Essentials of Christianity — Salvation by the Cross

The following is an essay I penned for my Religions of the Western World class taken under Rutgers University conducted by Professor James Pavlin. I'd like to present this forth as my Easter present to the world. Peace!

The Christian view of Atonement and Salvation is strongly linked to the concept of Original Sin and Sacrifice. Christians believe every sin is equal in the eyes of God. And God is Pure and Divine. So in order to reconcile oneself with God, he or she must cleanse himself or herself of all sins for any sin, even something as minute as a lie taints the soul and the soul then becomes turned away from God and His Grace.

This is where the earlier Jewish view of repentance through sacrifice comes in. The early Jews used to sacrifice cattle at the Temple of God in order to be forgiven by God and saved. But Christians believe that human beings are inherently tainted by sin from birth due to the actions of Adam and Eve. The act of disobedience performed by them in the Garden of Eden was so profound and deep that it cut into the souls of all their children. We are all tainted, as the Book of Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 10 tells us:

"As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one."

And the Stature of God is indeed much too great to tolerate this, as the Book of Romans also tells us, this time in Chapter 3, Verse 23:

"For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God.

Due to the stain of the Original Sin imprinted upon the souls of all mankind as per the consequences of the action of Adam and Eve, no amount of good deeds such as prayer, fasting or charity can save mankind nor will the meticulous following of the Law because Christians believe that the Law is beyond human limitations to fulfill, for the Law demands that which we as humans cannot do.

"You shall be holy, as I the Lord your God am holy" is the impossible demand of the Law. In other words, humans cannot attain salvation by themselves. Verse 6 from Chapter 64 of the Book of Isaiah is used to explain this:

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags."

Therefore, in order to pay the wager for the Original Sin, a perfect sacrifice was required to attain God's Grace for us. The idea of the sacrifice to be forgiven of sin comes from the Jewish tradition of sacrificing cattle, in most cases, a lamb, for repentance. So God, in His Infinite Mercy and Love, chose to become the sacrifice in flesh descending in the form of the Holy Son to die on the cross and atone for us all. This is why, Jesus, believed to be the Holy Son, is entitled the Lamb of God.

The Sacrifice of Jesus was required to cleanse humanity of the sin of Adam so that mankind may be saved and become pure again so their good deeds can be accepted by God as way to earn His Blessings. No excerpt of the Bible propounds this clearer than Romans, Chapter 5, Verses 12 through 21:

"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned — for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the Grace of God and the free gift by the Grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the Abundance of Grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

But unless one accepts this sacrifice of God the Son to God the Father after he knows of it, he is not presented with God's Grace and he is denied the gift of eternal life because, as the Book of Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 23 tells us, Jesus Christ is the only way to Salvation and eternal life:

"...but the gift of God is eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This, Christians justify, through the own words of Jesus as narrated in the Book of John, Chapter 14, Verse 6:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man come unto the Father, but by me."

— Fahim Ferdous Kibria

Love, Faith and Sacrifice

"If you focus too narrowly on a single path to God, all you will ever find is the path."
~ Meister Eckhart

Religions – specially the Abrahamic religions; more specifically Islam, in recent times, have been denigrated to a series of laws and regulations that line up to form a checklist for its devotees to complete as they move on up the aisle towards buying themselves a coupon ticket to Paradise. This is the modern day crisis of faith.

It is indeed a serious issue in the community of Muhammad left behind today. We set out everyday to fulfill a plethora of chores in our to-do list: pray five times a day, check; fast next Monday, check; grow a beard, check; convince my little sister to wear a headscarf, check – we treat all these deeds not as acts of the spirit but merely actions of flesh and bone. The inherent wisdom behind the Islamic lifestyle is lost.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of modern-day Islam is the way we treat the Holy Scriptures as not the unadulterated Divine Discourse between God and Man but rather a measly book of do’s and don’ts written down by some strange man in the desert as a bundle of stories.

If I were to write a book today, a novel with a character that eats a certain way, speaks a certain way, sleeps facing a certain direction, and then centuries down the line some archaeologist stumbles upon the thing and tells all his children to follow the actions of the character in the story simply because he likes it, how absolutely insane would it be? However, that is exactly how we have begun to treat Islam. Eat this, don’t eat that. Why? Because the Qur’an says so. Wear this, don’t wear that. Why? Because the Hadith says so. People are just being fed to live a certain life only because a myriad of scribbles inked onto a stack of paper tells them to do so.

Now, instead, consider this. So we have the aforementioned book with the character. I write it down. Someone finds it. They know about me, let’s say that by the time the novel is discovered I am some sort of legendary author and the character I have penned is an inspiring hero of lore. The children read it, they love me and they love the character I have designed so much so that they want to grow up and be just like him. That is what Islam is supposed to be. You read the Qur’an, you fall in love with the Author, understand Him, wish to know Him better, cherish the virtues that are desirable to Him and try to imbue yourself with them to attain His affection.

The Qur’an is the Sacred Speech of God where He tells us the stories of men and women who He raised above all creation and those who He has damned below all creation. Through reading it we are to understand the traits that He loves, try to comprehend why is it that He chose to elevate Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Noah, Mary and Dhulquarnain while condemn Abu Lahab, Nimrod, the Pharaoh and Satan. Their stories are not to be meaningless bedtime narratives to us but morals with glad-tidings and warnings.

Let us take for an instance the example of a child hearing the epic saga of Harry Potter and Voldemort. They identify with the former as the hero who is to be admired and respected, and the latter as the villain who is to be despised and loathed. Now, human nature is driven with the urge to earn respect and admiration, and once the child understands Harry is the one to be respected and admired, the child imitates him to accomplish exactly that while avoiding the traits expressed by Voldemort to avert being seen as the hated adversary, the outcast.

Switching our focus back to Islam and the Qur’an, we too have stories akin to that of Harry Potter and Voldemort but the stage is even grander. The characters here are not only vying to garner attention, admiration and respect from their peers but One far exalted – God. And this is where the Love of God is so important. Why must the reader be driven to earn the admiration of God? See, if a person does not like someone, if that person could not care less about what this someone thought of them, then why would that person sacrifice all the pleasures of their life to earn that someone’s respect and admiration? And let us be extremely blunt here, God asks us to make very many sacrifices quite very many times throughout the Qur’an and sacrifice is an extremely prevalent theme throughout the theological and historical lore of Islam.

What we must ask ourselves are the following questions:
Was Abraham going to slaughter his child mercilessly because some vengeful voice in the sky asked him to do so? Was he going to do it so that he could simply go to Heaven?
Did John stand against the tyranny of Herod and lose his head for an indifferent holy being of nothingness?
Did Mary wander the deserts outside Palestine all by herself bearing the excruciating pangs of childbirth for the fulfillment of some divine will she did not understand?
Did Muhammad spend months eating leaves outside the walls of Mecca out of some senseless, misguided desire for self-torture?
Did Husayn stand against the brutality of Yazid's oppressive, unjust regime knowing full well that he was going to die because of some misplaced passion for achieving martyrdom?
The answer to all of the above questions is a resounding 'no.'

Abraham loved God and he trusted God. He knew that if God was guiding him then God was leading his path towards good and righteousness. We know Abraham longed for a child all his life, he was not simply about to give it up because of the pleasures of Heaven. All the pleasures in existence he could long for came through the fulfillment of his wish to father a child: he could desire for nothing more. But then, why sacrifice that which was his greatest source of joy and happiness? Because his love for God was greater and his trust on Him was profound. He knew God would not misguide him and plunge him astray hurling towards misery.

Nowadays, our love for God is lacking. We do not trust God; even more so, we do not know God and how can we ever trust that which we do not know? Thus we are not ready to sacrifice for Him. We are unsure if what we are to give up will ever be reimbursed. We are unsure if what we are to forsake will ever be returned. We are unsure if our faith is ever to be rewarded.

The zeal to follow the footsteps of Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Mutalib, 'Ali ibn Abu Talib and Husayn ibn 'Ali, of Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Abu Bakr as-Sadiq, of David, Jacob and Solomon will never be there unless we instill into ourselves what was instilled into them; until we inspire ourselves with what inspired them; they did not see Islam as a manifesto of laws but rather the Way towards a Divine Union between themselves and the Eternal Beloved.



— Fahim Ferdous Kibria