Grace
Christian and Ayshe discuss the topic of grace from the perspective of the Bible and the Quran.
Ayshe: Hey Christian, how’s it going?
Christian: Good, thanks Ayse. Did you read that little booklet I gave you about Easter?
Ayshe: I did. But I really can’t get my head round it because the booklet suggested that if someone believes in Jesus, all their sins get forgiven.
Christian: Yes, that’s right Ayse. What’s wrong with that?
Ayshe: Well, it’s that if you’re just forgiven doesn’t that mean that you can just keep sinning as much as you like and it doesn’t matter? That doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. The Quran says that it really matters how we live. In fact, the Quran says that there are angels on our right and left shoulders recording our good and bad deeds. We need to make sure that we do lots of good things in this life so that hopefully God will then have mercy on us when we stand before him on Judgement Day.
Christian: Yes, I’ve heard that before. Someone said it was like a set of scales with your good deeds on one side and your bad deeds on the other and you need to make sure that your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds or otherwise you’ll be sent to hell.
Ayshe: Well, yes, I guess it is a little bit like that.
Christian: There’s only one thing that puzzles me though. In the Bible, when God created Adam and Eve, He put them in the garden, and they did lots of really good things. They started to take care of God’s garden, they named the animals and knew God as their friend. The only problem is that God said that they could eat from any tree in the garden apart from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but the day that they ate of it, God said that they would surely die.
Ayshe: Yes, we have something similar to that in the Quran. But what’s the problem?
Christian: Well, it’s just that even after they had done many many good things, it was after sinning once that they got kicked out of the garden. I know when I think of my own heart and the way that I’ve lived that there are too many sins to count. If God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden just after sinning once and after doing many good things, what hope do we have to get into paradise with so many sins of our own?
Ayshe: I hadn’t thought about that before. But still, what stops someone from sinning as much as they like after being forgiven by Jesus?
Christian: Ayse, that’s a really good question. When somebody trusts in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, 2 things happen: first Jesus takes away their sin but then fills them with His Spirit, who helps them to sin less and more and more to live a life that pleases God. In fact, the real proof that somebody has had their sins forgiven is that they start to show the fruit of forgiveness: things like love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control.
Ayshe: OK, so what you’re saying is that forgiveness changes the way someone lives but it’s not the way that someone lives that earns them forgiveness – is that right?
Christian: Ayse, that’s spot on. And it’s all because Jesus died on the cross in our place. Why don’t we start reading through Mark’s gospel together? I’d love to show you more about that.