Explaining Salvation to Your Child, Part 3

September, 2003

by: Brock Bolde

This month we will be continuing along in our six-part series on salvation. Thus far, we have seen the importance of helping our children to understand their need for salvation. They must recognize that they are lost if they are to ever be saved. We have also seen the importance of helping our children to understand the gift of salvation. It is freely given by God and nothing they do can ever earn this priceless gift. And while these two elements may help our children to better understand some glorious truths regarding salvation, they do little to enlighten them as to the reason for salvation. Why does God freely give this glorious gift to such an undeserving group of people? What is His motive for doing this? To answer these questions in the best possible way, we must turn to the Word of God. John 3:16, which is perhaps the most well known, most quoted passage of Scripture of all time, tells us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Cemented into the meaning of this passage is the hard to understand reasonfor salvation. Why does God offer salvation to each and every one of us, and our children — because of His great lovefor us! And it is this love that prompted Him to send His “one of a kind” Son into this world so that each of us might not perish, but have eternal life. This love that He has for us is so great and so marvelous that it is next to impossible to properly describe it to someone. It'd be like trying to explain the Grand Canyon to someone — mere words cannot do it justice.

The love of God is like no other love! It is a love that is not burdened with conditions or based on performance. It's given because it's who He is! It's also not to be simply viewed as some generic, for–all–of–mankind type of love. It's deeply personal — God loves you! To validate this idea of a deeply personal love, we can look at the words penned by the Apostle Paul to the churches of Galatia: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

As I have already stated, the reason that salvation is offered to each and every person is because of God's love. Were it not for the love of God, there would be no salvation. Without His love the only thing that each of us could expect after dying is Hell! But praise God that not only is He a just God, but He is also a God of love. And it is these two things existing together that allow believers, through Jesus Christ, to enter into an eternally right relationship with God. This great truth must be communicated to our children if they are to properly understand salvation.