Greetings CrossTrain family! We in family ministry are BEYOND GRATEFUL for all who have stayed with us thus far during our dive into discussions of sin, what we’ve earned from our sin, and who is impacted by sin. My goodness, it has been heavy! We trust that these discussions have laid the foundation needed for our children to begin to appreciate the good news we will begin to discuss today. We and our children have thus far learned Scripture teaching us that the perfect, Holy, and just God of the Bible created everything in the universe and every single person on Earth. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were the first ones to sin and because of this sin, death and decay entered the world; for what we earn from our sin is death. Because we are their offspring, we receive their sinful nature and therefore we too are slaves to sin. We all sin as a natural product of our sinful hearts. And just like Adam and Eve, what we earn from this sin is death in this life and at the final judgement. We are stone cold dead in our sin. Because God is a good God and a good judge, He must punish sin. Just as we would call an earthly judge corrupt if he “just forgave” a murderer without the debt being paid, so would God be corrupt if he were not to punish sin. We will not be judged for the good things we do, but God will judge us for the laws we break in our rebellion. Because it is against an eternal God that we sin, it is only by eternal punishment that our sin debt can be paid. It’s overwhelming! How hopeless this seems!!! May we take a moment to let the weight of this settle on us.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7
Why this verse? There are no two words greater in our bible!!! We were dead… but GOD. We were hopeless… but GOD! We were bound for hell… but GOD!! We deserve wrath… but GOD!!! BUT GOD, BUT GOD!!!! We have a God who loves us so much that He looked down on our mess and filth, still in our sin and He took our dead, stony, deceitful hearts and made them flesh; he made us alive! God did this not because we did anything at all to earn it. We weren’t looking for him and we didn’t reach out to take the rope as we were drowning. We were simply given this as a gift; this is grace. As devastatingly hopeless as it all seems when we are aware of our sin, the good news, the Gospel, is infinitely greater! Our God judges sin and ensures justice, yet God saves sinners like you, and me, and our little sinner children. We’ll continue in the coming weeks to learn what scripture says about how exactly God has done this, but may we CELEBRATE this good news!!! This GOSPEL. The good news that God saves sinners completely and without fail. God does not try to save sinners; He saves them.
Questions Ephesians 2:4-7 can answer:
What are two of the greatest words ever written in the Bible?
Who saves us from our sin?
How does He do this?
Why does He do this?
Church, this is why we take the time to learn scripture and to teach our children some of the more difficult concepts. If a doctor were to offer me a bottle of pills without any explanation, I’d likely reject it and scoff at him. However, if He sat down and explained that I had a fast moving cancer with two weeks to live and that 0% of people with this cancer recovered, I’d be devastated. Then if he were to explain how he had a medicine which healed 100% of the people with this disease and I would recover, that devastation would transition to elation and gratitude. I’d gladly receive those pills. We all have a sickness which results in 100% death, BUT GOD has provided a way. We are alive in Jesus Christ! We pray that these discussions have the impact on your family it has had on ours. We pray that the weight of our sin would be pressed on our hearts, that we may be overwhelmed by the love of God that he has made known to us in his grace through Jesus and His work on the cross. We pray that God would open the eyes and ears of our children and that they hear the call of the Gospel. We pray they are granted repentance, and be given faith in the One who saves, which is Jesus Christ, being for our joy, and for the glory and fame of God alone!
Until next time, may God richly bless you by the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ!
In Christ,
Adam and Audra Griffin
Family Ministries
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