"Can Muslims be won to Christ? It is often assumed that Muslims simply cannot change. There are too many obstacles: the ingrained idea that their revelation is newer and truer, the pressures of family and society, and the fear of physical retaliation if they convert. Yet, in spite of the difficulties, Muslims do come to know Christ. The Holy Spirit is able to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Proclaiming the Law and the Gospel
Witnessing to Muslims includes lovingly speaking both the law and the gospel, the two great doctrines that run through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The law declares what God’s will is. It includes divine commands—all the things we are to do or not to do, in thought, word, deed. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:8). God’s law demands perfection. But the law does more than demand perfection, it also sets forth the wages of breaking it—“the judgment,” eternal separation from God.
Nowhere does the Bible say that good intentions are sufficient. “I did my best” is not enough. That is where the gospel comes in. The word gospel comes from the Middle English word godspel, a term that means good spell, good story, or good news. It is the same as the Greek word euangelion, evangel, which means the good message (the word angel means a messenger).
What is the good news? It’s simply that although we cannot do it, God has done it for us. Jesus summed up the gospel when he said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Just as the law shows us what we are supposed to do and fail to do (it Shows Our Sin), the gospel shows what God has done for us—sent his Son for our salvation (it Shows Our Savior). In the gospel, there are no demands, threats, or words of judgment. It is pure grace, undeserved love. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,” says Jesus, “and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
This is the same gospel that Paul exulted in “because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Believing is nothing more than taking what God freely offers: forgiveness, peace with God, the joy of salvation, and everlasting life.
Muslims, like all of us, need to hear both the law and the gospel. Without the law, we do not see how sinful we are and how much we need a Savior. Without the gospel, we are left in the hopeless condition of pleasing the holy God with flawed and utterly insufficient human efforts. The gospel without the law brings indifference. The law without the gospel breeds either despair or a self-deceptive self-righteousness that fools no one, least of all the omniscient God who knows our every thought and deed.
Islam has a law. It is a religion of countless rules governing every aspect of life from what people can eat and drink to how they are to bow down, which direction to face, and just what to say when praying. But Islam doesn’t know the gospel. Driven by the law, the most devout Muslims will go to unbelievable lengths—including self-destruction in a holy war or jihad—in hopes of pleasing Allah, that distant god who has given a book, the Qur’an, but nothing of himself. There is a better way. That is to share the love of Jesus.
Proclaiming Christ
Only God knows how close some Muslims may be and how ready for the gospel. Although distorted and confused, they do have some knowledge of Jesus. For instance, the Qur’an teaches that Jesus raised the dead, providing a segue for the biblical truth that Jesus himself rose from the dead.
It is possible that some readers of this article have never met a Muslim. With the number of Muslims at six million and growing in North America, that is not likely to be the case a few years from now. The Bible has a wonderful message for Muslims, namely, that salvation does not depend on our good works. Rather, salvation comes as a free gift, through Christ alone, in the words of Peter: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Even if we do not now have the opportunity to witness, we can pray. The Gospel according to Matthew beautifully reminds us of the call to prayer: “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (9:35-38).
Various books on witnessing to Muslims offer a variety of approaches. One is that we begin with Christ in the Qur’an. In spite of its vociferous denials of the divinity and substitutionary death of Christ, in many ways the Qur’an speaks more highly of Christ than of Muhammad. Look up the Qur’an’s passages dealing with Christ (some editions have indexes in the back) and use them as links to the truth of the Bible.
Muslims Meet Christ
Sin keeps people from being close to God. The Qur’an even urges Muhammad, “Ask forgiveness of thy sin” (Sura 40:55); yet nowhere does it mention sin in connection with Jesus. When all is said and done, the Qur’an has nothing to offer but a fallible prophet who lies buried in Arabia. The Bible presents a sinless Savior, who has offered his life on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world and who has conquered death. The Medieval cleric Ricoldo da Montecroce wrote long ago, “The fact is: Christ lives, Muhammad is dead. A living advocate is better than a dead one.”
Jesus Christ is our Advocate, whose blood washes away our sins: “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin” (1 John 1:7). Through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit brings us to saving faith. “Through faith in Christ Jesus,” we are now God’s children (Galatians 3:28), who can approach our heavenly Father in confidence and joy.
This is a faith worth sharing. A friend of mine, a former Muslim from Iraq, says it most eloquently, “Allah calls on Muslims to sacrifice their sons so that they can go to paradise; God sacrificed his Son so that we can go to heaven.”"
- Roland Cap Ehlke
