Let the little Children

But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."  Mark 10:14-15

This morning Erin my 5 year old daughter came to me and told me that she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart.   I have tried to never push my children into making any type of confession of faith, but I have also never backed away from taking the opportunity to present the gospel to them in a way that they can understand.     It is interesting that each one of them in their own way has come to me with questions about faith and belief.  I believe that is the working of the Holy Spirit.   I asked Erin if she knew what sin was, she nodded her head and said “disobeying parents”.     I explained to her that because of our sin, and disobeying parents is a great example, that we are separated from God and cannot go to God.   But God loves us so much that he wants us to come to him, so He made a way for us!  Jesus His son came and died on the cross to pay for our sins.    Now if we admit to him that we are sinners and receive his free gift of salvation we can be with God forever.   We prayed together and it was sweet to hear her ask God to forgive her for disobeying, and to ask him to come into her heart.  

Did Erin understand any of that?  I am not sure, in fact I almost blew her off and did not have the conversation with her at all, and surely she is too young to understand the concept of Salvation.   I am glad I did not do that.   Who am I to say that I know how God works in the mind of a child?     My Arminian friends would say that the Holy Spirit prompted her to make a decision for Christ.   My Calvinist friends would declare that this is evidence that she is one of the Elect, a child of the Covenant; chosen before the foundation of the world.   Some would argue about the terminology used;  “You should never call it asking Jesus into your Heart”.    “That it is not your decision it is God’s.  “   “Regeneration is not decisional, so stop saying you made a decision for Christ.”   Others make the argument that Jesus is a Gentleman and will not come in where he is not invited.   They say, “He has done all the work but you have to invite Him, and receive his free gift. “   I think we often try to make salvation much too complicated.   We try to work out our formulas, figure all the inner workings of Salvation and then fight over semantics.    The Rabbi’s refer to this as attempting to see the nakedness of God.     To put it another way, to think that we understand everything there is to know about how God works out His plan of Salvation is extremely arrogant.  We can only know what the Bible says about it and we have to accept everything the Bible says about it not just the things that support our view.

Jesus said, “Let the little Children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belong the Kingdom of God.  Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it!”   How could I stand in the way of my own precious Child coming to Jesus?    May it never be, it is my job to tell her about Jesus and the free gift He has offered her.   It is the Holy Spirits Job to do the rest.  Even if I am inadequate in explaining the Gospel to her I trust that he Holy Spirit will override my inadequacy and open the eyes of her heart so that she may see Jesus.    I do not know how the Holy Spirit will manifest itself in the life of my child, but this one thing I do know.  I have been praying since the day that she was born that she would come to know Jesus at a very early age.   Why am I surprised when she begins asking questions about how to know Jesus?   Why do we pray and pray for Jesus to show up and then act surprised when He does?

Now, as far as how does one get saved, what does the Bible say about it?  The book of Romans makes it pretty clear,  “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  Romans 10:9-11   You mean I do not have to understand and take a position on Supralapsarianism or Infralapsarianism?  And what if I am on the wrong side of that argument?  You mean it does not matter?  Actually No, it does not matter, and I know I am going to offend some by saying this.  I can leave all of those things in Gods hands.   I have a fallen and corrupt, finite mind. A mind that cannot begin to understand the inner workings of God.   Paul clarifies and outlines what I must believe in I Corinthians 15:  Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved…  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,   I can simply trust in the fact that Jesus Christ died for my sins and was buried and rose again on the third day.

Some would argue that it cannot be as easy as saying a simple prayer! To those I would point to the example of the thief on the Cross. Luke tells us that there were two criminals who were hanged alongside of Jesus, one mocked Jesus, the other rebuked his fellow criminal and simply said “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” What did Jesus say?  “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”   what was that if not a simple prayer?   He recognized His need, and He recognized the only one who could help him and he asked for help. 

Some say it requires Great Faith!  Jesus says it requires the “Faith of a Child.”  In fact It may be that if you do not have great faith, that all you have to do is ask for it.  That is what the father of the demon possessed boy did in Mark chapter 9.    And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”   Here the man admits that he is having trouble believing and he asks Jesus to help him believe!  Maybe this is not specifically a salvation passage but it has become one of my favorite passages, at least in Mark.  Because I am prone to over-think things I often come across great periods of doubt.  It is those times that I run to this passage, Lord I believe! Help my unbelief!  And he always gives me the faith that I need.  So we are back at our crossroad, did God give me the faith and cause me to ask? Or did God give me faith because I asked?    Someone once said that on the door into heaven there is a sign that reads “Whosoever will may come”, as one enters the door he turns around and looks back over the door he just entered it says, “Chosen before the foundation of the World”.    Jesus puts it this way: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. John 6:37  If you have come to Jesus, you were chosen before the foundation of the world.  My daughter Erin has expressed a desire to come to Jesus.  I do not have to worry about messing things up by using the wrong terminology or saying the wrong thing.  The Holy Spirit will lead her to the truth.