Beware of Legalism

Last Wednesday's class reminded me of something I've heard John Piper say: Children are born legalists. As we teach the Ten Commandments, there is a particular danger of reinforcing this. (It is particularly easy for parents and teachers to fall into reinforcing legalism without realizing it, since legalism yields outwardly obedient children.)

Here is a sermon by John Piper where he stops and speaks directly to the children in his congregation about this very issue. I hope you find it helpful in talking with your children about this week's lesson.

From Piper's sermon on Romans 1:16-18:

Let me put it on the bottom shelf now for any kids that are in the room... these are heavy things, I know this is weighty stuff, but it can be put on the bottom shelf...This can be and should be grasped by children.

I'm gonna use some different language. This is risky because it is not as theologically precise as I have been being. But this is the way you do with kids. You can't do it any other way. You take risks with kids. So, okay, listen up, kids.

I do bad things, and all kids do bad things ... Any kid here never do any bad things? ... Every kid does bad things. Got that? ... We don't just do bad things because they come from Mars. We do bad things because we have bad hearts. We are depraved. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." If I'm ever sharp with my wife, ... it's because I'm a sharp-tongued guy -- who needs some smoothing, deep down, by the Gospel. He's workin' on me. Okay, so, kids,we do bad things because we have bad hearts.

But God says, "You gotta be good if you're gonna get to heaven. I don't have bad people in heaven Bad people would defile my heaven. I hate badness."


Know what a kids does at that point? A kid says, "Okay, I'll do more good things." Which is totally wrong!

Kids, the way to get right with God, and to be his friend, and to be saved and not go to hell is not to try to do more good things -- but to trust a God who says, "All right, I demand that you be good. You're not good. But ... I love you. Therefore, I will give you a goodness -- if you'll trust me, if you believe in my Son, if you delight in him and receive all that He is for you -- I will give you a goodness that is not yours -- even while you're bad!"

Now that's very hard for kids to believe -- because it's very hard for adults to believe. Kids are wired legalists ... we come into the world thinking the only possible way to get right with God is to do more right things for God. If we make it our life's effort to get right with God by doing more things right for God, we will never get right with God. Because no matter how good we shape up, we fall short. God is perfectly holy and demands a perfect holiness, therefore, the only righteousness that will ... cut it with God is God's perfect righteousness, freely given through faith.
So we tell our kids, "Look, yes, you do bad things. But if you will repent and say, 'I hate bad things. I don't wanna do bad things. I'll do my best, but that isn't gonna save me. I will look away from myself and my badness to Jesus and His goodness.' [Then] God, through Jesus and [your] faith, will grant [you] a goodness that [you] wear like a coat.' "
It's like these Fire Department guys... We've had a lot of fires in our neighborhoods... and those guys are amazing what they'll walk into... They look like Darth Vader, only [the coat] is usually yellow. And they walk right into the flames. And they don't get burned. That's the righteousness, that's the goodness that God [gives] us.

The Lord bless you and give you a sweet experience of the exchange at the cross, your sin for his righteousness, so that you know how to live your week out to the glory of the grace of God.