Last night began a new 4 week study for us in Surge on salvation. To be honest, I had a hard time getting excited about the topic when I saw it coming up. For the weekend Bible study, it is such a great subject and one I look forward to when we talk through it. We are constantly introducing the concept to those who don’t know or who haven’t made that choice yet. But this is Surge. These kids know all about this stuff already. Can't we talk about something else that would fuel great discussion and lead to amazing transformation and discipleship?
I am so not the smartest guy all the time.
So I decided that we would go ahead with it. I mean, we'll cover it more as it relates to evangelism. The more comfortable they are with understanding the ideas surrounding salvation, the more likely they will be to share it with others. So, we'll just call it an "in depth review".
But the reality is that it is way too easy to assume that these kids have made the decision to follow Christ. It is way too easy to take for granted the things that they should already know because they've “been around the block”, have godly parents or have made the choice for themselves already. Even if they have heard it all before, they are in process on this journey and everyday the same information hits them in completely different ways. So, within a few minutes of starting the lesson, it became clear that this series is going to be a good one. The question was "Why Doesn't Everyone Go to Heaven" and it is not a fun topic to discuss. We touched on it a bit back at the beginning of the year, but last night it was all about it. No one likes to talk about the fact that some people will go to hell.
We started in Matthew 7:13-14. This is a little bit of a review as we have talked about this verse earlier this year when talking about other religions. But these kids are 3 months further along in their walk, which seems like nothing to most people, but they took these verses in like completely new material. We talked about the wide road and the narrow road. But we paused here to discuss a very important distinction. I introduced two terms to them: justification and sanctification. I explained that justification is a fancy word for the one-time decision they make to become a Christian. It is the accepting of Christ in their lives. It is salvation. We used the illustration of a dot to show it as a one-time event. But then we talked about sanctification, or the process of growing more Christ-like as we learn and incorporate God's Word into our lives. This is a constant and continual process in the lives of all believers. I used a line coming out of the dot to illustrate this.
As Christians, there are lots of parts to the process of sanctification. But the part I wanted them to focus on was evangelism, as sharing our faith is a vital part of that process. We talked about how we as Christians have found the narrow path that Matthew 7 says only a few find. And once we find it, we should act like those guys standing out at the airport with their giant flashlights, guiding the planes to the terminals. We should basically be doing everything we can to get the attention of the people on that wide path to death and hell and say, "HEY! Look what I found. Come over to this path that leads to God."
The kids responded thoughtfully, "But what if they don't want to come?". A great question. But I explained that everyone has to make the choice. And even if they ignore us and keep walking down that wide path, our job is to tell them. If we do our job, then we can trust that God will take care of the rest. And ultimately they make the choice to keep on walking or to explore the road less traveled.
We then flipped to Romans 6:23. This is such an important verse. We talked through the fact that everyone, from Adam until God pulls the plug, deserves death. We earn it by rebelling against a holy God when we sin. And everyone sins. But, God has given a gift to all that will receive it. Jesus died once to cover all sin. Past , present and future, all sin is covered by his death. But not all receive the gift and have their sins covered. And again, as we said earlier in the year, this is completely unfair. The fair thing is that we all be separated from God because of our sin. But grace was extended to those who will believe by a loving and merciful God.
We then looked in Isaiah 53:1-2. Here was see that God has the ability to save, but sin separates us from God. We talked about God being holy and unable to associate with sin. It is only when our sin is covered that we can have relationship with God. In the Old Testament, under the old covenant, that was done with the shedding of animal blood during regular sacrifices. But under the new covenant, Jesus' sacrifice covers that sin for all that accept him.
Lastly, and I could have camped out here all night because of the complicated nature of the idea for kids to grasp, we looked at Romans 5:20-21. Here we see Paul explaining that God gave the Law so that sin would increase. Talk about being confused. I told them most of the time, people look at the Law as God trying to keep us from sinning. That by creating rules, God was giving us guidelines that would make sin decrease. But this is the opposite reason. God gave the Law so sin would increase. I used speed limits as an example to help explain. I had them imagine that there were no speed limits. I asked them how they thought people would drive. The response they gave me was exactly what the reality would probably be: as fast as they can. Then I asked what the result would be to which they replied that there would be lots of accidents and deaths and problems. Then I explained that by creating a law and putting up speed limits, people would have a chance to break the law by speeding and face the consequences, so "sin" would increase.
God waited 1,700 years before creating the Law. From Adam to Moses, there were no "rules" to speak of. He gave the Law, in part, to protect us from ourselves and make things better. But that isn't the main reason. He did it so that we would break the rules and by breaking the rules, understand that we can't follow the rules. He needed us to understand that we are fallen. And in that state, there has to be something outside of our own sinful nature that saves us from that state of sin.
Cue grace.
By creating Law which increases sin, God then reveals the ultimate goal: increasing grace. Without sin, there is no need for grace because if it can't be broken there is no need to fix it. And without Law there is no evidence of sin. So to extend grace, God creates the Law so that sin would increase. I gave the illustration that if two people owed me money, one a hundred dollars and one a million dollars, and I forgave both their debts, who did I extend more grace to? Obviously the one with the greatest debt. The bigger the debt, the bigger the grace required to cover it. So salvation, by grace through faith, is the end result for those of us who accept the gift.
I don't know why God did it this way. It's why He is God and I am not. I don't know why salvation only comes through His son, but I also don't know why He puts up with any of us. We deserve separation. We deserve the same fate as the devil and demons. We don't deserve the opportunity of salvation that God designed through the death of His son. But I sure am glad He extends that grace. And I'll try and remember that no matter how well I think our kiddos understand that concept, they are in constant process and need reminders. And I do too.
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