I wrote a post on January 1 in which I
called my toddler a sinner. The comment was made in passing and left
unaddressed with the promise to discuss on another day. Today is that day and
this is that post so let’s discuss. Why did I call my baby a sinner?
To begin, the statement doesn’t come
as a result of some particularly unscrupulous behavior of my daughter. On the
contrary, my little one is among of the most agreeable toddlers I’ve known. Like
most her age, she has moments of unbridled insistence and will fuss and
complain when she doesn’t get her way. These however succumb easily to our rebuke
(and/or soothing) and she usually turns from her misbehavior with little
hesitancy. On the whole, she is a delight to parent; we love her deeply and
have enjoyed life with her these 18-months.
So why do I call her a sinner? The
short answer is that she is. She is a
sinner. Like all human beings before her and like those who will come after her,
she was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). Charles
Spurgeon once said that: “As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does
sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there,
that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.” There are few of us so
deceived as to deny the reality of our sin. After all, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart
pure; I am clean and without sin”’ (Proverbs 20:9)? The Bible is crystal clear
on this point. It states plainly that “all
have sinned and have come short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). In fact, left to
ourselves, there is no one who seeks God, no not even one (Romans 3:11-18)!
We are the descendants of Adam after
all. And as physical traits are passed on from one generation to to the next, so
is Adam’s sin inherited by all generations after him. We are therefore born in sin
and according to his flesh. The Apostle Paul teaches that “The mind set on the
flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God,
for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8,
emphasis mine). What an amazing thought! Allow yourself for a moment to
consider the fact that outside of Jesus’s righteousness, you are unable to please God.
This inability makes sense, of course,
when we consider Paul’s other words in Ephesians 2:1-2. He states that “you
were dead in your trespasses and sin,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world.” A dead
person cannot be anything but dead for s/he is void of life. We are born
sinners, spiritually dead at birth with no righteousness of our own to justify
us before God. For this reason, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless they
are born again” (John 3:3). The spiritually dead person is brought to life –
given new birth – by that same power that raised Christ from the dead and is
made alive together with Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:13). This is our Christian
hope and joy – the Good News of the Gospel.
And it is for this reason that I call
my daughter a sinner. She must know that her “ability” to please God will not
come from her own effort, strength or “goodness” (see The Benefit of Being Clueless). Her hope for salvation rests alone in God’s work through His Son who
paid the debt of her sins and opens the door for her into new life with Him. My
daughter’s “work” in all this is to believe by grace in the One God has sent
(John 6:29). And so - with care - I will help her to understand that she is a sinner. As her
mother, my aim will not be to condemn, embarrass or belittle her. But with great
faithfulness, humility, affection for her and commitment to the gospel, my prayer is that
she would not be among those so deceived as to deny the reality of their sin.
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