Parents Should Teach Their Children…About Christ

by Daniel H. King

Moses instructed the children of Israel to “teach diligently” their offspring the truths set forth in the law (Deut. 6:6-7). When Israel did this, she was successful in raising a generation that knew the Lord and obeyed his law. But when they were negligent, the following generations suffered not only from ignorance, but also from the wrath which God poured forth upon a disobedient people. There is much for us to teach our children, and in doing so, we must not omit to educate them as to the nature and offices of Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus Christ is the Divine Son of God. The Old Testament, in predicting the coming of Jesus, said of Him: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and hear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). His prophetic name was “God with us.” This is neither incidental nor accidental. In the prologue to John’s Gospel, the apostle said that the divine Word was God and came eventually to dwell among men: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1-3, 14). We must instruct our children that the One whom we love and worship is not a mere man, however brilliant or revolutionary, but God in the flesh!

2. Jesus Christ is the Lord. Because he is the divine son of God, Jesus must be viewed as the Lord of our lives. Listen to the apostle Peter’s conclusion of his sermon on the day of Pentecost: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified” (Acts 2:36). Too often these days, people look upon Jesus with adoring eyes, seeing him only as he is portrayed in pop culture, as a great teacher, iconoclast, revolutionary, proponent of the ideal of love and compassion, etc. The Bible impresses us with Jesus’ position as Lord first, and everything else afterward. This is to say, that everything else that Jesus may have been, is secondary to the fact that He is Lord of our lives: “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). We must not neglect to teach our children to honor the Lordship, in this world and in this life, of the One before whom we shall all bow when eternity dawns.

3. Jesus Christ is their Savior. One of the most beautiful words in any language is the word “savior”, especially when you are in need of one. Listen to the “Rescue 911” stories about dying victims rescued by the men and women of the paramedical profession in concert with the doctors and nurses of the emergency rooms. The rescued have never seen a sweeter face nor heard a more melodious voice than that of the rescuer. “He (or she) saved my life,” they always gratefully intone. Spiritually speaking, few people today recognize their true condition, namely, that they are in the direst need of spiritual rescue. They need a savior. And there is only one. When Jesus Christ came into the world, he came to perform a task which only heaven’s love and his perfect and pure sacrifice could accomplish. None other could do it, so God gave him a name which evermore associates him with salvation: “And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he, that shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The name Jesus in its original (Joshua) means, “Jehovah is salvation.” We need to teach our children that when they reach the age of their accountability before God, their failures and sins, even the vilest and worst of them, may be forgiven through the name and by the blood of the One who is our Savior: “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

4. Jesus Christ is their Mediator. Prayer is important in the lives of the saints of God. It is endemic to the human condition that we all meet significant challenges in our lives, that we encounter sickness, pain and ill health, that we sustain losses and bear the ordinary but sometimes overwhelming burdens of everyday life. Eventually we all succumb to death. We need a friend at such times as these. And often the world does not provide us with the kind of friend we need. “But you don’t understand…” we are tempted to say to our earthly friends, for they may not have experienced precisely the same things we have known. We appreciate their help, but recognize their limitations. Scripture sets Jesus Christ forth as the ultimate friend in times of such need as these: “For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Possessed with the perfect knowledge and understanding of God, and having known the vicissitudes of the human condition, the Lord Jesus is perfectly suited as a mediator between men and their God. Think of what the Bible means when it suggests the following: “For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us” (Heb. 9:24)! Consider the implications of that! He now serves in the capacity of mediator on our behalf “before the face of God”! We need to teach our children this magnificent truth.

The Preceptor, April 1996

Parents Should Teach Their Children… About the Importance of Bible Study

by Chuck Durham

     There once was a little boy who heard his mother and grandmother quote the Bible to him. They “went to church” regularly and the little boy heard the Bible read in the assembly. When the little boy rose up in the morning, when he lay down at night, and when he went about his daily routine, his mother and grandmother found ways to communicate the precepts of the Bible to him.

     There was another little boy who never saw his mother study the Bible. He occasionally saw his father do so, but only when he prepared for a Bible class. There was no daily talking about God or the church. There were no prayers offered, except for the occasional prayer at mealtimes. There was consistent church attendance on Sunday, but Wednesday nights were spent at home.

     What do you think was the spiritual outcome of both boy’s lives? The Scripture tells us about the first boy. His name was Timothy. Paul flatly states that Timothy’s strong faith was strong because “the genuine faith that is in you… dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice” (2 Tim. 1:5). The word of God lived and breathed in the lives of his mother and grandmother and through them, came to dwell vibrantly in Timothy’s heart. How do we know Lois and Eunice did the things mentioned in the first paragraph? Because Paul said they did. He wrote, “…and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures…” (2 Tim. 3:15). But that passage doesn’t say anything about how they did it. True, but the Old Testament which Lois and Eunice heard read in the synagogue did – “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deut. 6:6-7). No parents or grandparents can successfully implant the word of God in the hearts of their children without consistently following God’s pattern in Deuteronomy 6:6-9.

     In 2 Kings 17:34ff, we are told of the Assyrian deportation of Israel and resettlement of Samaria with Gentiles from other conquered lands. The people practiced syncretism, a melding of the ways of Jehovah and their pagan gods. The text twice states, “They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods…” (vv. 33, 41). They followed God and mammon; the Lord and idols; Jehovah and the world at the same time. How many just like them have used all the right religious motions, but whose hearts have never drawn near to God! Even more lamentable is what the text says about their children and grandchildren: “also their children and their children’s children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day” (v. 41). It is sobering to think that we pass on to countless generations a deep, abiding reverence and obedience to God, or a careless, apathetic, unholy concept of Deity.

     How can we aid our children in storing the word of God in their hearts to save them in the day of temptation? Is memorization only for the kids, or do they see their parents store it in their hearts, too? How do we help them solve life’s problems? Do they see us solve our problems by quoting Scripture or poring over its pages for the answers? Do they see parents who hurriedly study brief, fill-in-the-blank lessons late on Saturday night, but never open their Bibles during the week? Have they heard us read to them from its pages with depth of meaning in our voices, with emotion that comes straight from the heart for what God has written? We need to set a time to read the word of God with our children everyday.  A time to talk about God’s goodness, to think of things to pray to him about, to explain the Bible’s meaning in terms children relate to. With all our ingenuity, we need to make Bible study something they look forward to instead of a drudgery to be endured. There are no sweeter words than these, “Daddy/mommy, please tell me a Bible story.” They didn’t get to that point without lots of Bible stories being told to them. How can we expect them to be vibrant, growing Christians, if they do not see Bible study being fundamental to our lives as disciples?

     How did the other little boy turn out? Thanks be to God he had godly grandparents who started a faithful church in the place where the grandchildren had moved in order to save their family. Who left their home of 42 years in order to do so, whose Bibles were never far from reach and constantly read, worn and torn with age, but cherished for priceless notes in the margin who talked God to grandkids, who lived godly lives before them, who weathered church troubles with dignity and love for truth that superseded friendships of long years broken by disobedience to God. Who took the grandkids to gospel meetings 50-100 miles away, who when they journeyed across the United States in their travel-trailer, did so to hear the gospel preached by dear preacher-friends of the family. Thanks be to God for grandmother Lois who implanted in childhood a lifelong love for God’s word.

The Preceptor, April 1996