January 20, 2019
This week was an interesting week. Due to continuing employee scheduling issues I’ve had to be at the Connie’s Childcare Center each day for a few hours in the classrooms. During that time, I’m either with the pre-school group (3-4 Yr.) or the Preppers (2 Yr.). Even though I’ve been involved since the beginning, my time until now has been in the management of the business so at first this was all foreign to me.
One doesn’t have to spend much time interacting with the children before it becomes obvious that every child has his or her own personality, emotional needs and even selfish ‘wants”. I see no evidence that any of them has reached what is referred to in theological terms as the ‘age of accountability’, yet there is evidence that they too are born in the nature of Adam verifying what God’s Word has declared…
Genesis 5:1-3 (NASB)
1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.
3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, …
When God created Adam and Eve, they were created absent of sin (in the image of God). That changed when they acted on the voice of Satan and chose to rebel. From that point on all mankind is born in the nature of Adam… under sin, the curse and death.
Romans 5:12 (NASB)
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Scripture also makes it very clear that there is personal accountability.
Romans 3:23 (NASB)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
To that end, I agree with 4 points in a 2011 article by Mike Bergman in SBC voice…
- In life we either bear the image of Adam (condemnation) or we bear the image of Christ (salvation).
- The image of Adam is our natural state.
- It is through Adam we are guilty—it is through his “one trespass” that death and condemnation came.
- At the same time, we are also guilty through our own sin—we all die because we all sin.
I firmly fall into the camp that believes that children who have not reached the age of accountability (an age where a child, and those without the mental capacity to exercise faith, can make a reasoned, not reactive, decision) immediately go to heaven upon death. Still, this does not mean they do not possess an inherited sin nature. It means that God is ‘just’.
Once again, on this Mike Bergman injects a good point…
As throughout the entire storyline of the Bible—death is directly connected to sin. We die because we are sinners. The wages of sin is death. If this is true, and if infants only have the propensity to sin and not an actual inherited sin nature then infants would not die. Yet they sadly do die. The reality of their death must be connected either to personal sin or a sin nature. With all else that Paul says about humanity’s relationship with Adam then it must be a sin nature.
So, what do we as a church, as parents, as grandparents and as those who interact with other’s children do when we encounter these little ones? We train… we teach… we direct… we live in truth… and we love. Nothing else will do. The consequence of both action and inaction has eternal ramifications. What is the salvation of one of these little one’s worth to you? What are you willing to sacrifice to walk the streets of gold hand in hand with one of them someday? If you’re like me, one look at the sparkle in their eyes shares the answer.
Thank you for your faithfulness. Pastor Larry
