If Jesus died for your sins, you can just keep on sinning. The west is corrupt and Christians drink alcohol and have sex outside of marriage.
So goes the accusation - here is the response!
This view of the west is based on ignorance and prejudice. The west is not Christian and the behaviour that is lampooned, such as the hedonistic culture of the west, has nothing to do with Christianity, but rather with the rejection of Christianity.
Christianity has no truck or partnership with the evils of alcohol abuse and sexual promiscuity, which are commonplace in the west. We will take each one of these in turn, beginning with the sin of promiscuity:
•Hebrews 13: 4 states clearly that the marriage bed should be protected. The Church interprets this as being both before and during marriage, for GOD will judge the sexually immoral.
•1 Corinthians 6: 9 lists the sexually immoral as being those that will not inherit the Kingdom of GOD.
•Ephesians 5: 3 speaks as if sexual immorality should not be known amongst the Church.
•Colossians 3: 5 call Christians to ‘put to death’ sexual immorality.
•Galatians 5: 19 – 21: lists the sexual immoral amongst those who will not inherit the kingdom of GOD, while also placing it on a par with idolatry.
It is therefore a stereotype among Muslims to think that Christianity teaches sexual licentiousness; it is a perception based on what is not know about the Christian faith, not upon what is known.
We will turn our attention to the matter of alcohol. Yes, Christians can drink alcohol, though some Christians, in the liberty of faith, abstain completely from the drink. Christians have, in the past, fought against the culture of drinking to excess, which is common in the liberal world of individual escapism; and was rampant in the harsh realities post the industrial revolution. Christians accept the use of alcohol as a gift; it can and does make men merry and joyful, see psalm 114: 14 – 15; and Ecclesiastes 9: 7.
The holy Scripture does not reject the drinking of alcohol, but rather the abuse of it; see:
•Ephesians 5: 18: in which we are commanded plainly to not ‘get drunk’.
•Proverbs 23: 29 – 35: warns against the dangers of wine (alcohol).
•1 Corinthians 6: 12; 2 Peter 2: 19: highlight the reason for the Christian position: we are to be masters of ourselves and not mastered by any kind of addiction or intoxication, whether chemical or imaginary. Our lives are to be free from the slavery to sin, so that we can do all things in their proper place, and proportion. We must do everything to the glory of GOD and that involves what we drink, how much we drink and why and when and where we drink, this precludes therefore the possibility that we can drink to the point of the loss of self-control. Simply, historically speaking as a practical point, people used watered down alcohol as a way of purifying water and making it safe to drink – as Timothy was advised to do by Paul; this was common wisdom; and is still wise today when water is impure (something Muhammad thought was impossible): 1 Timothy 5: 23 & Sunan An Nasai 326.
Muslims might think that any amount of drinking alcohol is a problem, and we can accept that is their position, however, we see this as less of a problem than the fact that Islam permits some abortion, some slavery, some polygamy and some secret marriages. We believe, on balance, that Christianity is fine; and has nothing to learn morally from a religion that permits such things. These are far greater evils in society; than a moderate occasional drink of alcohol.
However, then, lets deal with the deeper theological point: since Christ died for our sins, does that mean we Christians can continue sinning? This very argument is addressed in Romans 6: 1 – 14:
What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.
It is quite clear that we Christians cannot, should not, and must not use our faith in the abundant mercy of GOD to be a licence to sin. The ancient commentators also saw this same truth in this passage; we will cite some of the commentators as evidence that Christians have never understood the faith as being licence to sin:
The believer who returns to his former way of life rejects the kingdom of God’s grace and returns to sin, i.e., to the pattern of his previous life. For we have received mercy for two reasons: first, that the kingdom of the devil might be removed, and second, that the rule of God might be proclaimed to the ignorant, for it was by this means that we came to desire this dignity.
Commentary on Paul’s Epistles. – Ambrosiaster
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He puts and rejects the same objection as before. (Chap. iii. ver. 7.) And having set forth in the last chapter the grace and advantages by Christ's coming, he now exhorts them to avoid sinning and live in the grace of God.
(Witham[HA8.1]) – George Leo Haydock
Paul says: “Consider yourselves” … because complete freedom from sin is not a reality as yet…. We are told to live for God in Jesus Christ our Lord and to lay hold of every virtue, having Jesus as our ally in the struggle.
John Chrysostom
In the Scriptures we learn that there are three kinds of death. The first is when we die to sin and live to God. Blessed is that death which, escaping from sin and devoted to God, separates us from what is mortal and consecrates us to him who is immortal. The second death is the departure from this life…. The third death is that of which it is said: “Let the dead bury their dead.”
Ambrose of Milan
Clearly therefore, it is wholly inadequate and false to conclude that Christians believe that because Christ died for our sin, Christians believe we can go on sinning. Please show us the Christian teacher, respected by the Church, who teaches that we can go on sinning. We do, however, want to be clear that, as Christians, we believe in the mercy of GOD and in his forgiveness. So that when we sin - and all men do, including Christians - we can approach GOD with confidence in the knowledge of His mercy towards our repentance, our struggle to change the way we think, so that our lives are once again orientated towards GOD and not our sin; and travel along His way .There is no ‘forgiveness followed by punishment’ for Christians as there is in Islam for Muslims.
In Islam it is claimed that Muslims will be forgiven by Allah but then punished in any case, with a period in hell – consider:
See Quran 19: 71 and Ibn Kathir tafsir is clear, all Muslims will pass through hell at different speeds, depending on the weight of their sin. Where then is the forgiveness? Where then is Allah’s mercy whom having said he has forgiven the Muslim as the all merciful, punishes Muslims with a stint in hell anyway! According to the sunnah, Muslims will answer for their sin, so how then are they forgiven?