Explaining Jesus to Muslims
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4. The Sinless Jesus

The Testimony of the Quran
According to the Quran when Jesus' grandmother bore her daughter Mary, she said: "My Lord! Lo! I am delivered of a female...and lo! I have named her Mary, and lo! I crave thy protection for her and for her offspring from Satan the outcast." (Imram 3:36)

According to Muslim tradition Satan used to pierce every human being in the side at the time of his birth, except for Isa and his mother. A screen was placed between them and the thrust was aimed at the screen and did not reach them at all. The two of them were never effected by sin as the rest of mankind.(Tha'alabi - Lives of the Prophets)

The Testimony of the Bible

Jesus was born holy (Luke 1:21-45)
The angel Gabriel appeared to a young girl, a virgin named Mary, and said: Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you." Mary did not understand this word and the angel said: "Do not be afraid Mary. God has been gracious to you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord will make him a king, as his descendant David was, and he will be king of the descendants of Jacob forever, his kingdom will never end." Then Mary said: "I am a virgin, how can this be?" The angel answered: "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God."

How did Mary conceive? She was a virgin. We are told that the Spirit of God would come on her, and God's power would rest on her. There is no suggestion of any crude union between God and woman here. God is spirit and does not have a physical body like we do. The conclusion is that the Holy Spirit created the male seed which united with an ovum in Mary's womb. The result was a holy embryo which grew into a holy fetus and was born a holy child.

Adam and the human race
God created the first man, Adam, perfect, but when he disobeyed God in the garden and ate the forbidden fruit, he became a sinner. Sin became a part of his nature and this passed on from generation to generation. The prophet Job (Ayuba) spoke about man's birth and said: "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. ... Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!" (Job 14:1,4) And the prophet David (Dauda) said: "Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:5) And the apostle Paul says: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) As all men and women are born sinners, it is even more remarkable that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born without sin.

Jesus sinless life
As a child we are told that Jesus was obedient to his parents. He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men. Before he began his work of teaching and healing, he went to the Jordan river where he was baptized by John the Baptist. (Yahaya) When he came out of the water, a voice came from heaven and said: "You are my own dear Son, I am pleased with you." (Luke 3:22) Then he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan for 40 days. During that time he fasted day and night and the Devil could not make him sin. (Luke 4:1-13)

Jesus testified to his own sinlessness when speaking to his enemies, the Jewish religious authorities. He said: "Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If you are telling the truth, why don't you believe me? (John 8:46)

When Jesus was judged before his crucifixion, neither the Jews nor the Romans could find any fault with him.. The Roman governor Pilate said: "I find no basis for a charge against him." The Jews condemned him for blasphemy, because he claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God.

Jesus lived a selfless life, he was always interested in the welfare of others. He healed them and taught them God's word. He was not proud and he was not interested in wealth or women. He spent his life serving God and doing his will.

The testimony of Jesus' apostles.
Jesus' own disciples knew him best. What did they say about him? Peter said: "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." (1 Peter 2:22) John said: "You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin." (1 John 3:5) The apostle Paul said: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21) The writer of the book of Hebrews spoke about Jesus as our high priest and said: "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way as we are - yet was without sin." (4:15) and "Such a high priest meets our need - one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens." (7:26)

The Significance of Jesus' sinlessness
If Jesus was the Son of God, he had to be sinless, because we know that God is holy and sinless. It is common belief in Islam that all the prophets were sinless, at least after the time that they became prophets. In fact all prophets were sinners, even after their call to serve God. Adam sinned in the garden and ate the forbidden fruit, Noah (Nuhu) became drunk after the flood, Moses (Musa) displeased God in the wilderness and God said: "Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." (Numbers 20:12) David was guilty of murder and adultery (Sura 38:23, 2 Samuel 11:4,14-15) Solomon (Sulemanu) was guilty of lust and idolatry. "He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God." (1 Kings 11:3-4) The Quran says that Mohammed was forgiven for his faults. Jesus on the other hand never sinned or committed the slightest fault and so he never had to ask God for forgiveness.

In the justice of God, for someone to atone for the sins of mankind, it is necessary for that person to be sinless. This is illustrated by the fact that animals used in sacrifice to forgive sins under the law of Moses had to be without defect or flaw. So Yahaya said about Jesus: "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29) And Peter said: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18-19)

What is sin?
Sin is anything in thinking, speaking or acting that is contrary to the holy will of God. To understand what sin is, we need an understanding of the holiness of God. God is holy because he never sins. Because of his perfection and holiness he is set apart from sinful men.

"But your iniquities have separated you from your God, your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." (Isaiah 59:2)

The word sin has two meanings. It means disobedience to God's law, but it also means that tendency to sin that is part of man's nature. No matter how good a person may be, he is born with this tendency to sin in him and even his motives for doing good are suspect. The prophet Isaiah says: "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." (64:6) Because God is holy, sin arouses his anger and because God is just, every sinner must be punished for every sin that he has committed. As all men are sinners, we all come under God's wrath. Because of our sin we don't have fellowship with God now and we will be separated from him for all eternity.

But God is love. Because he loves man who he created, he has provided a way of salvation through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The person who believes in Jesus has his sins forgiven here and now, because Jesus has already paid the penalty. When a sinner asks forgiveness at the foot of the cross of Jesus, the Holy Spirit enters the body and transforms the sinner's mind and heart, producing true repentance. The redeemed sinner is now forgiven by God and will spend eternity with him.

If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all wrongdoing." (1 John 1:9)