa’s statement: “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). This presupposes that all people are slaves, enslaved by their sinfulness, and facing a miserable future, the prospect of God demanding that they pay the price for the sins they have committed.
My Saudi friends emphasised that Allah is merciful and that he is willing to forgive people for the sins they commit. I asked them, “How good is good enough? Where does Allah draw the line? 50%? 60%? 80%?” They replied that it didn’t work that way; that Allah’s mercy didn’t operate according to any such standard. I was told an anecdote, of a Muslim who had killed 98 people and who asked another man what would happen to him. He was told that he would certainly go to hell. He then killed this man, but afterwards when he was about to die himself he determined in his heart to be faithful to Allah and on the grounds of this pure intent Allah in mercy had him taken to Paradise.
I asked them, “What would you say if I told you that if I were to die right now I would certainly go to Paradise?” They all spontaneously responded, “No one can say such a thing!” One perceptive student then threw back the argument I had just used with them. He said, “You do not claim to have lived a perfect life before you became a Christian nor afterwards. If, as you say, God’s standard for entering Paradise is moral perfection then you too cannot expect to enter Paradise.” I then took them back to Matthew 20:28 explaining that Jesus paid the price to set me free, the price I myself would otherwise need to pay. He, the sinless one, met God’s standard of moral perfection for me. This does not mean I can live a life of moral degeneracy because this very act motivates me to live a life that pleases Isa. My point was, “I have certainty that I will go to Paradise precisely because it does not depend on anything I have done or can do, not on any act or inward resolve. Rather it depends on what he has done for me.”
It was a warm and friendly, but lively discussion.
Posted July 8, 2008
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