The Cross

Christian: Hi Ahmet, how’s it going?

Christian: Well I went to church as normal, but we heard a really good sermon all about Jesus’ death and then rising from the dead so we could be forgiven…

Christian: It’s funny you should say that as I was reading that very verse in the Quran myself the other day. The thing is I’m struggling to understand why God would have made one thing seem like another. I can understand if God wanted to protect Jesus from the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill him, but why would God want to deceive those very close and precious to Jesus, like his mother Mary, or his close disciples like James, John or Peter? They later went on to write the New Testament and clearly wrote down what they saw: that Jesus died on the cross and three days later rose again. Does that mean that God was deceiving people up until the time the Quran was written?

Christian: Yes, I know it seems strange, but there is a really good reason for it. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. When Adam and Eve sinned for the first time, God said that they would die as a result. But he provided the very first sacrifice so that they could be forgiven - that animal symbolically died in their place - but God also pointed forward to one who would defeat Satan by dying in our place. The same is true for all the important people in the Bible. Abraham, for example, was told to take his son up onto a mountain to sacrifice him, but God provided a ram to die in his son’s place, however, at the same time God promised that on that same mountain he would provide a lamb who would be the ultimate sacrifice. That mountain was the very mountain where Jesus was crucified. But there is more, have you heard of John the Baptist?

Christian: Do you know what he said?

Christian: Well, in the Incil, he is a special prophet who was sent to get people ready for Jesus’ coming. When he saw Jesus, he said, “Look the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. According to Yahya, Jesus came as the promised sacrifice. The reason he died on the cross was to be a sacrifice that takes away the sin of everyone who trusts in him. As a Christian, I know that my sins have been forgiven because Jesus died and rose again. Ahmet, what about you, have your sins been forgiven?

Christian: For Christians, we know our sins are forgiven, because Jesus died in our place and then proved he paid for our sins by rising from the dead. I’d love to explain more about this. Would you like to read the Incil together at some point?