Guest post by: Doug Wolter
In order for an adult to become a Christian they must own that they are sinners. Because young children and mentally impaired people have certain mental limitations, they have difficulty understanding how they are personally responsible for what they do.
So, can a young child come to a proper understanding of his or her sin and thereby confess it in the deepest sense? Do these mental limitations keep a child from repentance and faith in Jesus?
Recently, I interviewed Southern Seminary professor, Dr. Eric Johnson, on these important issues of personal agency and childhood salvation:
6 comments:
Much like children and mentally impaired people, so too dead people lack the mental capacity to understand that which needs to be understood in order to be saved. Even so, each one of us was once dead in the sins and tresspasses in which we once walked (Eph 2:1-2). If we are saved, it has less to do with our mental development and more to do with the fact that God, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ and saved us by grace (Eph 2:4-5).
The line of thought which suggests a child must first become like an adult in order to be saved seems contrary to the words of the One who said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15).
Pete, I agree with you, but it's more complex than that ... did you happen to read Part 1 and 2 of the interview? Here's one part I'll highlight:
Doug:
How do you interpret the verses where Jesus holds up children as an example of the way we adults must come to him? And how does this mesh with what you said about a simpler, superficial grasp of reality? Again, I quote Spurgeon:
How the blessed Savior turns the tables and says, “Say not, the child may not come until he is a man, but know that you cannot come until you are like him. It is no difficulty in the child that he is not like you. The difficulty is with you, that you are not like the child.” Instead of the child needing to wait until he grows up and becomes a man, it is the man who must grow down and become like a child. (BTW … I’m getting these quotes from a great little book called, Spiritual Parenting, by Spurgeon.)
Dr. Eric Johnson:
There’s something so precious about childhood that Spurgeon is tapping into. But surely Jesus isn’t suggesting that children are to be emulated in all ways? He’s using children as a metaphor, alluding to some features of childhood (their relative innocence, trustfulness, dependence, and so forth) and suggesting that in adulthood, there is the necessity of us returning to something like that in spite of our more advanced capacities. But we wouldn’t want adult Christians to be like children in every way. Children can be petty, that can’t grasp the big picture of things, they don’t know as much, they tend to think and experience life in all-or-nothing categories. Overall, maturity is a good thing; it is a created/spiritual good that glorifies God and it results in a genuine advance in human life.
My overall concern is doxological, that is, since God created us for his glory, we are to consider how that glory is manifested through human life. I would argue that adults have a greater capacity to glorify God, because of the enhanced capacities to do so that emerge in adulthood. Consider, e.g., a 7-year-old child singing a worship song in a children’s choir. It is precious and God receives glory (“out of the mouth of babes”!). But the child does not have the capacity to deeply “enter in” to the words. In contrast, consider the 30-year-old who has suffered a great deal and is painfully aware of his sinfulness and also of God’s holiness and then of Christ’s love and compassion for him, dying on the cross. For that person to praise God in that song, mindful of all these complex realities—doing so as a little child—is to do so with a greater depth of heart, perhaps with bittersweet tears of joy, so that the older person is able to glorify God more, is able to be an image of God more fully, than the child. We might consider this the existential quality of Christian faith that in part is what distinguishes adults from children.
Doug, let me first state how much I enjoy following you at Life2gether. You often provoke my thoughts (as on this topic) which is always a good thing.
I did read the interview in its various parts last week. Let me be clear, I have every confidence that Dr. Johnson is smarter than me, wiser than me, and more biblically well-informed than me. And yet I want to take issue with a couple things he says.
Dr. Johnson is absolutely correct that we are not to become like a child in every way. Hopefully, since our childhood for instance, we have all grown in our knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as we are commanded to be doing on an ongoing basis (2 Peter 3:18). We would not do well to merely vacate this knowledge, even if we could.
So the question becomes, how exactly is it then that we are to be “like children?” Dr. Johnson suggests one way is in what he terms their “relative innocence.” Surely Dr. Johnson agrees that children are not innocent, not even “relatively” so. We stand completely guilty and completely condemned not just when we reach adulthood, but from birth, nay, even from the womb (Psalm 51:5), for our sin is not just found in those unrighteous deeds in which we actively participate, but in our relation to Adam as our covenantal representative.
I also take issue with his statement that “adults have a greater capacity to glorify God.” That idea seems to rest on an assumption that our ability to glorify God is primarily dependent on us. Rather, I would contend that our capacity to glorify God is not found in what we bring to the table, for “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). Rather we glorify God through our union with Christ Jesus, who perfectly glorifies the Father, as He lives in and through us.
It could actually be argued that a child is more capable of glorifying God, simply because it is so obvious to us that little children are unable to do any of the necessary things (e.g., trust in God). We are often deceived into thinking that we, being mature adults, are able. The Bible tells us that nothing could be further from the truth.
I prefer to stand with the likes of David in his monergistic view of God in Psalm 22:9-10, “You made me trust you at my mother's breasts” and “from my mother's womb you have been my God.” Maybe this is me being too Calvinistic, maybe it’s me just being wrong…maybe it's both! But it’s how I see it. I want to be careful not to give myself any credit when it comes either to salvation or to my ability to glorify God. I simply know myself far too well.
Thanks again for your thoughts and by the way, congrats to all you Northern Iowa guys on the NCAA run!
Thanks Pete. You raise some good questions. And let me just say, I'm learning along with you here. That's why I posted this. BTW, I passed along your comment to Dr. Johnson ... but not sure if and when he'll respond. So, in the meantime, I'll share my two cents.
First, I agree with you. I don't like the term "relative innocence." Clearly, children stand condemned because of their sinful nature in Adam and only Christ's imputed righteousness can save them. Having said that, I think Dr. Johnson uses that term to explain how children (without the knowledge of good and evil) are responsible for their sin but at the same time held less accountable. I know this is controversial.
In his article on personal agency, he cites Deut. 1:35,39 where God is explaining who can enter the promised land. "Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers" (except Caleb and Joshua). "Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it." God seems to make a distinction on who will enter the promised land based on a knowledge of good and evil for which the adults are held responsible. Is this how you read the text?
Second, I too, am still reflecting on the comment, "adults have a greater capacity to glorify God." On the one hand, I agree with you that our union with Christ is the reason we can glorify God. Therefore all children who are in Christ have the same Spirit living in them and so glorify God as we adults do. Yet, on another level, as we mature (and ironically become more dependent on God like children!) we have a greater capacity to know and treasure Christ. This too is Christ's work (not ours) to make us more and more conformed to his image and thereby glorify Him all the more.
Thoughts?
Doug, perhaps we glorify God differently as opposed to glorifying him more? I don't know. It's certainly interesting to ponder.
May we all simply endeavor to be faithful!
Pete, I like that. Glorifying him DIFFERENTLY. Seems to match up with the metaphor of the church as a body with many different parts but all given for the common good and the glory of God. I guess its difficult to know in our little minds what glorifies and gives God pleasure more. I agree. Let's endeavor to be faithful!
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