How can you help your children understand the gospel? We often talk about “the gospel” with our kids and remind them that it’s “good news,” yet explaining it simply can be challenging. Of course there are many Bible verses that unpack the gospel, but of all the New Testament books, Romans provides the most comprehensive gospel presentation. Many of the gospel rich verses are easy enough for children to understand and provide a presentation of the gospel any parent can use. While the Gospels contain the accounts of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, Paul’s letter to the Romans makes theological sense of the life of Christ and can help us teach our children how to apply the gospel they see in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to their lives.
Use the following four key truths to teach your children the truths of the gospel through Paul’s wonderful letter to the Christians at Rome.
Truth #1: We are all sinners.
Without our children understanding the bad news that they are sinners who want what they want when they want it, they also won’t understand why they need the gospel. Romans clearly teaches that all of us our born bent away from God.
Teaching our children that we can’t escape our sin on our own is an important part of their gospel education. You can use the following verse to help them interpret their bad behavior as foundational to who they are.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” – Romans 3:23
This verse can help our children understand their need for gospel rescue. Once they’ve identified their rebellious behavior as sin, we need to help them to know that the consequences for being a sinner is death.
“The wages of sin is death” – Romans 6:23
Children who grow up with the understanding of the bad news of the gospel—that every person is a sinner and every sinner deserves death—are ready to hear the good news of the gospel.
Truth #2: Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin and grant eternal life.
The bad news of the gospel sets our children up for the good news of the gospel. Although the bad news and good news of the gospel are presented here as two truths, it is good to share them side by side. As we point out to our children their sinful state before God, we should always share the good news of our gospel remedy in Jesus.
Let’s not share Romans 6:23a without Romans 6:23b
“The wages of sin is death” – Romans 6:23a
“But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23b
Another helpful verse from Romans that showcases God’s love through Christ’s sacrifice is found in Romans chapter five.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
We start with the bad news of the gospel that we are sinners, and we follow it with the good news of the gospel that Jesus came to rescue us from our sins through his atoning sacrifice on the cross. Once our children understand this two-step reality, we call them to respond.
Truth #3: We must respond to Christ’s gospel work with both repentance and faith.
The gospel calls us to repentance—to turn away from our sins—and to faith—to believe in the saving work of Jesus’s death on the cross. Paul said it like this:
“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
Notice there are two components to this promise. An outward work: confession of the lordship of Jesus and an internal belief and trust. The outward words are not empty words. For in confessing Jesus as “Lord” a person is aligning their behavior with Christ’s command. Paul later says,
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:1–2
It is important when communicating the gospel to our children that they understand how behavior is woven through the gospel process.
We were disobedient sinners whom Jesus saved by living a perfect life and taking the punishment for our disobedience. All those who trust Christ are transformed into his image and become his followers. There is no such thing as a Christian who refuses to follow Christ.
That does not mean we are perfect, but that the faith that the Spirit of God gives believers is always expressed in love for God and others. The Spirit changes our desires so that we want to obey. When we fall into sin, the Spirit reminds believers to turn from their sin and follow Christ again.
Truth #4: Christ will hold us fast.
The reality of remaining sin in the life of the believer can leave a person doubting their conversion. Children struggle for assurance as much or more than anyone. We can use the rich truths of Romans to help them find their secure place in the truth of God’s gospel promises.
Once our children repent of their sin and trust in Christ, they can struggle with doubts and need to be reassured of their salvation. The apostle Paul knew this to be true, so he gave us some of the most reassuring verses in all of Scripture. Consider having your children memorize Romans 8:1 and 8:38-39
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” – Romans 8:1
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39
For children who have demonstrated the consistent fruit of repentance it is important that we help them remember and trust in Jesus’s work on the cross when they fall into sin. The gospel is not only a gate through which we pass in order to reach heaven—it’s the air we breathe and the solid ground on which we live. It both saves us and sustains us. Until Christ’s return the gospel is our hope and anchor.
As you walk, talk, eat, drive with your children, keep presenting these four truths again and again. The key is not the skill with which you present this message. The key is in the message you present. As Paul said, “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Encourage your children daily to be counted in the number of “everyone who believes.”
The Sword
Following the format of his popular storybook studies, Marty Machowski weaves a Bible study of the book of Romans with a fictional story. The Sword shares the story of Katana and Brant who find a wooden sword and ancient journal belonging to Magnus, a one-time gladiator who became a guard who watched over the apostle Paul while he was under house arrest. Their discovery leads the siblings on a quest to reveal the mystery of the swords by studying Magnus’s journal.
