Growing Up in God’s Word: “The Lord Has Not Dealt with Us According to Our Sin”

Our children are never out of the woods this side of heaven. There will always be threats to faith and good conscience, temptations, doubts, and trials of all kinds. They never cease to need our constant, earnest prayers to God for their faith and welfare.
Parents teach their children every lesson in life: how to play football, bake, or change a tire. Yet, do they scarcely hear a word of God from us—until we see them fighting or, heaven forbid, stealing, or disrespecting mother or father? Then it suddenly seems very important to browbeat them with the Commandments.
Meanwhile, where in our thoughts is Jesus, whose truth and lessons were always present in the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer? Where is Jesus in our lives, and our appreciation for Him who gave Himself for you, and continues to give Himself to us in the Word?
Take the number 18 and subtract the age of your child. That’s the number of years you have left to prepare him or her so that they do not lose their faith when they leave home.
If we don’t happen to have children, do we become armchair quarterbacks and criticize young parents? They are struggling to raise a family in an increasingly secular world. It is easy to shake our heads at parents, but more helpful to encourage them. It is easy to love our own grandchildren, but to ignore the needs and trials of other children.
Meanwhile, young children are learning—at home, in church, in society. They will learn at least as much from what they see as they do from the words they hear. If that doesn’t drive us to our knees to pray for our kids—God’s baptized children!—what on earth will?
We all need Christ. We all need to hear His voice, just as desperately as Mary did when she lost sight of Him in Luke 2. As terrible as it is when a child goes missing or is hurt or in danger, to lose this Child through our neglect or a wrong example is to lose them all. Lose Christ, and we lose our very souls!
Where is Jesus? Where will we find Him? When will we see Him again? Mary and Joseph came back to God’s house, retracing their steps. “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:46–47).
Left to their own devices, children cannot seek God and His Word, much less find Him. No one can. God’s Word needs to be taught to children—by parents, grandparents, and the congregation. Jesus told Peter, “Feed My lambs” (John 21:15). The Bible says, “In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Jesus astounded all who heard and saw Him. He was a good student of God’s Word and studied it seriously.
Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the Temple studying God’s Word. Jesus also told us where He is to be found: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify about Me” (John 5:39).
When we know Jesus by faith, we find our perfection in God’s sight, our innocence, and the hope for our families and children. By His studentship, Jesus learned for us and drank in the Word and lived it perfectly for us. Then He died according to the purpose set for Him by His Father in heaven: to suffer for us, to bleed and die for our sins, in order to bring us to God, cleansed before Him by the washing of water with the Word. This is what children and all people need to know and believe.
The Lord has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities (Psalm 103:10)! He has come with all His compassion, in His holiness, to redeem us. He has come into this world and lived an ordinary life to sanctify and bless it. He has come to take your sins away from you—and so you are forgiven.
Children need to grow up in God’s Word. Children need to know Jesus and His work of salvation. Children need many examples of Christian faith, Christian love and care, and Christian guidance in life. Where will they find these examples as they grow—in us?
Aaron Hamilton is pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in West Jordan, Utah.