The #1 Thing I Want My Children to Know

While watching an interview of an athlete who credited his success in life to his mother because she taught him from the time he could remember how to shoot a basketball, I began seriously thinking about what it was that I wanted to teach my girls from infancy. And I realized that nothing else in this life mattered more than the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing! Nothing of this world will satisfy, or save, or have eternal value, like the work Jesus accomplished on the cross, was buried and rose again! Suddenly my purpose in life narrowed significantly because the only thing that mattered to me was their knowledge of Him and His saving grace.

Their soul depends on it.

There is nothing more important than focusing on the gospel of Jesus Christ. That He lived, died, and rose again. According to the Bible, there is no other way to God but through faith in Him. I want my girls to know faith alone in Christ alone by His grace alone found in Scripture alone, so their one ambition in life is eternally focused: to glorify God all the days of their life. 

I want my children to know that,

The only way, the only life, the only hope, the only foundation upon which we stand, the only mediator is Jesus Christ. The only hope we have of salvation is through the work of Christ when He died on the cross, taking the wrath of God for our sins, was buried and rose again. 

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

He isn't A way. He is THE way. And the Bible states, very clearly, that if we believe:

"Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve." 1 Corinthians 15:3-5

then we will be saved,

"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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." Romans 10:9-10

I want my children to know that,

They are justified, or declared righteous, by faith alone in Christ alone. 

"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. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:4-10

I want my children to know that,

They are saved by God's grace alone. If God did the work to save them, then He will keep them. They do not need to live in fear of losing their salvation if they screw up. Does that mean they should continue in sin (chapter 6 in Romans) "by no means!" In fact, if they are truly Christians they should detest sin, and because of God's grace, desire a Christ-like life of service to Him and to others. 

Truly understanding that salvation is a gift given freely by God, even when we were dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2:5), and even "while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8), gives us freedom to live for HIM, 

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1-2

I want them to know that believers are standing, STANDING, in God's grace. And because we are forever standing in His grace, as a result of faith alone in Christ alone, then we have no fear (are at PEACE with God because Jesus took all His wrath for our sin on our behalf), and can REJOICE in God because we have HOPE. 

I want my children to know that,

The only infallible and sufficient source of truth in this world is through Scripture alone. Where do they find hope? Encouragement? The TRUTH? The Bible.

"Every word of God proves true." Proverbs 30:5

"For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." Romans 15:4

Have hope in what? The gospel of Jesus Christ. THAT is the #1 thing I want them to know. I want them to know the Jesus Christ of the Bible. 

I want my children to know that,

Because of the work Jesus Christ accomplished on they cross, they have reason to rejoice all the days of their life. Glorify His Name and His Word. This should be a Christian's chief goal in life!

If they live with this truth, the truth that Jesus died on the cross was buried and rose again, they will die well. And we will all die, so the #1 thing I want my girls to know is Jesus Christ. That He came to this earth, delivered by a virgin, performed so many miracles that John declared the world itself could not contain the books had they all been written down (John 21: 25), He claimed Himself to be God, lived perfectly, was beaten to the point He was unrecognizable as a human being, died on a cross, endured the wrath of God for our sin, was buried in a tomb, and then defeated death by rising again. And that He promised that He will come back, bringing His own home to heaven with Him for all eternity.

If they believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they will be saved. THAT is what I want my girls to know, with all certainty. Nothing else saves, therefore, everything else is as trivial as this one truth.