Teaching Sovereign Grace to a Six-Year-Old (Part 1)

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Teaching Sovereign Grace to a Six-Year-Old I. It is important to be able to explain things simply, and the doctrine of Sovereign Grace is no exception. 1. "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself." (Albert Einstein) 2. "We should know our subject profoundly and share it simply." (William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, p. 125) 3. "Think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do." (Aristotle) II. This outline is designed to be used to teach sovereign grace to a six-year-old. III. What is "sovereign grace"? 1. "Sovereign" describes something that a king does. A. A king is a ruler that does whatever he wants. B. He tells people what to do. C. God is the ruler of earth and tells everyone what to do. D. God controls everything. 2. "Grace" is when someone is nice to you when they don't have to be. A. If your daddy tells you to stop running in the house or else you will get a spanking, and you run in the house, then you deserve a spanking. B. If you run in the house and your daddy spanks you for it, you got what you deserved. C. If you run in the house and your daddy decides to not spank you, then he showed grace to you. 3. "Sovereign grace" therefore means that God chooses to not punish some people for the sins they commit and to instead be kind to them. IV. Why do we need God's grace? 1. We are all sinners (Rom 3:23). 2. Sin is when we break God's law, when we do something that God tells us not to do (1Jo 3:4). 3. We are born sinners. A. The first man Adam sinned in the garden of Eden (Gen 2:17 c/w Gen 3:6). B. When Adam had children, they were born sinners just like he was after he sinned (Rom 5:12). C. Children inherit things from their parents. i. Kids often look like their parents. ii. Kids often talk like their parents. iii. Kids also inherit their spiritual nature from their parents. a. Our spiritual nature is what makes us think and act the way we do. b. It's kind of like an instinct that animals are born with. c. Birds will build nests without being taught. d. Groundhogs will dig holes without being taught. e. Bees build hives without being taught. D. Our spiritual nature causes us to want to do bad things without being taught to do so. i. When your parents tell you to do something that you don't want to do, your nature makes you want to not do it. ii. When God tells you to do something that you don't want to do (like obeying your parents or not hitting other kids), your nature makes you want to not do it. E. We can't change our evil nature, just like birds can't stop being birds, groundhogs can't stop being groundhogs, and bees can't stop being bees. F. Our spiritual nature makes us bad people. G. Our spiritual nature will not allow us to seek God or do the good things that He tells us to do (Rom 3:9-12). H. In fact, our spiritual nature is so incapable of doing the things that God tells us to that it is called "dead" (Eph 2:1). i. Have you ever seen a dead person at a funeral? ii. The dead man's body is not able to do anything, like walking, eating, or talking. iii. A person that is spiritually dead can't do anything spiritual for God like knowing Him, understanding Him, believing in Him, or obeying Him. I. The only way that a dead man can ever come back to life is for God to resurrect him, which means to make him alive again. J. In the same way, the only way for a man who is spiritually dead to have spiritual life so that he can believe in and obey God is for God to resurrect him spiritually, which means to make him alive spiritually so that he thinks differently and wants to obey God and make Him happy (Eph 2:1-5, 10). 4. God is holy (1Pe 1:15-16). A. That means that God is perfect, and He never does anything bad. B. God never thinks of anything bad. C. God is perfectly clean. D. Heaven, where God lives, is perfectly clean. E. God can't even look at sinners (people who do bad things that He says not to do) (Hab 1:13). F. Sinners cannot live with God in heaven (Psa 5:4). 5. God's punishment for sin is death (Rom 6:23). A. The death is eternal punishment in hell (Luk 16:23). B. If we are judged by God for the bad things we have done, we will be sent to the lake of fire (Rev 20:12-15). C. Do you see now why we need God's grace? D. If God doesn't show grace to us, we will get what we deserve and be punished in hell for all eternity after we die.