Our God is perfect in every way, which means he is also perfectly loving, perfectly just, and perfectly holy. Each of these characteristics are fully involved in everything he does. What I mean is every act of God is completely loving, just, and holy. We can neglect justice to love someone even when it isn’t fair. We can step out of love and judge someone with hate, even though they may deserve it. We could throw love aside and ignore someone’s needs for the purpose of separating ourselves in order to be “holy”. But God is perfectly all of these all of the time. As we should strive to be.
How we use these facts to prove the true God is by going through the history of the Bible using the stories and messengers that Muslims and Christians both believe in and showing how it lines up with who God is. In the end, it all culminates with Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice as being the perfect demonstration of God’s justice, love, and holiness.
Adam and Eve:
Out of a loving desire (not a need), God created them. Just as parents desire children, so did God desire to create people. Being holy, God made them holy. How could he create something apart from who he is? Being just, God created the ability for them to chose him, with a way out if we so desired it.
Unfortunately, we desired it. We disobeyed God and ate the fruit. Because God is holy, he could no longer be in a perfect relationship with them and had to separate himself from us. Then out of love he clothed us and promised that one day the “seed of the woman” would come and restore what was lost. Still, their sin had to be punished by death. So he carried out his just punishment on an animal on their behalf. The animal’s sacrifice was enough to cover their sins and clothe them. Though this last part isn’t explicitly mentioned in the Bible, it can be inferred by the mere fact that God clothed them in an animal’s skin.
The evil separated us from our holy Creator, but his love for us would not tolerate such a separation. So, in order for us to be reunited with our Holy God, he must first carry out his just sentence, which he took out on an animal instead of us because of his love for us. God put into action a plan to renew what was lost. He was not willing to let us be satisfied with anything less than what we were designed for: a perfect relationship with our God.
So the promise was made and the plan of ultimate restoration was set in motion.
Noah:
When humanity reached a level of evil that our just God could no longer tolerate, he declared destruction on humanity. As a Holy God, That destruction was separation through death. But he was still loving. Though humanity deserved death, he gave us a chance to repent. Again he gave us a choice. He provided a way out for those who were willing to humble themselves, admit their evil deeds, and trust in God and his plan. Only those who did this were spared from the flood and were saved on the Ark.
Moses:
Through Moses, God provided the Law (Torah). As a holy God, we were separated from him. So he made the Holy-of-Hollies in the tabernacle where no impure thing could enter for that was where his presence dwelt. As a just God, he had to punish the evil we commit through death. As a loving God, he didn’t want us to die so he took out his judgment on an animal on our behalf. In the Torah, God commanded that every year an innocent lamb would be sacrificed on the Israelite’s behalf. Only by admitting their sins, trusting God’s way, and laying their sins upon the blameless lamb, could their sins be forgiven. But a sheep wasn’t enough. An animal could only cover their sins, not remove them. It was an imperfect sacrifice.
Jesus:
Jesus was God’s plan from the beginning. He was born of a woman and no man, and therefore was “the seed of a woman.” He was God himself. Not that a man could become God, but that God could become a man (this is very important to clarify with Muslims). Jesus embodied what it meant to live in a perfect relationship with God as we were designed to live. He never sinned. He died on our behalf. He was the Lamb of God as commanded by the Torah. The perfect sacrifice that covered all of mankind’s sin for all of history. Just like the Ark, we can only be saved if we admit our sins, believe in Jesus as God and as the only path to salvation, and choose to say yes to being in a relationship with God. He is our covering from our sins, like he covered Adam and Eve so that instead of looking at us and seeing our sins, God sees Christ and his holiness. We fell short of God’s perfect holiness and must be punished according to his perfect justice, but because of God’s perfect love for us, he took that punishment upon himself. The punishment was paid.
God’s Justice was fulfilled. Because of God’s Love, the relationship was restored so that we could once again be with our Holy God. God’s plan has never changed as the Muslims believe, or as Jew’s think Christians believe. God’s plan has only been slowly revealed. It is still being revealed as the mystery of Christ and his sacrifice slowly unfolds as God’s word is inspected. In every act, God perfectly displays his Holiness, his Justice, and his Love for us.
Important points:
It is vitally important for Muslims to hear is that God planned to come down as man from the beginning, and not that Christians just decided to turn Jesus into a God because he was a good teacher. They also must hear that God cannot simply forgive someone out of love or grace because doing so would defile his perfect justice, which is exactly what they believe. It also shows that there is no just system of doing more good than bad to enter heaven as Muslims think. No amount of good covers the bad, salvation can only happen by admitting sins, having faith in God’s plan of Christ, and by choosing God rather than the world.
Click here for Reaching Muslims Part 4: Was the Bible Changed?
