Explaining Salvation To Your Child, Part 5

November, 2003

by: Brock Bolde

Over the past few months, we have taken a look at the need for parents to properly explain to their children what it means to be saved. Thus far in the series, I have attempted to explain the importance of helping your children to understand their Need for Salvation, the Gift of Salvation, the Reason for Salvation, and the Evidence of Salvation. All of these will play a big part in helping your children to understand all that is wrapped up in the term we call SALVATION. There is yet another aspect of salvation that you must understand if you must help your children to understand if they are to function in the full capacity of being saved and that is the Victory of Salvation!

1 Corinthians 15.56-58 tells us: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

What we see within these verses is the triumph of good over evil. This is not just the winning of a single battle; it is the winning of the war. In verse 57 of the above text, Paul tells us that God “gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is an airtight guarantee of God's victory over evil, sin, pain and death at His Second Coming. The key for us as parents is to show our children how this victory can affect them today. And it is in verse 58 that Paul gives us some practical things that we can pass along to our children: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

Because of the assuredness of this victory, Paul calls all believers to be steadfast, immovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. Believers must be firm in what they believe and that is what Paul means when he calls us to be steadfast. We need to help our children to not be wishy–washy about the Gospel. They need to believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins, that He rose on the third day, ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of God the Father and will some day, in the not too distant future, come back to restore His eternal kingdom! That is what those who live in light of Christ's victory do!

Paul also says that believers are to be immovable. That means that their faith is not to be determined by their peers or friends. It should be the Word of God that shapes our (as well as our children's) thoughts and understandings concerning God. Only by helping our children to keep their eyes fixed on the victory of Christ, can we help them to not be shaken. Our children need to understand that Christ wins in the end! We need to help them to live in light of the fact that the day is coming when all evil will be answered with justice; when all pain and sorrow will be done away with; when all obstacles that keep us from praising God will be eliminated. We must help our children to know that these final certainties are all wrapped in the victorious salvation of every believer. Failure to have a change of mind and actions would be cause to question one's salvation. That's why repentance and salvation are so closely linked in the Word of God. When a person repents, they have a genuine sorrow for their sin and thus acknowledge their sin. They also make a sincere commitment to turn away from their sin and walk in obedience to the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 says: “I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.” When our children truly accept the free gift of salvation, their life will bare evidence to this action. They will be changed and the change will be evident for all to see. This has been true of all believers for all time and it must be true of us and our children!