His Law Leads Our Children to Christ
Before I knew Jesus, I did not behave well. Believe me, I tried – see my previous post on my story of redemption. So as a parent, I used to wonder, can I hold my children accountable to how the Bible says to behave, if they don’t even know Him yet? Are they capable of Biblical standards for behavior, if they don’t know Jesus? Maybe, I am setting up unrealistic standards for my children.
We teach our children the principles of the Bible and we tell them how to act based on the Bible, but can they really do it? It was the same with the Isrealites. God gave the Isrealites the Law and held them accountable to it. And they could not do it. They could not uphold the Law perfectly. So why did God hold the Isrealites accountable to a Law that He knew they couldn’t keep? Let’s look at Galatians 3:23-27 New American Standard Bible for some insight into this:
But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
The purpose of the Law for the Jews was to lead them to Christ. The Law was their tutor, their teacher. God held up the standard of the Law and the Ten Commandments to show the Jews that in their own strength they could not keep all of it, to show them that they needed Christ in order to obey the Law. The Law was their tutor, to show them their need for Christ, for a Savior, to show them they couldn’t live by the Law without Him. In the same way, we hold up the Biblical standards of behavior for our children, so they can see their need for Christ.
I have shared my testimony before that when I was 12 years old, I got in a lot of trouble shoplifting, swearing, smoking, drinking. I tried to change myself and found that I could mostly change my outward actions, but I definitely could not change the motivations of my heart or my thoughts. I read my Bible and saw that in my own strength I was not able to do all that it said I should do. As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t do it all. This is what led me to Christ. I knew I needed His help in order to follow Him and truly change on the inside. I also knew I needed His forgiveness for when I fell short. So I gave my life to Him and He has helped me ever since. He changed me inside; He changed my heart (2 Corinthians 3:3-4).
So we still need to teach our children the standards in the Bible, we need to be ready to tell them the secret to obeying His commandments and it is KNOWING HIM. And when they do know Him and they fall short of obeying His law, His ways, we can teach them about His forgiveness. He is there to catch us when we fall and He is there to offer forgiveness when we mess up. Yes, I’m so thankful that Jesus forgives! We had a saying in our family for when we messed up; it was “Lesson Learned”. When we mess up, we can a learn a lesson for next time. This is offering to our children, what Jesus has offered us. This is offering GRACE to our children.
So moms, don’t be afraid to expect your children to follow His law, just
BE READY TO SHOW THEM THAT KNOWING JESUS WILL ENABLE THEM TO FULLY DO IT.
In His Love,
Suzanne .
Mom Morsels 