Most every day (at least during the school week), I am accompanied by a very inquisitive 4 year old to the office before he and I head over to his school. Today he asked a lot of great questions, some, I wish, adults would ask more often: "Daddy, where is heaven?" "Daddy, does Jesus wash away our sins?"
"Daddy, can a four year old be baptized?"
"Daddy, why does God love us?" I treasure these conversations. I honestly and sincerely do, as they serve as reminders that my wife and I aren't here to raise good kids. We're not here to raise even moral kids. God isn't opposed to good and moral people. Even good and moral people will go to hell. If we're judged by our deeds alone, we're subject to the Law, and if we're guilty of one part, trying to make it on our own goodness and morality, if we violate but one part of the law, we're still guilty of breaking it all. It isn't our goodness, or our morality that will save us, for there is only One who was able to keep the whole law his entire life: and that One is Jesus Christ. We're not saved by our works, our goodness, or our morality. We're saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ. The works we do are a biproduct of that relationship with Jesus, evidence for His presence in our lives. If the evidence is there, others, like my 4 year old, will notice and seek. Some yell that we need to take back our nation. I would disagree with this blanket statement: we need to take back our Churches, and this begins in our homes. We need to live lives that demonstrate our faith in Christ; if we're single, in our singleness, if we're married in our marriages, and if we have children, in our raising not of good or moral kids, but of God-seeking and God-fearing kids. We will win victories only as we submit to Christ in every facet of our lives, and though persecution comes of such submission, Jesus wins hearts, souls, and minds as we seek Him in our own lives. I hope these reminders help you as much as they do me. Galatians 3:1-14 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
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