Our preceding lesson introduced one last person who is mentioned in the Qur’an as well as in the Bible: that would be Jesus, the Christ. We have seen that this prophet must have been very special for not only did God send him with a mission, as He had for the other prophets, but he had also announced the coming of this prophet well in advance of his birth. It was not just a single passage of scripture that predicted his coming. It was not an ambiguous or disputed passage that could designate a person other than Jesus. No, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of details concerning Jesus that were clearly given hundreds of years before his birth. The angels announced his birth when it happened—a miraculous birth, since his mother had not had sexual relations with anyone before the conception. People prophesied about him again when they saw him as a baby. And just before Jesus began to preach in public, God raised up the prophet John the Baptist to prepare the people to receive him.
Does it not seem probable that Jesus was a prophet, but also more than a prophet? Let’s consider other truths that relate to this man.
A Life Without Sin
Many passages in the Bible emphasize the idea that Jesus did not sin. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, the apostle Paul wrote, “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:5, “You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.” The apostle Peter also affirms the same truth: “He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Peter also quoted the words of the prophet Isaiah concerning the Christ: “They made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully” (Isaiah 53:9).
But it was not just others who claimed that Jesus had no sin. Jesus himself challenged His adversaries, “Who among you can convict me of sin? If I tell the truth, why don’t you believe me?” (John 8:46).
Muhammad did not try to prove that Jesus committed sin. On the contrary, we see in Surah 19:19 of the Qur’an that the angel said to Mary, “‘I am only the messenger of your Lord,’ he replied. ‘I shall bestow upon you the gift of a son endowed with purity.’” Also the Hadith, or Muslim tradition, attests to the holiness of Jesus. Abu Huraira reports, “I heard the Apostle of Allah’s saying, ‘There is none born among the offspring of Adam but Satan touches it. A child, therefore, cries loudly at the time of birth because of the touch of Satan, except Mary and her child.’”
One Muslim commentator named Er-Razi said that the title of Messiah was given to Jesus because he had been free of the stain of sin. Strangely, this state of purity was not attributed to any other prophet in the Qur’an. In our previous lessons, we saw the weaknesses and sometimes even the sins of other prophets. Adam ate the forbidden fruit. Noah got drunk. Abraham lied. Jacob tricked his father and stole the birthright of his brother. Moses disobeyed the command of God to speak to the rock in order to give water to the people in the desert. David committed adultery. Solomon worshipped the idols of his wives. Even Muhammad admitted to having sin in his life. In the Surah 40:55, Allah himself said, “So be patient, for what God promised is sure to come. Ask forgiveness for your sins; praise your Lord morning and evening.” The same exhortation to ask forgiveness for his sins is given in Surah 47:19. The 48th Surah begins with these words that Allah addressed to Muhammad: “Truly, we have granted you a clear victory so that God may forgive you your past and future sins and complete His favor to you and guide you to a straight path and so that God may bestow on you His mighty help.” Finally, Muhammad himself confesses that he does not know his eternal fate: “Say, ‘I am not something original among the messengers, and I do not know what will be done with me or with you. I do not follow anything but what is revealed to me” (Surah 46:9).
The apostle John said, “If we say, ‘we have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). But this same John said about Jesus, “…there is no sin in him” (1 John 3:5). Certainly Jesus is a prophet unlike the others.
His Astonishing Words: A Pre-existence?
No one found anything to condemn in Jesus’ actions. He is the only Jew who ever perfectly kept the law that God gave them. The words of Jesus, on the other hand, were often very surprising, not to say shocking. One day while speaking with the Jews, Jesus told them:
“‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death…’
The Jews said to him: ‘Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? Even the prophets died. Who do you pretend to be?’
‘If I glorify myself,’ Jesus answered, ‘my glory is nothing. My Father—you say about Him, “He is our God”—He is the One who glorifies me. You’ve never known Him but I know Him… Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see my day. He saw it and rejoiced.’
The Jews replied, ‘You are not 50 years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?’
Jesus said to them, ‘I assure you, before Abraham was, I am.’” (John 8:51-58)
This word of Jesus echoes the testimony given by John the Baptist. Remember that the angel Gabriel had announced to Zechariah, John’s father, that his wife Elizabeth would have a son. Remember also that she was already in her sixth month of pregnancy when the same angel of God was sent to Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of the Christ. So John was six months older than Jesus. But what does John say in the Gospel of John 1:30? When he saw Jesus, John said, “This is the one I told you about. ‘After me comes a man who is greater than me, because He existed before me.’”
In speaking with a leader of the Jews named Nicodemus, Jesus was a little more explicit. He said, “No one has ascended into heaven, except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man” (John 3:13). The term “Son of Man” was the expression that Jesus used most often to speak of himself.
The prophet Jeremiah said that God knew him when he was still in his mother’s womb. But Jesus claims to have been in heaven before his birth and to have talked with Abraham.
Shocking Words: The Right to Pardon Sins
But the prophet Jesus made other claims that shocked the hearers of his time and that continue to shock some who read them today. A clear example is found in the Gospel of Mark 2:1-12:
“When He entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that He was at home. So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and He was speaking the message to them. Then they came to Him bringing a paralytic, carried by four men. Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above where He was. And when they had broken through, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’
But some of the scribes were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does He speak like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’
Right away Jesus understood in His spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk”? But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ He told the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, pick up your mat and go home.’
Immediately he got up, picked up the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’”
Conclusion
So we see that, more than for any other prophet, things get complicated when we talk about Jesus, this prophet who claims to have never committed sin, this prophet whose coming God had so carefully prepared. We also learn that it was a “coming” in a rather literal sense. That is to say that Jesus was once in heaven—His conception in Mary’s womb and His birth in Bethlehem do not represent the beginning of his existence: he “came” from somewhere. Before being conceived by my father and my mother, I did not exist. My life began on earth—I did not “come” here. Reincarnation is not a belief in the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim religions. And Jesus did not pretend to be the reincarnation of anyone. But he said clearly that He existed in heaven before His birth here below. In addition, He claims the right to pardon men’s sins. These are things that no other prophet of God had done. Could Jesus then be more than a prophet?