In church on Sunday nights, we’ve been talking about the believer’s relationship with the law. The men have been having a grand time sitting afterwards discussing the finer points of Romans 6, 7, and 8. Me?
I’m still thinking about the role of the law in bringing someone to Christ, since I have three unbelievers living in my house.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24
Now an entire method of evangelism has been developed with this principle in mind, beginning at the ten commandments and progressing from there. The idea is, none of us have ever kept the law, none of us are ABLE to keep the law, the penalty for not keeping the law is death in hell, and the only one who has kept the law perfectly took my punishment for me, that is, Jesus Christ on the Cross.
So I’ve been thinking about this in the context of evangelizing my children. How do I present God’s law? How do I show them that the law reveals their inability to keep it?
Right now, we think David (who is nearly five and a half) understands the gospel. But he is still trying to be good enough, and he hasn’t expressed any desire to be saved. Now he’s a private person, so we want to probe without pushing. Several times we’ve clarified the position of our family members. That is, Mommy and Daddy are praying that David, Bethel, and Laurel will repent and accept Christ as their Savior.
My biggest concern is that they will grow up assuming that they are part of the “club” without ever facing the need for repentance and salvation. Pointing out that they are not yet saved seems somewhat abrupt and cruel (“You’re going to hell, kiddo, unless you get saved” yes, I’m exaggerating), but I don’t see any other way to prevent this assumption.
Thoughts?
Talk to your brother about it. When our middle son was “on the border” of salvation, we had a good conversation with Pastor Tom. We need to get to that point where we realize that we can’t be good enough on our own in order to see the need for salvation. I know that I couldn’t do the subject justice, so give him a call! 😉
Thanks, Shellie. I’ll have to pick Tom’s brain on this. Was there anything that seemed to help communicate this truth to your son?
I just know that the Spirit was working in him, so whenever he had done something wrong, he would be in tears. “I can’t be good. I just can’t!” It was not until point that we were able to communicate it to him. Of course, he had always heard the verses, but he *couldn’t* truly understand until God opened his eyes.