There are about a billion Muslims who are turned off by what many of them regard as two obstacles against their becoming Christians: (1) the Crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries demonstrate openly for all time that "Christianity" is a cruel and unjust religion (they say); and (2) the doctrine that one man's righteousness can substitute morally for another man's unrighteousness. In fact, their theologians connect the Crusades to that doctrine of vicarious moral substitution. It's unjust, and unfair, they say.
We know first: the Crusades were not true, biblical Christianity. Second, could the doctrine of a vicarious substitution be explained to Muslims more clearly? Does the Bible also teach the truth of a shared substitution?
In His first lesson on the cross Jesus told us, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him ... take up his cross, and follow Me. ... Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matt. 16:24, 25). Paul understood this idea of shared substitution: "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). "As many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death. ... We were buried with Him through baptism into death. ... We have been united together in the likeness of His death. ... Our old man [the love of self] was crucified with Him. ... If we died with Christ we believe we shall also live with Him" (Rom. 6:3-8--but not otherwise!). If "our" Crusaders had understood this, world history would have been different! Praying for the Muslims is good, but not good enough: we must tell them the gospel clearly, truthfully.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 6, 2005.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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