Reading a newspaper article recently regarding the
uprisings/protests at the American embassies in the Middle East, I read something that struck me as very
odd. In the article, there was a young
man quoted as saying “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger,
we will sacrifice ourselves for you." [See paragraph 4] Let me say this, these acts
are deplorable! Considering the vast
sums of money and resources that we have committed to the Middle East, this is
a quite ungrateful response in my opinion. Conversely, we have also done our share to destabilize that region as well so maybe our chickens are coming home to roost.
In any event, this is still very disgusting
behavior. I have not seen the video but
if Terry Jones is involved with it, I am sure that it is probably distasteful
as he has disrespected Muslims on numerous occasions. However, Christians are defamed every day and
yet you don’t see us storming mosques, burning down atheists’ homes or killing
people that don’t agree with our beliefs.
In the past, there have been some reprehensible acts committed by
“Christians” for very selfish purposes (the Crusades, the Spanish
Inquisition and the burning crosses of the KKK come to mind) but Christians that actually live lives that imitate
Christ are not prone to violence.
Before I write anything else, I have to say that I have
friends that are Muslim and we have very cordial and friendly
relationships. We have had brief
discussions regarding Christianity and the differences between Islam and
Christianity. I am not writing this to
offend them but I have to say what is on my mind.
I was floored when I read the statement, “We will sacrifice
ourselves for you!” because the Lord immediately revealed a critical difference
between Islam and Christianity. In the
mind of this man and probably many that think like him, they feel that they are
doing a service to God by killing themselves and others that they deem as
“infidels”. I don’t know a lot about the
Muslim faith but I do know this, not all of them are terrorists. Most of them are peaceable men and women but
there are some radical Muslims that actually think this way. They are works based rather than faith and grace based. In the same way, there are some ultra-radical "Christians" like the Klan that see violence as a means of accomplishing an end, never once stopping to realize that their acts are based on their own selfish, hateful motives and are not ordained by God.
Here is the difference and I thank God for it: God does not
ask us to sacrifice ourselves for his sake, he desires obedience more! From a dissenting perspective, Abraham and
Isaac may come up but in that scenario, God was testing Abraham’s obedience and
his faith and in the end, God sent an angel to stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac. The ram in the bush that was sacrificed in Isaac's place points directly to Jesus Christ and his substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Someone might even bring
up Jepthah and the fact that he sacrificed his own daughter. While this is a very odd story, the context
makes it clear that we cannot barter with God and that Jepthah, in his zeal and in exchange for a victory in battle, had
not thought of the potential consequences of what he was saying when he told
God that he would sacrifice the first thing that he saw upon his arrival home.
Couple this with the fact that during the time of the Judges, “every man
did what was right in his own sight”, and we have a clearer picture of this
situation.
God does not need anything (Acts 17:25) and He is not dependent on our
works. Therefore one of us sacrificing
ourselves for Him will not change his status at all. If 100 Christians decided to strap bombs to
themselves and blow up a mosque, they will not only have committed the sins of
murder and suicide (self-murder), they will dishonor God by their actions! God does not need us to sacrifice ourselves
for him. God does not need us to fight
for Him! As a matter of fact, God tells
us to “stand still and I will fight your battles.” If we were in a situation where we had to die
for Him as in being martyred at the hands of another, then he would be
glorified.
“We will sacrifice ourselves for you…”
Jesus NEVER
asked us to sacrifice ourselves for Him, Jesus sacrificed Himself for us- He
set the example therefore He stands in position to say the following, “Blessed
is the man that is reviled because of my name, great is your reward in heaven.” Jesus set the example therefore, He stands in
position to say the following, “If they hated me first, they will hate you
also.” Jesus never asked us to do
anything that He did not do first.
Hebrews 4:15 “For he was tempted in every way yet He was without sin...therefore we have a great high priest that sympathizes with our
weaknesses…”
The apostle
Paul says, and advocates that Christians do the same, that he bore the marks of
Christ in His body (Galatians 6:17); he filled up the suffering of Christ
(Colossians 1:24) - not in a sacrificial way but in a way that imitated the Lord
of glory! Paul suffered at the hands of
others for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the church. Paul never blew up a synagogue, on the
contrary, he actually rejoiced in being persecuted for Christ's sake.
He never retaliated; he understood and articulated the same, in 2 Timothy
3:12, “All who seek to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted.” Peter said the same thing in four different
places in his epistles: suffering for doing good is commendable, carries a
reward, brings favor from God and that
we should rejoice in the fact that we are called Christians (1 Peter 2:20,
3:14, 4:15, 4:16). This is not a call to
altruism or self-sacrifice; it is a call to imitate the pattern set forth by
Jesus Christ.
Mohammed did
not sacrifice himself for his followers; he actually died from poisoning at the
hands of a Jewish woman who poisoned him and his army. According to historical documents (The poisoning of the Prophet Mohammed),
his men died on the spot but he took three years to die. Some Muslims believe that the fact that it
took three years for him to die means that God protected him from the
poisoning. But he still died. Unlike Jesus, he also did not rise from the
dead. He died in 632 AD and that was
that. Jesus on the other hand, died and
got up from the grave with all power in heaven and in earth given unto Him and
promised His followers that they would imitate him and rise again also.
Here is the rub, these men that are willing to “sacrifice”
themselves for the prophet Mohammed are dying by their own hands; committing
suicide. But Jesus Christ died, not by
His own hands, but by the hands of godless men who placed a crown of thorns on
His head, slapped Him in His face, drove nails into his hands and feet and
pierced His side with a spear. And while
God the Father sent Him (John 17:3, 17:18) and sacrificed Him (Acts 2:23) and it was
pleasing to God to crush Him (Isaiah 53:10). Not pleasing in a sadistic sense of but in the sense that God was satisfied with his sacrifice which is evidenced by the fact that he got up on the third
day (Romans 4:25). Christ’s sacrifice
served one purpose, to reconcile sinful man back to God so that all that
believe on Him will be saved and brought back into fellowship with the
Father. One man died so that all might
live. He did not kill anyone in the
process, he did not die through selfish, self-serving means but He tasted death
for everyone (Hebrews 2:9). There is the
subtlety that is often overlooked. God
has never asked us to sacrifice ourselves because there is no sacrifice that we
can give that would equal or be greater than the sacrifice that Jesus made.
Should Christians be zealous to the point of sacrificing
ourselves in the name of Jesus? Our idea
of sacrifice is totally different. We
deny ourselves certain pleasures not because of great discipline but because we
understand that we cannot be in the world and of the world simultaneously. We die a figurative death like the kernel of
wheat only to yield a 100-fold harvest both here and in eternity. We sacrifice for the sake of others in that
if we have more than others then we are to sacrifice to ensure that none goes
hungry or naked. That is the type of
sacrifice that Christians are called to make.
Denying ourselves means not retaliating when the opportunity presents
itself but humbling ourselves before God knowing that our reward will be great
in heaven. That is the type of sacrifice
that Christians are called to. What
Jesus did at Calvary, none of us could ever do- but what He did on earth, we
are to imitate his love by loving one another, not killing those that wrong us or disagree
with us. Grace and peace be upon you as you continue the Christian journey. Egyptian
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