Only God Can Remedy Man’s Predicament

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

The approach of the holidays is especially significant for followers of Christ because we understand and know the rest of the story. Our powerlessness to solve the dilemma of our need for salvation has not left us without hope. On the contrary, the good news is that God has taken upon Himself to remedy our desperate plight through His glorious display of love and grace through His only Son, Jesus Christ.

It is good news because God has taken the burden off our shoulders to solve an infinite problem that cannot be solved by finite means. No human is capable of paying the debt we owe for our sin. No human, that is, but the God-man Jesus Christ—the perfect Lamb of God, God in the flesh. He did what we could not do by paying that debt on the Cross and conquering death in His resurrection to defeat the curse of sin and hell for all who believe.

The Gospel is good news because it declares that I am accepted, not because of anything good I do, but because of God’s grace through faith. It is good news because it is a free gift that I cannot earn nor am I expected to earn. It is a gift that changes everything—my heart, my thoughts, and my will.

Surely, if there were ever people on the face of this planet with something for which to be thankful, and who ought to be motivated to spread good cheer, it would be those who are followers of Christ unchained from the curse of sin and death, and set free to live fully, purposefully, and compassionately in a world desperate for real good news.

As grandparents who know this Good News to be true and transformational and want our grandchildren to know it too, here are five ideas for sharing this Good News with them:

1. Share your faith story: Your grandchildren need to hear your own journey to faith and salvation. Let them know when you realized your own need for salvation and how the Gospel has transformed you.
2. For very young children, use the Wordless Book: The Wordless Book uses colors to share the Gospel Story: Gold=Heaven and eternity with God; Black=Sin; Red=Blood of Christ; White=made clean; Green=growing in Christ.
3. Five Finger Gospel: This is another simple way of explaining our need for salvation and the Gospel that only requires using the five fingers of your hand (or your grandchild’s hand) and five Scripture passages.
   1. Thumb: I am a sinner (Romans 3:23 and 6:23) “All have sinned”. The penalty (wages) for sin is death. That is not good news for us, but…
   2. First finger: God loves us. (John 3:16) His loves extends to everyone for all time. He proved that love for us by…
   3. Middle finger: Sending His Son to die for us. (I Cor. 15:3) Jesus died on the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin, but He rose on the third day to claim victory for us. He died for us even though we were sinners.
   4. Ring finger: I am saved by grace when I believe (Eph. 2:8-9). Everlasting life is a free gift given when I repent of my sin, believe Jesus died for my sin, and receive by faith Jesus as my Savior and Lord.
   5. Little Finger: God is preparing a place for me in heaven (John 3:16). This is the promise of eternal life God gives me when I believe and trust Him as my Savior. I will go to heaven.
4. Get Marty Machowski’s Gospel Story Bible and Old Story New: 10 Minute Devotionals. These are great tools to use around the family table to explore why the Gospel is such good news and how important the Bible is for our gaining understanding.
5. Use the holidays to talk about the Gospel. Why do we celebrate Christmas? What is the importance of Jesus’ birth? Why is the virgin birth critical? What does Jesus’ birth have to do with the Gospel? Show them that Christmas is but the first part of the Gospel story and that it is important to know who Jesus is and why He came. He did not come to start a ‘religion’ but to reveal the Father’s love and pay the debt we could not pay for our sin.

Now that we know what God did to provide our salvation, we need to know what our part in this gift of life is that God offers to us. How do we receive this gift and how does it change us? That is our next and final absolute.

GRANDPAUSE: Christ hath crossed out the black lines of our sin with the red lines of his own blood. —Thomas Brooks