Child Theology 2

Recently I wrote about discussing theological issues with children. How I felt I wasn't able to simplify theological discussions to the level of my children. The other day I took a different approach and had my children reconcile a theological position with the Bible.

Our church puts out a weekly reading plan of scripture to be used by families during the week. The scriptures deal with the topic for the next Sunday's sermon. It also includes a catechism question. Last week's came from the New City Catechism.

Q 18: Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished? A: No, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God, and against his righteous law, and God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them in his just judgement both in this life, and in the life to come.

I asked my kids the question, which they all answered "no." I then said they had to reconcile that answer with Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

They struggle with the question. After a while, they finally answered "Jesus."

He's a good answer for just about any theological question. But they were right. Our disobedience and idolatry do not go unpunished. The punishment, however, was taken by Jesus on the cross. As Paul answers our question in 2nd Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

See, Jesus taking on the sins of the world is easy enough for a kid to explain.