I have had a few people tell me over the years that their
children were asking questions about God and salvation. Sometimes those people ask me what I’d tell
my children when they start asking. I
think they expect me to start talking about the “sinner’s prayer” or “accepting
Jesus” or “giving your heart to God”. I
think they want to get my opinion of how old a child needs to be before they
can “really mean it”.
So what would I tell mine?
I’d start by asking them about an apple tree. I’d ask them if they saw a tree that had
apples hanging on the branches, what type of tree they’d think that’d be. I’m hoping they would say, “An apple tree!” I’d show them that the fruit that is hanging
on the limbs identifies the tree. Apple
trees produce apples, and if you see an apple there is no need to strain your
mind or seek out the wisdom of the wise to help you identify the tree. The fruit doesn’t lie.
I’d then show them that the bible compares the Spirit of God
to a tree that produces fruit. However,
the Spirit of God doesn’t produce the kind of fruit that an apple tree
does. Galatians 5:22 and 23 tells us
what kind of fruit the Spirit produces. “But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” In the same way that an apple tree produces
an apple, the Spirit of God produces these nine fruit. An apple unmistakably identifies an apple tree
and these fruit identify the Spirit of God.
I’d explain to them that when a person is ‘born again’ the
Lord places his Spirit inside of them. I’d
show them what Galatians 4:6 says. “And because ye are sons, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” I’d teach them that, according to this verse,
the reason he places his Spirit inside of you is because you ARE a child
of God. They may wonder how they became
his child. I’d show them Eph. 1:4,5 “According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love: Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”. I would explain to them that in the same
way that they didn’t have to do anything to become my child, neither do they
have to do anything to become his. It was the desire and effort of another that brought them into this world. A
child is never born by their own desire or effort, neither are God’s children. “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13) The Spirit that God placed in the hearts
of his sons and daughters is the same Spirit that produces the fruit mentioned
in Galatians.
I’d ask them if they see those fruit in their life (chances
are if they see the bearing of these fruit, I’ve already seen it in them too). I’d specifically ask them about the fruit of
faith. Do they believe in creation even
though they weren’t there to witness it?
What about the flood or the account of Jesus’s birth? Do they believe that Jesus Christ died on the
cross and was resurrected even though they weren’t there to see it? If those answers are yes; that is an exercise
of faith, which can only be produced by the Spirit of God. This Spirit, bringing forth the fruit of
faith, is what allows us to believe in those things we never were eyewitnesses
of.
I’d ask them if they, through the eye of faith, believe that
Jesus is who the Bible tells us he is.
I’d ask if they believed that they are a sinner and the blood of Jesus
paid for their sins. I’d ask if they had
a bad feeling when they did wrong and a desire to do right. If the answer is yes to those questions I’d
assure them that the only way they could truly feel that way is if the Spirit
of God was already dwelling in their heart and mind because the “…the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”
(1 Cor. 2:14). I’d rejoice with them
that the evidence was there that they were God’s child and had been born again by
his Spirit.
I would make sure they understood that nothing is required
of them to secure their eternity. There
is no petitioning to the Lord that needs to be done to ensure their eternal
salvation. The evidence of his Spirit
dwelling in them is the confirmation that he has already done the work. It is the “earnest
of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:14). The fact that they feel a desire and need to be saved is evidence they already
are.
I cannot boast in my efforts as a parent to ‘lead them to the
Lord’, nor can they boast in their ‘good decision’. If we glory, we will glory in the Lord. We can boast in the Lord because he saw fit
to make them part of his family. He saw
fit to do a work in their life and at HIS appointed time sent the Spirit into
their heart making them a new creature and beckoning to them to call him
Father.
We will also talk about the responsibility of a born again child of God to follow him. We will talk about things they need to do because they have been born again; things like repenting of their sins, confessing him as Christ, and following him in obedience. We will talk about the dangers of disobedience. We will talk about seeking him throughout their life…leaning on his wisdom…drawing comfort from him in affliction… and praising him for the greatest blessing of their life in Him making them his own.
That is what I would tell them. Too many times we tell those children that
are asking about God, “Oh look, there are apples hanging on you…would you like
to become an apple tree?”
