First, I'm going to agree that there is much in Christianity that not only can be, but often is confusing. We talk about the kingdom of God being here and not yet. We say that salvation is by grace, through faith, and not by works (lest any man should boast), and then at the same time say that faith without works is dead. We talk about Jesus being both fully human and fully divine in one person at the same time, and yet without intermingling those two natures. We talk about (what we at least term) a monotheistic God who exists in three persons. And then we go so far as to suggest that somehow all of this is supposed to make logical sense.
We ought to at least admit, that while it might make some degree of sense to those who grew up with it, that it is suggesting some pretty heavy stuff to those who grew up not hearing this kind of conversation every day. (And frankly, it obviously has caused some confusion even among its adherents or theologians wouldn't still being arguing over the finer points and calling them major points.)
So Christ is your mediator with your father?
can you not directly connect with the father, or does christ have the monopoly?
There is no short version, Yes/No answer to your question, but I'll try to keep it as brief as I can.
Remember that one aspect of the Christian understanding of sin (which differs from Islamic understanding) is that we were all created perfect and sinless, but that Adam's (and Eve's) sin changed everything and has a continuing effect on all. This means that even a person who does not committ sins, is not sinless because we are all born into a fallen world and with a Sinful nature. To speak of there being a Sinful nature is to suggest that our human nature is not automatically and primarily directed toward living in fellowship with God, but rather that our basic nature as human beings is to be primarily focused on pleasing the self.
Like I said, I know Muslims have a different starting point than Christian with regard to this, but to understand Christian theology you have to understand that this view of sin is one of our apriori assumptions with regard to human nature: people are by nature messed up, and so messed up, that try as we might we can never get it right to be good enough for God all on our own merits.
Given that not even the best of us -- to put it in an Islamic context, not even a prophet -- is good enough for God. We all fall short. We all sin --big or little it doesn't make a difference. Falling short is falling short. Abraham, according to the Qur'an, may only have lied three times in his life and they may even have been little ones that were done for an ultimately "good" purpose (don't know that that last part would be in the Qur'an, just trying to minimized Abraham's sin to make it infinitesimally small), but God demands perfection and so even near perfect (but not quite 100% perfect) Abraham would on his own merit be unable to enter paradise. So, Sin (meaning the entire Sin nature, not just the list of individual sins) becomes the big issue that needs to be solved in order to re-establish humanity's ability to live in fellowship and communion with God (e.g. to fully in harmony with to God's will) that he was intended to do in his creation.
Now, should we accept the theology of the Tanakh, God provided a means by which people could make sin offerings and re-establish their relationship with him. But it didn't keep people from sinning, and it certainly didn't take away the Sin nature. In that sense it was an imperfect solution. (I expect at least some Jews to disagree with the view that the sacrificial system was imperfect, and for Muslims to object that it is ridiculous to consider God offering an imperfect solution to anything that he offers a solution for. Be that as it may, it is the Christian view.) Christians believe that the Bible proposes God offering an ultimate solution to the issue of sin in the final act of cleansing of the entire world in the last days. But the question is, in those last days of final cleansing who shall be saved? How can anyone who is sinful endure that cleansing? And the answer is that again on one's own merits they can't. But....and here is where if I haven't lost you already I expect to lose you now....Christians hold that in the same way that God's angel of death passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt whose doorways were covered by the blood of the lambs to mark them as belonging to God's chosen people, so too will those who are covered by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus, God's anointed one) be spared eternal death (which is another thing that Adam's sin introduced to the world) and be saved for eternal life.
Again, this act of salvation is not something that a person is able to do for one's self, but must be done for him/her. Because it must be for us, because it comes to us from outside our own selves and our own efforts, but is made possible by the work of another and then offered to us, to receive it is a gift. And the way to receive it is to trust that it really is true, that Christ's voluntary offering of himself on the cross does provide a perfect sacrifice that ultimately promises the removal of this Sin nature so that we can be fitted for heaven. I need to be quick to point out, that this does not make Christians any better than anyone else. It only makes us better than we would otherwise be apart from Christ. (Sometimes that's still pretty bad.) But in doing this, God himself comes back into our lives in a unique way that he was not present before, and has not been present in anyone's life since the time that God breathed his life giving Spirit into Adam.
OK. There is more. But I promised that even though I couldn't make it short that I would try to make it as brief as I could. So, hopefully you see how Christ's role -- God the Son making the perfect offering on our behalf, which he couldn't do unless he was perfect as God is perfect --provides us with access to God the Father with whom we were created to live in communion and fellowship. It is in this sense that he is a mediator. We can pray to God the Father (or for that matter God the Son or God the Spirit) all on our own. We don't need a mediator for that. But when Satan, the accuser, declares that we are sinful beings, unworthy of living in God's presence, the Son becomes our advocate saying that the devil lies, we have been washed clean of sin and those sins have been cast as far from us as the east is from the west and then forgotten so that God remembers them no more and does not count them against us. And therefore, we are, by his grace, priviledge to stand perfect and blameless before God at the time of judgment.
So, you say that "intentions" and "deeds" are needed in order to be saved.
Does christianity provide guidance on those necessary "intentions" and "deed"?
Yes. Our guidance comes in the person of the Holy Spirit who is the very presence of God in our lives to lead and direct us according to his will.
Does it happen that all Christians respond to this leading should be your next question? And the answer is, I don't know. It would not appear so.
It appears that we still sometimes sin. And some people who claim to be saved seem to act exactly as the unsaved do. Since only God can see into a person's heart, I won't try to answer whether they are or are not saved. But, Jesus does tell us that by their fruits you shall know them. Reading a bit more in the scriptures we also find that it seems though Christ's offering is once for all, each individual needs to grow in the practice of righteousness. What I suspect (and this is making some assumptions on God's behalf for the sake of brevity in this post) is that those who allow themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit are like an athlete in training. We keep our eyes in the prize. And little by little, by practicing righteousness and giving up our sinful lives, we become made over into the person that God would have us become. But few, if any, of us are automatically there at the point of our coming to faith. However, should we die before we have perfected living a fully righteous and submitted life, faith not works, is what counts. God counts our hearts directed toward him, our willingness to be guided by his Spirit, as the same as having accomplished our goal of living a fully submitted life. (Sort of like the Hadith about the person who is approaching hell and gets within an arm's length and yet is saved by Allah's mercy.) Still, for as long as we live, we need to remember that the goal is to live that submitted life and to let ourselves be guided by God's Spirit in doing so. When we really are open to his leading, one will see the results in works of good deeds, righteous living, and the expressing of love both toward God and toward neighbor in all we do.
Because I've always read about how Jesus pbuh abolished the old covenant and created new covenant that seemingly does not require anyone to do anything to be saved (this is the essence of what paul said)?
Yeah, I know. I've even put it that way myself. The more I'm learning the more I think we have to be careful about that particular construction. It is just a bit too simplistic.
The old covenantal rituals by which one made connection with God are no longer necessary because Christ has made a perfect offering, so the old offerings of blood are no longer required. But the nature of the original covenant -- that God would be our God and we would be his people -- has not changed. In essence, what the New Covenant celebrates is that the Old Covenant has been fulfilled. The promise of God to redeem the world has taken place. Though the end times may not have quite yet arrived, those who are in Christ are already a part of that eternal promise of God. We can live (through faith) in the knowledge of our salvation being fulfilled in Christ's return, even as we await his promised second coming.
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