Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids

by Jack Klumpenhower

that girl needed to hear the larger biblical point: that sin destroys life with God. Then she needed the biggest point of all—the theme of the whole Bible: that wherever sin destroys, Jesus heals.

And it worked because, before Joe ever got to that point, his lesson had already begun stirring kids’ hearts—and mine. It worked because the cross of Jesus—not principles for good living—is the engine of the Christian life. By simply getting a taste of Jesus, I was eager to listen to God in a way that wouldn’t have happened if Joe had told me to listen. Joy in Jesus was the application!

First, the content of the message matters; it must be about Jesus.

Second, the cross of Christ applies to the entire Christian life. It isn’t just something you believe to become a Christian. It’s also the framework for living as a Christian.

Third, faith in this message comes from God. There’s every reason to speak God’s message God’s way—because it’s God who brings true repentance and spiritual growth.

Although we told stories of Jesus and his free grace, we watered it down with self-effort—and that’s what they heard.

We must understand that our central hope is in Jesus’s full saving work, not just his instructions, and that kids will be stuck in the pressure-filled mode of trying to measure up unless we bombard them with this good news.

The greater error is to teach from the Bible and fail to point out Jesus at all.

It’s good to challenge kids to obey God. Just make sure they’re responding out of faith in the love of Jesus, not out of mere moralism.

Luke didn’t write about Jesus the twelve-year-old to give my kids an example they could relate to and follow. Rather, Luke paints a portrait of a Savior who submits so completely to God—both to God’s law and to God’s plan of redemption through the cross—that we can only watch in wonder. The main point is not that we too should obey, but that Jesus did obey.

It’s usually helpful to think of our ongoing good works, in particular, as separate from the good news itself. Even as we give our lives for God’s kingdom, this is only an echo of the life Jesus gave.

Even though the good news is what Jesus has done—not anything we do—as we believe it, it compels us to action.

We are created in Christ Jesus. Joined to him by faith, we can do what formerly was unthinkable. We begin to do truly selfless works. They aren’t worth a cent for earning God’s love; but because we’re in Christ, God finds us pleasing.

The good news does not let Christianity become a guidebook by which kids adjust their lives. Adjustments are not enough, and bare rules are for flunkies who have no share in the family business. We are heirs of the King. We are reborn.

First, I wanted to focus on what Jesus did for us because we easily obsess over what we must do—and then the good news gets lost. If the Holy Spirit gets through to a kid’s heart, a proper response will follow without much coaxing from me. Second, the point of our discussion was that believing the good news is a critical habit even after becoming a Christian. The lesson wasn’t about how to be saved. The God Report Card is about how kids who are already believers can gain confidence and joy by understanding the good news that they’re justified before God.

For any message to make a life-changing impression usually takes hearing it again and again. This is doubly true with the good news because we all have a sinful nature inclined to prove ourselves rather than trust Jesus. Kids who only hear the good news a little tend to become kids who only love and trust Jesus a little.

Church kids come in one of two types—unsaved and saved. Both types desperately need to see Jesus.

But as with others in the church, many young people lead lives that are barely different from the culture at large. Instead of working to reorient their lives to a godly course, they fake just enough Christian behavior to get by.

But they do these things because being “churchy” feels good to them—not because of a saving relationship with God. Such kids may be fooled into thinking their behavior is true faith when, in fact, the reason for their religious fervor is rooted in themselves.

Being born is not something you do; it’s something that happens to you. No one can be truly spiritual unless the Spirit has worked in him, sprouting spiritual life.

We must not trust the “churchy behavior” formula. It’s great to see a kid live a largely moral life and practice Christian disciplines. But God doesn’t count that as obedience unless it flows from true faith in Jesus, which is prompted by the Spirit. “Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6).

We must not trust the “say-a-prayer” formula. Generations of church kids have been taught to become Christians by saying the “sinner’s prayer.” Certainly prayer is appropriate at the moment of conversion, but it’s an empty incantation unless God’s heart work has prompted it. The true decision-maker is God. Raising hands at Bible camp and walking down the aisle only counts if the Spirit has brought change on the inside.

the conversion from a sinful nature to a reborn-by-the-Spirit one seldom comes by pressing for an external decision. It comes from being convicted of sin, hearing of God’s saving love, and finding delight in the matchless person of Jesus.

Saved kids need to see Jesus, too, so they can grow. Many believers—especially young ones—don’t have the good news so solidly planted in their souls that their Christian lives are joyful and filled with love.

We make a mistake if we think kids are saved by hearing the good news and trusting Jesus, but then grow as Christians some other way.

We grow in the same way we became Christians—rooted in Jesus, with our hope in the good news.

we don’t obey God grudgingly, or even just willingly. Because of the good news, we do it zealously.

If kids are leaving the church, it’s because we’ve failed to give them a view of Jesus and his cross that’s compelling enough to satisfy their spiritual hunger and give them the zeal they crave. They haven’t seen that Jesus himself is better than any “Jesus program.”

The church kids had years of experience with Bible lessons and had learned to respond to questions about God by thinking first, “What do I have to do for him now?” They’d need to unlearn this before they could admire Jesus as the King who invites them, his crippled enemies, to sit at his table.

As kids learn about God’s goodness and holiness, they ought to increase in awe of him. That’s growth. And as they examine themselves and see the ugliness inside, they ought to increase in conviction of sin. That’s growth too. But the combination of these will drive them to despair—unless their understanding of the forgiveness and righteousness they have in Jesus also grows.

As his Christian life goes on, the kid learns more. His understanding of God’s holy demands grows. He also sees more fully how neither his life nor his heart can ever measure up, so his understanding of his own sinfulness grows as well. The beam of light widens. And if he hasn’t also been growing in appreciation for the good news—if the cross remains roughly the same size in his life—there will be gaps.

The solution is for the cross to grow along with everything else. The more a kid learns about himself and God, the more he must learn to trust and delight in the good news too. He must become ever more certain that he’s totally accepted in Christ, forgiven and adopted by God. It’s the only way he can keep growing.

We assume kids are well-grounded in the good news and that it’s there in the background as we teach other stuff. But what’s assumed is quickly forgotten. Without constant revival from the good news, kids—and adults—start trying to obey God under their own strength and willpower. The good news was never meant to be background. It’s foreground—the source we look to for the power to do everything else. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1–2, emphasis mine).

At such a moment the issue is not what those kids should do—it’s how to reach their hearts. They need to rest in Jesus until they have such joy over his beauty and what he’s done for them that it spills out into the way they live. It sounds hokey, but our goal must be to build love for God.

Christian behavior isn’t real obedience unless it starts with love for God. When Jesus was asked which commandment was most foundational, he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38).

Only a stronger love for Jesus can overpower and displace our love of sin.

None of us learns to love anyone—including God—by having someone tell us to love them. You love people because you find them beautiful and lovable, and because they love you. The good thing is that God is far, far more beautiful and love-worthy than anything or anyone else, and he loves us far, far more than anyone else ever could. As kids learn this good news and believe it, love for God will naturally follow. That’s why Jesus can insist on love for God as the highest command. God deserves such love, and failure to see it is a travesty.

The characters’ responses to what God is doing is far more important than what they’re doing.

We should teach the good news with an urgency and expectation that its payoff is good behavior, or else our doctrine will be served cold. And we must teach good behavior only when we show it flowing from the good news, or else kids will choke on moralism.

Bible characters can be behavioral examples. That’s part of God’s salvation plan too. He’s worked in the lives of real people we can learn from. Just don’t leave out God’s role in the story.

example, “We let others go first because Jesus saved us to be different from the world. He put his personal interests last for our sake—even dying for us. We do the same for others.” Practice frequently connecting Christian behavior to the good news, rather than merely saying, “God says it (or I say it), so do it!”

What is God doing for his people in this story? Good news! How does God do the same for us—only better—in Jesus? Believe it! How does believing this good news change how we live?

notice how God is working. Then expand. Complete it with Jesus. Every Old Testament story is unfinished without him. METHOD #1: WHAT GOD DOES

here’s the first rule of teaching from the Old Testament: Don’t: Look for a moral lesson about a human character. Instead: Look for the worth and work of the main character, God. Again, start with the question What is God doing for his people?

METHOD #2: WHO GOD IS Instead of focusing on what God is doing, sometimes it’s simpler just to notice his character and goodness.

What does this Bible passage teach us about who God is? Good news! How is this aspect of God revealed—most fully—in Jesus? Believe it! How does believing this good news change how we live?

METHOD #3: JESUS SOLVES PROBLEMS

What problem/tension is left unsettled in this passage? Good news! How is this solved in Jesus? Believe it! How does believing this good news change how we live?

The full good news regarding any of God’s rules is that believers are (1) eternally forgiven for breaking that command and counted righteous in Jesus, no matter how badly they mess up; (2) made eager to follow that command in gratitude and hope as children of the Father; and (3) made able to follow it by relying on the Holy Spirit’s transforming power. Never skip this good news. Teach it every time you teach God’s commands.

The second key to New Testament teaching is to notice the person of Jesus. Kids can’t fully grasp the good news unless they see the whole, marvelous person at the center of it. It’s normal for kids first to care about what Jesus gives them, but as they’re drawn to him, they should also see his beauty. They must come to love the man himself.