Explaining Salvation To Your Child, Part 4

October, 2003

by: Brock Bolde

This month we will be continuing along in our six-part series on salvation. In parts one, two, and three we have seen the need for salvation, the gift of salvation, and the reason for salvation respectively. As parents, we must go to great lengths to insure that our children understand these basic elements of salvation. Each element builds upon the other until it yields a complete picture of salvation. It is the calling of every Christian “to train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6). In order to be faithful to that calling, we must help our children to understand every element of salvation.

All of which leads us to our need to explain the evidence of salvation to our children. Many parents do a great injustice to their children by failing to explain this all-important element of salvation. Salvation comes through faith (Romans 3:28) and no matter how much one boasts of his great faith, if there are no works to validate or give evidence to their claims then that faith is dead (James 2:17). It wouldn't matter if your child could name all of the books of the Bible in less than 30 seconds; recite a whole chapter of Matthew from memory; or even clearly and accurately explain the Gospel to you. Unless that knowledge has allowed him to submit himself to the God of the Bible, then all of their intellectual knowledge is useless. The chilling words of Jesus Christ Himself bear evidence to this: “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

When we look at passages like this, we need to help our children to understand that easy-believism is not to be found in the Bible. The claims of these people were great and yet these claims did not measure up to their actions. They claimed and boasted to have done all of these great things in the name of the Lord but God lets them know that they weren't fooling Him. Despite their great claims, He says, “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” The evidence was in, and it showed that these people lacked true faith. Why? Because their works were evil instead of good! If they would have had true faith, they would have practiced righteousness, not lawlessness.