MUSLIM BROTHER & SISTERS FREQUENTLY ASK THESE QUESTIONS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST:
QUESTIONS
1) What is the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ?
2) Why do Christians say Jesus is the Son of God or He Himself is equal with God?
3) Why would God need a partner or Son?
4) Is Jesus simply an informer and messenger just like Moses?
5) Did Jesus Christ invent a religion to show us our faults?
6) Jesus does not have a human father. Is this case the same case of Adam and Eve who had no Father?
HERE ARE THE ANSWERS:
1) What is the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ?
ANSWER: The cross has a historical meaning. Before Jesus Christ came to this world, the Romans use public crucifixion as a way of punishing the criminals. When Jesus started His ministry at the age of 30 by telling and showing who God is He made many of the religious Jews jealous and so they plotted to kill him and did so by asking the Romans to crucify Him among the thieves and criminals. Since God is love and He loves man whom He created in His own image, He didn’t want man to die and eternal death so He sent His one and only son the Lord Jesus Christ to come to this world and go to the cross and be crucified so that His perfect blood would save the humans from their sins. No longer the blood of the lamb and goat or other animals could clean the human heart from their sins. That blood has been required by the law but was not able to clean man from his sins.
Every coin has two sides, and so does the crucifixion which is on one side and the resurrection on the other side. His resurrection from the death showed how much God the Father loves and cares about humans, and Jesus Christ guaranteed this acceptance by His blood on the cross; the vertical line indicates the reconciliation and relationship between God and man.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)
That was the only way God could reconcile with man after man sinned by the blood of His son. The horizontal line indicates God`s love to man so that all who believe are forgiven; even the thief who was crucified at his right hand when he repented and ask for forgiveness from Jesus was given the gift of salvation. We Christians worship this God, and each one of us would be honored to be a cross.
2) Why do Christians say Jesus is the Son of God or He Himself is equal with God?
ANSWER: You should see Jesus in 3 perspectives;
In the New Testament Jesus emphasizes that “I am the Son of Man”. So Jesus is %100 Son of Man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God from the Virgin Mary. There are number of scriptures from old and New Testament which refer to this birth such as:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14) (Immanuel means: God is with us)
For to us a child is born,to us a son is given,and the government will be on his shoulders.And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.(Luke 1:31)
But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man; (Mark 2:10)
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)
In the New Testament Jesus emphasizes that “I am the Son of God”. So Jesus is %100 the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, not that God married and born a son but that He was not born by natural birth but by un-natural birth. Jesus Himself claims to be the Son of God and when asked of Him to show them the Father (God) He says that if we have seen Him, we have seen God.
Daniel prophesied the birth of Christ as the Son of God 500 years before He was born. Please take a deeper look into the events and claims of all prophets (from Adam to John the Baptist) about this subject.
He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:25)
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son; (John 5:21-22)
Jesus Christ in the fullness of time according to the Father`s plan took on flesh and became man and became like one of us and lived among us. He showed us who God is and how we can conquer sin and eternal death by believing in Him.
Religion is an outward act (eternal action) of seeking God but Christ came to show us how we can seek God from deep within, and that is not possible unless you are born of the Holy Spirit which Christ promised to all His followers. Jesus Christ came to serve man, to seek the lost and bring them back with God. He is the great physician and the good Sheppard, and final Judge for all nations.
In the New Testament Jesus emphasizes that “I am the Lord”. So Jesus is %100 God.
“If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” (John 14:8-9)
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John14:6)
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; (John 11:25)
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20)
I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (John 10:38)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18)
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. (John 1:10)
3) Why would God need a partner or Son?
ANSWER: He doesn’t need anyone or anything; He is all powerful, all knowing and all present. We do believe that God is one and He doesn’t have a partner yet in Him there are 3 distinct characters: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God is an infinite and there is no point trying to explain trinity to Him, but it is only to help understand it somehow that I use this example. The concept of trinity is somewhat like a human which consists ofspirit, soul (mind, will, feeling), and body. Without any of them, a human cannot exist. God has revealed Himself to all of us Christians that He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and we have experienced it.
If you compare God the Father to the ocean itself, taking a cup out of the ocean has the same exact characteristic as the content itself that is the Son, and if you taste this water realizing that it’s salty and that experience is the Holy Spirit. Now if you return the glass of water back to the content it would be one again. It means the ocean is the source of life (Father = God); the water inside the glass is the Son (presence of Father = God); the taste of the water of the ocean which is salty is the Holy Spirit (experience of life = God).
Another example is the sun that has the source of life in itself that is the Father, its light which shines on us is the presence of life which is the Son Himself, and the heat that it produces is the experience of this life and that is the Holy Spirit. Again these example fall quiet short of who God truly is and it’s just for us to understand the concept of One God and three distinct characteristics (the source of life, the presence of life, the experience of life; the life does not mean a physical life, it means a spiritual life which results in eternity).
4) Is Jesus simply an informer and messenger just like Moses?
ANSWER: Jesus Christ is not a messenger; he came not only to present eternal life, but to give eternal life to believers. All messengers died and have tombs, but Jesus Christ who is the transformer of death to life is living, eternal and will come back for the Day of Judgement.
If you assume Jesus as a prophet and limit Him, actually you will insult Him and bring down His authority; that would be a curse and a sin which will be questioned in the Judgement day.
None of the prophet claim that they are one with God and if we have seen them we have seen God, none of them made the claim to be the saviour of the world, or to be the only way to God.
None of the prophets in the past made any such claims, or asked their followers to follow them, or be baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If you study the Old and New Testament you will understand why we believe what we believe. Jesus Christ has mentioned many times that He is the Son of Man and the Son of God; He also has talked a lot about His divinity; so, He is either crazy or liar, or He must prove whatever He has claimed. Actually He did prove whatever He said; the proof is in the claims of all prophets (starting from Adam) who foretold Jesus Christ’s Birth, death, resurrection, and divinity. (Also it might has been brained washed that the New & Old Testaments have been changed, the fact is that the historical and cultural documents will never be destroyed all which show the divinity of Jesus Christ).
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
5) Did Jesus Christ invent a religion to show us our faults?
ANSWER: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:16-21)
He came to save us from the eternal death by giving us eternal life. Religion was introduced by prophets, through a series of rituals in order to please God. By saying do this and don’t do that they tried to reach God. Yet none of these rituals were able to deal with our sins which we born with it and inherited it from Adam and Eve. Moses was a God messenger and serving God for 40 years and could not follow the law of God fully himself and as a result didn’t see the Promised Land himself. Are we better than Moses? How can we do as God require? If you break only one of God’s laws you are guilty and cursed say the Lord Jesus Christ. God knew that man cannot meet His requirements for a Holy life so at a certain point of time He Himself became flesh in the person of the Jesus Christ and came among us to change us from inside out and make us Holy just He is Holy by His Holy spirit residing in us.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
6) Jesus does not have a human father. Is this case the same case of Adam and Eve who had no Father?
ANSWER: The Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground; Jesus Christ was however conceived in the Virgin Mary from the Holy Spirit. So these two are completely different cases. Adam and Eve sinned and died, but there is no lie in God; God is all truth and holiness, and God is Jesus Christ who is living and eternal. So Jesus Christ should not be compared with a sinner person.
CONCLUSION:
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST WOULD LIKE US TO BECOME IN HIS LIKENESS.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (JOHN 17:20-23)