MamaArcher's Blog

Teaching the Content, Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday’s post, referencing the booklet Bringing the Gospel to Covenant Children: In Dependency on the Spirit by Joel R. Beeke.

Fourth:

Teach them they must be born again.

Children must be taught that their bad hearts and bad records make them unfit for communion with God.  Do not dismiss your children’s sins as mere naughtiness or childish behavior.  Don’t excuse their sins by repeating cliches such as, “Boys will be boys.”   And never encourage them to feel that being outwardly good is sufficient in God’s eyes.

More than good behavior is needed to meet the demands of God; inward regeneration of heart through a triune God is essential for salvation.

Our children are not merely sick and in need of reformation; they are born in trespasses and sins and need regeneration.

As teenagers, explain the biblical appeal regarding the need for “circumcision of the heart”.

Pray for wisdom to teach clearly and for grace to feel deeply your children’s inability to do anything toward their salvation while refusing, at the same time, to shirk your responsibility because of their inability.

Fifth:

Teach them about the moral law and its uses–

Show your older children from the Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, and the ethical portions of Paul’s epistles that believers relish the law as a rule of life (see especially Psalm 119).  Explain to teenagers how walking in accord with God’s law keeps believers from antinomianism (anti=against; nomos=law; i.e., being against law) on one hand, and legalism on the other.  Show them how obedience to God’s law promotes brotherly love (1 John 5:3) and authentic Christian freedom (Ps. 116).

Sixth:

Teach them that the atoning blood of Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.  Again and again, explain to your children the basics of the gospel: how Jesus saves sinners through His suffering, death, resurrection, and life.