Instruction for Young and Old

Rev. C. Sonnevelt, Lethbridge, AB

It is a simple word that demands our attention, but it is full of instruction for young and old. May we take this instruction to heart now that we have entered upon a new school year.

Instruction regarding children

In this passage there are three things that we can learn about children. First of all, children must be brought to Christ because they, too, are lost in sin. In the verses preceding our text, the Lord Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The one was lost in sin and the other in self-righteousness, but both of them were damnable before God. The same applies to our children; they are lost in Adam, our covenant head. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one” (Job 14:4). Children do not come into this world as a blank sheet of paper but as creatures who are conceived and born in sin. They grow up outside a lost Paradise and cannot enter the kingdom of God unless they are born again. The saddest part is that we are blind for this truth. Yet it remains reality that our children cannot die the way they were born. If they ever will be saved, they must be made alive by the Holy Spirit in His quickening power and be brought to Christ with their sins and guilt. That is the message that must be brought in our churches, homes, and schools.

Secondly, children may be brought to Christ because He is the Lamb of God. In verse 15 we read that “they brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them.” This likely happened on the great Day of Atonement. It was a custom in Israel that the children were taken to a scribe on the eve of that day to be blessed by him and to be instructed in the ways of the Lord. However, what did the parents do in Luke 18? They brought their children to the Savior, “that He would touch them.” Thus, this occurrence is not the story of “the great Friend of all children,” but it is the gospel of the Lamb of God who is on His way to the cross to lay down His life as a sacrifice for the sins of all His people, both small and great. Therefore, children, too, may be brought to Christ. He is the compassionate High Priest who is willing to bless those who are worthy of Gods everlasting curse and to cleanse young people as well as adults from their sins. Oh, may we as parents receive grace to bring our children to Him in our inner chamber and in God’s house.

Thirdly, children will be brought to Christ because God is mindful of His covenant. Does not the Lord Jesus say, “Suffer little children to come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of God”? In our Form for the Administration of Baptism this text is used to defend infant baptism, and rightly so. The word for “infants” in verse 15 denotes children who were still very young. As sucklings they were hardly aware of what happened when the Son of God blessed them, and the same holds true for babies at the time of their baptism. Yet it will be fulfilled, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength” (Psalm 8:2a). There is hope for young people even in these dark and distressing times, not because they are better than others but because it pleases the Lord to work in the line of the generations. Remember it, parents; He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Grace cannot be inherited, but “Jehovah’s truth will stand forever, His covenant-bonds He will not sever.” His elect will yet be gathered out of the seed of the church.

Instruction regarding parents

Luke 18 teaches us three things about parents also. First, parents should not consider their children as their own kingdom. It is remarkable that this short history is immediately followed by the history of the rich young ruler. Apparently there is a connection between the two. What is the connection? Many people in the days of the Lord Jesus were poor, but even the poorest among them still had a few possessions; in general, they had children. It is the tendency of the human heart to build on these two factors, our property and our posterity. However, Christ ordered the young man to sell all that he had, and He told the parents to give their children to Him. We have no right to any of these blessings. Since we have our children “on loan,” we should never regard them as our own. The day is coming when we will have to give an account of how we have reared them. Was it to God’s glory or to our pleasure? Was it with a desire for their salvation or only with an ambition for their success in this world?

Second, parents can hinder their children from entering the kingdom. Let there be no misunderstanding; we cannot thwart God’s purposes. The Lord will fulfill His counsel and do all His pleasure. His saving work is irresistible. At the same time parents are responsible for what they do and what they do not do. Can we convert our children? No, we can’t. Can we hinder them? Yes, we can. Their blood shall be required from our hand if we have been negligent in our duty (see also Matthew 23:13). “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not.” How we do hinder our children? If we never speak with them about the service of the Lord; if we are lax and careless or overly strict in a cold-hearted manner; if we do not bow our knees for them in secret; if we ourselves do not walk our talk; if we bring television or unfiltered Internet into our home; if we allow them to poison themselves with worldly music and literature, with soul-destroying videos and computer games, with a free-will type of religion, etc., etc. Parents, think of your baptismal vow and listen to the word of Christ, “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not.”

Third, parents themselves have to become as little children to enter God’s kingdom. That is the application the Lord Jesus makes in verse 17. It is a very humbling word, indeed. We want to become big, but the Lord says, “You must first become small.” We want to bring something along for our salvation, but the Lord says, “You are yet too rich and too good to be saved by the blood of Christ.” Parents and adults have to become like little children, not because children are innocent but because children are helpless in themselves. That is what Jesus means. We have to lose all our rights, our strength, and our wisdom. We need to look up to Him for a crumb of mercy. Only in this way the gate of Gods kingdom will open. The things which are hidden from the wise will be revealed unto babes.

Instruction regarding teachers

The history of Jesus and the children contains lessons also for the “disciples,” and we might say, “for the office-bearers in the church and the teachers in the school.” The first lesson is this: teachers themselves need to be rebuked sometimes. Christ’s disciples were not pleased with all those children and their parents. The disciples watched them with resentment and “rebuked them.” Was not Jesus the great Son of David? Was He not on His way to drive away the Romans and to establish His kingdom? Why, He had more important things to do than to bless a group of little children. Consequently, the disciples began to drive those fathers and mothers away, “But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased” (Mark 10:14a). His soul filled with a holy anger, and He reprimanded His disciples sternly. It is a lesson that should make us truly ashamed. Blessed are the teachers and the office-bearers who are taught by grace to accept the rebuke of this Master.

The second lesson is: teachers need to learn who the Child of the Father is. Educators are called to instruct children and young people, but the solemn word of Christ applies also to them, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). By nature we are so wise in our own eyes, and we do not want to be the least. We are so blind for our deep Fall and for Him who is the Child of the Father, the only-begotten Son of God. We need the Lord to make room for Christ by the discovering work of the Holy Spirit. That is necessary even for God’s people. The disciples were men with grace, Judas excepted. They knew Christ as Prophet, but His work as Mediator was still hidden from them. They needed to be cut off under God’s holy justice in order to see value in a humiliated Savior and to receive Him as their only High Priest. What a painful lesson, but also what a sweet privilege for a teacher to become a pupil in the school of grace.

Finally, teachers may, nevertheless, be instruments in God’s hands. Oh, what a wonder; Christ did not send His disciples away. He made them fools in their own sight, but in that way He made them profitable for others. It is the same today. When we are brought to see our pride and to mourn our guilt, and when the lowest place has been forfeited, then we become clay in the hands of the great Potter. Then useless instruments become useful instructors of the youth. It is not easy for the flesh, yet it is a lovely work. May the Ford cause His kingdom to come in many hearts. May parents, teachers, and office-bearers remember one another in prayer, and may the instruction at home, in the church, and at school be used for the glory of His name and for the welfare of our children.

When our Saviour called Lazarus out of the grave, he gave him a principle of life and motion. The same he doth when he calls men from a spiritual death in sin. Whatsoever we had from the first Adam is mortal; whatsoever we have from the second Adam is vital; the one communicates a spiritual life as the other propagated a spiritual death. The new creature is a vital, powerful principle, naturally moving the soul to the service and obedience of God and doth animate the faculties in their several motions as the soul doth quicken the members of the body. A Christian hath a spiritual life breathed into him as Adam had a natural.

— Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)

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