The goal of every Christian parent, regardless of where they lived around the globe, is exactly the same: For their child to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Paul writes in Romans 13:14,
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
And C.S. Lewis stated in Mere Christianity,
“’Putting on Christ’…is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it is not a sort of special exercise for the top class. It is the whole of Christianity. Christianity offers nothing else at all.”
Recently we had the privilege of having Madelines and Raydel Riquelme teach a Sunday school class in Washington, D.C. for parents of small children, where we discussed Jesus’ childhood.
One initial question we discussed was, Why did Jesus need to live all those years, instead of simply coming to earth, dying as a substitute for sin, rising from the dead, and ascending back to heaven?
Answer: He had to live a perfectly righteous life and “fulfill all righteousness”, and thus prove to be the perfect sacrifice to take the place of sinners.
-Matthew 3:13-15 – Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
-1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”
Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life from childhood through adulthood, so that His righteous life could be imputed to believers.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Luke 2:52 states, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
Luke indicates that Jesus grew (1) intellectually (wisdom), (2) physically (stature), (3) spiritually (favor with God), and (4) socially (and man).
And this is our goal for the Genesis Family Life Program, that EA could assist churches in equipping parents to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in order that, like Jesus, they “would grow in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
