Breaking the Islam Code by Greear J.D

Author:Greear, J.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

I hope this chapter has helped you think through how you can best present the gospel in a way your Muslim friend can grasp it. I know this seems like a daunting task, but be encouraged—the Holy Spirit has helped thousands of people, since the time of the apostles, explain the one, unchanging gospel in a way that their hearers could understand. He will help you too.

7

The Gospel Confronts the

Ultimate Religion of Works

Understanding Islam as a

Self-salvation Project

One of my frustrations when sharing Christ with Muslims was that I had a hard time getting them to disagree with me that only God’s grace could save us. They certainly disagreed that Jesus died to save us, but when I would say something like, “We all are in desperate need of God’s grace,” they would say, “That’s exactly what we believe.” When I would say, “We should depend on God’s grace, not our goodness, to get to heaven,” they would say, “Yes, even Muhammad needed God’s grace. But God is most-forgiving, most-merciful! He will forgive—we can trust in him.” It was not until I said, “You must trust in Jesus to get to heaven,” that they would disagree. In other words, I couldn’t get them to disagree with me about how we are to approach God until I brought up the particulars of Jesus’ name.

Islam, however, prescribes an entirely different way of approaching God than does the gospel. Islam is the ultimate religion of “works-righteousness.” The gospel is “gift-righteousness.” Islam operates according to the principle, “I obey; therefore I will be accepted.” The gospel declares, “You are accepted; therefore obey.” The Qur’an says, “Those things (that you do) that are good remove those that are evil” (11:114). The gospel says, “To him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5).

The gospel is unique among all religions in that it teaches our acceptance is not based on anything we do but on what Christ has done for us. It is not spelled “D-O” or “D-O-N’-T,” but “D-O-N-E.” It was not until I made that distinction clear, using clear terminology and biblical examples, that I got them to see that Jesus was saying something entirely contradictory to the teaching of Islam. In this chapter, I want to help you develop the ability to do that. I want to help you understand how works-righteousness operates, and how the gospel challenges it.

When you make the gospel clear, you can expect one of two strong reactions: enthusiastic embrace, or stringent disagreement.

Confronting the religion of works-righteousness is one of the major themes of the New Testament. The religion of works-righteousness was Jesus’ most vocal earthly opponent! The gospels are filled with stories of the conflict between Jesus and the “teachers of the law.” Ultimately it was the law-teachers who had Jesus killed.

The animosity of the religious toward Jesus is not unique, of course, to first-century Judaism. The natural tendency of the fallen human heart is to seek justification in what we do, in what separates us and makes us better than others.

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