In a conversation with some Christian teenagers a few weeks ago I discovered, or was reminded of, a few things. The first is that even Reformed believers hold false stereotypes of the Puritans. I asked them, ‘What do you think of when I say the word “Puritan?”’ Their answers were, ‘boring,’ ‘legalistic,’ ‘strict,’ and, this one not in so many words, ‘joyless.’
These answers broke my heart. I, of course, am not naïve enough to think that the Puritans were perfect. Every era, and person, has its flaws. But these ideas are so far from the truth.
Another thing I was reminded of during this conversation is that young Christians, especially in Reformed camps, often lack genuine spiritual experience (which was something the Puritans emphasized). Let me qualify that. What I mean is that they have certain spiritual experiences – they attend to the means of grace, and this is wonderful. But mostly, they are catechumens. That is, they have been taught solid doctrine, but have never had a heart-felt experience of those doctrines.
They understand the first question and answer of the Shorter Catechism. They understand that they are to glorify God, but they have no idea what it is to enjoy God. I try to stress that God can be enjoyed in the things he has given us. I am not a mystic and I don’t think we should all join monasteries. I don’t believe that God can only be experienced through ecstatic ‘spiritual’ experiences. I do believe that the ordinary means of grace, and the gifts and grace and providence of God in themselves are means, and probably the most common means, of enjoying God. But our fathers in the faith believed there was an intimacy, a communion, with God available, that modern, non-charismatic believers shy away from. Why are we so shy? The throne room of grace is open to us. The Holy Spirit is in us, and with us, and constantly available to us. Jesus Christ offers his spiritual presence to us. Why be content with mere head-knowledge?
It has been an interesting process watching my oldest daughter come along in the faith. I was not raised in a Christian home and so I have no personal experience with the spiritual development of a child within the context of the Covenant of Grace. She is being catechized. She is reading the Bible. She is being instructed. She is being prayed with and prayed for. Yet I have no doubt that God is an abstract concept to her. I have no doubt that Jesus is a character in a book. Does she believe in Jesus? Yes. Does she realize she is a sinner? Yes. She meets all the tests. Until you ask her about love for God. She doesn’t even understand the concept of loving someone she’s never met. Neither do I. She needs to meet him.
I didn’t understand these words of Dorothy Sayers until recently:
It is the business of education to wait upon Pentecost. Unhappily, there is something about educational syllabuses, and especially about examination papers, which seems to be rather out of harmony with Pentecostal manifestations (Mind of the Maker, p. 112).
Doctrine (education) is the kindling for the fire. But we need the fire to fall. All kindling and no fire leads to no heat. (And conversely strange doctrine leads to strange fire, but that’s another topic).
My understanding of a covenant child’s position with respect to the covenant is that they are under the dominion of the Covenant of Grace. That is, they come into this world under the special lordship of Christ as members of his visible church. A few passages clarify this:
- Ephesians 6:1 ¶ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Parents are to be obeyed ‘in the Lord.’ That is, children, by obeying their parents, are obeying Christ. We’ll clarify this in a moment.
- Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
‘Of the Lord’ is key here. Fathers are representing Christ to their children. They are, as it were, standing in his place. They are ‘being Christ’ to them as they administer his discipline and instruction.
These two verses have influenced me heavily with respect to my view of children in the covenant, and my view of myself as a father. I am to be Christ to my children – to live as he lived, to talk as he talked, to nurture as he nurtured, to instruct as he instructed, to discipline as he disciplines (in love). I am to live out his sacrificial life for those under my authority.
I am my children’s authority (you could say they are under my lordship and protection), but I am to exercise that authority through service and sacrifice. Thus, by knowing the lordship of their father, the children are actually experiencing the lordship of Christ.
But here’s the rub. I can demonstrate Christ’s lordship. I can even demonstrate his sacrifice to a minimal degree. But I cannot atone for their sins. They need the fire of the Spirit to fall in their hearts, to regenerate them and bring them into actual communion with the living God through faith in Christ.
I am an educator – a maker of disciples – and I am waiting for Pentecost.
Covenant children come into this world under the covenantal lordship of Christ, but until the Spirit comes, they do not know him as Savior.
The Reformed tradition values personal experience of Christ. The Reformed tradition values communion with God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are not simply making disciples (i.e. students). We are doing that, but we are doing more than that. We are preparing hearts for the fire of the Spirit. We are setting kindling. The problem is that we’re afraid to call the fire down.
Reformed kids don’t lack knowledge generally. They lack experience of the doctrines they already know. They lack intimacy with God. They lack desire for God (because they’ve never tasted this intimacy).
We should not be afraid to pray that our children would experience the presence of God in a sensible way. This is where spiritual joy will come from:
- Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
We should not be afraid to pray that our children would long after, and pant for, God:
- Psalm 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee, O God.
We should not be afraid to pray that our children would experience not only salvation, but the joy of salvation:
- Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
We should not be afraid to ask, not only for faith, but, that Christ would manifest himself to them:
- John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
I call this spiritual apprehension. It’s a beholding of the glory of the Lord in the heart (see 2 Cor. 3). Borrowing language from Jonathan Edwards, it is a spiritual sense of the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ.
Mind you, this is not what justifies a believer. We are justified by faith alone. But, as David puts it in Psalm 51 (above), you can have salvation while lacking the joy of that salvation. I would not even go so far as to say this is sanctification, though it certainly affects sanctification. We should desire not only to raise up a generation of children who believe (though that is our desire), but who also burn.
Are you praying that the fire will fall?
Perhaps you are not even praying this for yourself, much less your children. Are you spending all of your time putting the kindling in place without realizing you need the fire? No wonder there is no heat, no passion, no zeal. Ask God for yourself, and then ask him for your children.
For related quotes, see HERE and HERE.
