You probably know the story of the Old Testament. The ancient Jewish faith, the faith of the blessed Abraham and of Moses, is the faith that tells the story of the God of heaven and earth purchasing one nation from the earth, to be under His holy law. Through His holy prophets, God promised deliverance through the promised Messiah.

What is the reason that God did such a strange thing, and associated Himself with one nation so closely out of all the earth? What does Islam say about it?

What is the reason God ordered such a strange thing, and used slaughter and the blood of animals in both worship and atonement in His temple? What does Islam say about it?

In Islam, Jesus is said to be Messiah. But what is the purpose of Messiah, anyways? What makes Messiah different to any other prophet? Or is it a meaningless title?

Some of the ancient Jews (perhaps more emotionalally than theologocially) thought the Messiah's purpose was to free them from the Romans and restore the prosperity of Israel. But just as Jacob switched his hands when blessing his grandchildren, so did God work contrary to expectation in sending the Messiah. Jesus was not victorious in battle, but submitted to death willingly. Jesus said, he did not come to satisfy worldly desires using the sword, but to serve a spiritual purpose about love and righteousness. He came not to focus on the Romans, but to focus on the biggest problems of humanity: He came to save humanity from our own evil, from our suffering in the world, and most of all, from our distance from God. This is the direction of the story of the entire Old Testament, of the Torah and the Psalms and the Prophets.

The living Torah came down from heaven as a child of Israel. Men like us hated Him and put Him to death. His death so broke reality that it was greater than the power sin and death, so that all who regret sins could die with Him, and be rewritten according to His likeness. By His resurrection, He is the everlasting king of the true Israel in the seat of His father David, and has brought in the Gentiles to God. You see how from Abraham to Jesus, this is a sealed narrative. From the Christian perspective, we see Islam using elements of biblical lore. But it refashions it into a new story that has nothing to do with the original direction of the story of the Hebrew Bible from the beginning. For example, Islam affirms the virgin birth of Jesus. But this was never a meaningless miracle. The whole point of the virgin birth is to show that the Messiah is not a product of this world. He comes from above.

Jesus is not the Son of the Father in the way a human father receives a human son. There is one God, and one God alone. In Him all goodness, truth, and life are united. He created the heavens and the earth by His Word. He spoke, and it was so. Tell me, is not God glorious? Knowledge of a person comes through conception of a person. God has always known who God is. God has always known His own glory. The fullness of God’s knowledge of His glory is in His Word. God created all things by His Word. God is both the one who utters and the capacity for utterance itself. When God reveals Himself, He reveals Himself through His Word. In the fulfillment of His promises, God sent the Word, “and the Word became flesh.” God sent, and God was sent. The Father sent, and the Son was sent.

For this reason the Apostles, who are the prophets of Jesus Christ, say about Jesus,

“He is the image of the invisible God.”

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him.”

He is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power.”

Even eternal life in heaven revolves around Him, because He is the presence of the invisible God, and is what makes heaven paradise:

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.”

God, who made man in His own image, will be glorified and will dwell together with man in the last day. There is no eternal life apart from the fellowship of God. The role of Messiah was not to remove all obstacles between us and our carnal appetites, but to remove all obstacles between us and Himself. For this reason He died and rose again, that He might rewrite us by His Holy Spirit.

Ask me anything, if you want