Ramblings on Redemption

If you have grown up in church, you know exactly what I am about to talk about, for there is hardly any Sunday school environment where the sinful people who played a part in God's redemptive plan are not framed in bright colors and smiling faces, characterized by moral integrity and unwavering faith. Children are supposed to learn moral lessons from these figures, applying Noah's obedience, Abraham's faith, Moses's faith and leadership, Ruth's devotion, and David's courage to their own lives. If our goal is to raise moral children who do as they are told, such lessons plans make sense, but if we want to give the next generation a lasting love for God and a realization of the gospel, teaching them to follow the examples of "Bible heroes" is nowhere near enough.

First of all, teaching children to look at these characters for moral example is a distortion of the truth. Individuals in Scripture did lead lives of faith and courage, but that is not the whole story. Moses lost his temper and did not honor God before the people as holy, and as a result, he lost the privilege of seeing the Promised Land with his own eyes. David stood up to Goliath, trusting God to win his battle, but he also committed adultery and then killed the woman's husband to cover it up. Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness, and he followed God to distant lands, but he was an idolatrous pagan who, even after receiving the promise of God, took matters into his own hands and slept with a maidservant in a horribly misguided effort to bring about the awaited offspring.

If you face the facts, it is clear that God did not choose any of these people because they were shining lights in their communities, were exceptional leaders, or had any inherent righteousness on their own. The more a child learns about the people God used to accomplish His redemptive plan, the more disillusioned they should become, because these people are not our paragons of perfection. They were fallen sinners just like we are, and could not please God out of their own merits. Aside from Christ, there are no paragons of righteousness in Scripture. Instead, God used idolatrous, sinful people from pagan backgrounds and dysfunctional families to fulfill His purposes and to bring forth the One who would redeem all people.

Bible stories aimed at children rarely explain this. Granted, it would be terribly inappropriate for a kindergarten Sunday school teacher to explain to the children about Abraham's adultery with Hagar, but there ought to be a clear message of failings and forgiveness. We cannot overlook inconvenient parts of life stories in order to present a whitewashed Bible hero with great faith and little sin. Instead, we must present an age-appropriate truth to the children, because this is how they will see the grace of God at work.

When I was younger, I would hear about the virtues of some Bible character, and would think, but I'm not like that! I knew that I could not live such a heroic and righteous life in my own power, so instead of being encouraged to be a better person, I was driven to despair in the knowledge that I could never be good enough. Later, I learned about how sinful these people really were and felt cheated, still missing out on the glorious truth of grace. Knowing what dreadful things these people did only made me feel worse about humanity, because not even the best of examples could be spotless. I understood that this was exactly why Jesus had to come and die, but I did not see it in the clear and vivid light which I do now.

The Bible is not a collection of moralistic vignettes, but the overarching tale of God's redemption of His people. My perception as a child was heavily moralistic, but now I see the gospel-driven reality of Scripture. Back then, my ideas encouraged performance, and therefore guilt when I failed, but the truth encourages dependence on a Savior and rejoicing in His sufficiency. Rightly understood, my sin cannot lead me to despair in thinking that I can never be as Christlike, but should lead me to the cross, where He drank the wrath that I deserved, giving me His righteousness.

God can use anyone, no matter how messed up they are, because His redemptive power is greater than our sin. He chooses to use broken vessels to display His grace, and that must be clear in what we teach the next generation. If we teach our children nothing but moral lessons, they will grow despairing and resentful, feeling like the fight against sin is pointless. If they know that they will never be good enough, why even try?

Everything changes when we show them the scandalous truth that someone actually paid for their sin, and that they are no longer bound under fear of condemnation to change their ways. We can only love righteousness when we understand that it is God's power putting our sin to death, and God's power enabling us to obey. This astonishing grace takes away all motivation from guilt, and sheds light on the hopeless despair that tells us that we can never be good enough in His sight, because we finally understand that it is not about our performance, but about how He has paid for our sin and given us His righteousness.