In need of a Saviour too

I drove past a sign the other day:

My first thought was: “who can disagree with that?” Then, thinking further, it's also a statement that is nearly impossible to agree with! At least, any number of people might agree with the statement, without agreeing with each other. Do we all agree on what the “positive direction” is?

I want to make a case that:

• There is only one positive direction for our children (and indeed for all of us): to God through Jesus Christ. 
• As parents, we will be held to account for our leadership of our children – either toward or away from Jesus. 
• As a church, it is a vital part of our mercy mission to help parents discharge this duty, and to help children start in the right direction. 

One positive direction

All people are in terrible danger. All people are at risk of great judgement, wrath and punishment. All people are rebels against God, trying to wriggle out from His rightful authority and establish their own rule in God's place. Paul puts it succinctly in Romans 3:23:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But surely this doesn't apply to children! Children are so innocent, so trusting, so good. Surely Paul is only talking about grown-ups? This is a tempting objection, because it plays to closely held cultural values about childhood. But to accept it requires us to ignore the plain language Paul uses here and elsewhere in Romans (eg. 3:9-18). It also requires us to ignore the consistent teaching of the bible elsewhere. Here is one example from Psalm 51:

Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (v. 5)

If David, a man whose heart was fully devoted to the Lord, can write this, then it is clear that the description applies generally to all people.

So children are alienated from God, just as adults are. They too are “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12), unless they too are “brought near through the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13).

Society and the church have too often been satisfied with the lesser benefit of keeping a child out of trouble. As long as a child or teen doesn't get arrested, get drunk, or have a child out of wedlock, we think that the child is turning out OK – the more so if a child makes some positive contribution through music, sport, work or school. We have seen already that this obscures a child's separation from God, and his or her great need to be saved!

The remedy, the only “positive direction”, is to hear and believe the gospel – to trust in the person that gospel proclaims! As Paul wrote: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16) And Peter proclaimed: “Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

The instruction of the Lord

Parents bear a heavy burden in ensuring that their children have a chance to hear the gospel and respond. This is clear common sense – who else spends as much time with a child as a parent? Who else is the child's first and most important role model? Whose words sink deepest into a child's heart, and exert the greatest influence over the person that child grows to be?

The bible emphasises this common-sense conclusion with a command and a warning. The command we see in Ephesians 6:4: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” The warning is implicit in Mark 9:42: “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.” Jesus said this while holding a little child (see verse 36), which adds a sharp edge to his words!

So parents are charged with the responsibility of bringing their children up in the Lord, and are warned not to be the cause of sin in their lives! Not something to take lightly.

But is this too much to put on parents? Don't children themselves bear some responsibility? And what about the church, doesn't the church have to reach out to children as well?

Firstly, the responsibility of children. Of course, they must make their own response to Jesus in due course. But this does not absolve parents of their responsibility. As Paul writes in Romans 10:14:

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

What's more, the capacity to believe in Jesus is itself a God-given gift, outside the control of the parents: “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). We rightly celebrate God's greatness and goodness whenever anyone turns to Christ and is saved!

Parents are not responsible for results – they are responsible for their own obedience in presenting the gospel to their kids.

Where does the church fit in?

Secondly, the role of the church. There are two main jobs for the church in this area:

• Preparing God's people for works of service (Eph 4:12), particularly preparing parents for the task of leading their children towards Christ! 
• Going into the world to make disciples (Matt 28:19) – including of children and particularly of those children who will not hear of Jesus from their parents! 

We must do these things because God has commanded them. But aside from that, it is good sense to reach out to children and to parents of children. People become more set in their ways as they grow older. Reaching children when they are still young gives them the greatest opportunity to respond positively to Jesus, relatively free from the prejudices and attitudes that harden as they grown older. Twelve seems to be the crucial age. We need to be showing primary-school aged children the wonder and glory of God, and inviting them to accept Jesus as Saviour and King!