The Cruciform Life

I am raising my children in a way that some would say is tantamount to brainwashing—even child abuse (as Richard Dawkins argues in his best-selling The God Delusion).

I’m teaching them to believe God exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). I am raising them to love God with all their heart, soul, and might (Deuteronomy 6:1-7). I labor to show them that there is only one God and one Mediator between God and people, whose name is Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). I’m doing all I can to instuct them in “the way, the truth, and the life” of Jesus, going so far as to give them their own Bibles and having them read the Old and New Testaments. I urge them to talk to Jesus, to seek Him as their King, and to admit He is their only hope to be saved from God’s wrath because they have broken His royal law (Matthew 6:9-15,33; James 2:8-10; Romans 3:23-28).

I don’t run a boot camp for Christian warriors who wrestle flesh and blood enemies, but I am preparing the next generation for spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-18). After all, the Bible tells us that children are the ammunition Jesus has given us to develop and deploy for the sake of His kingdom. In Psalm 127, Solomon tells us that children are like “arrows in the hands of a warrior” (vs. 4), given to us by God so that His kingdom will have ambassadors into future times and distance places, men and women whose voices of truth-in-love pierce through the enemy’s lies in marketplaces and media, legislatures and living rooms, classrooms and corporations, every private sector and public square (vs. 5).

DEVELOPING OUR ARSENAL
What shape should our arrows take? Children of the kingdom must adhere to the royal law—they must love God with their entire being and love others with the love of Christ (James 2:8; Matthew 22:36-40; John 13:34-35). The Lord’s discipline and instruction immerses them moment by moment in a worldview shaped by relationships of love with God and neighbor (Deuteronomy 6; Ephesians 6:4). We must help them see everything in relationship to God and others. By trusting Jesus, they begin to love like Jesus (Galatians 5:6) and become arrows shaped by the cross into the shape of the cross.

DEPLOYING OUR ARROWS
A tour guide at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Fla., explained to me how “smart bombs” were programmed to follow the trajectory of a laser pointed at a target by the pilot. As the laser goes, so goes the artillery. Similarly, Moses told God’s people that love for God and others must be written on their own hearts before teaching it to their children (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). The next generation will follow the trajectory of our lives. We must not only give them the content of the Gospel, but also a context in which they see it lived out (1 Thessalonians 2:8). How will they learn to “repent and believe the good news” unless they see us doing the same thing? We are the bows by which the King deploys his arrows. Are we what Psalm 78 calls “twisted, deceitful bows,” or are we reliable crossbows—parents and church leaders who show what it means to live a cruciform life (Psalm 78:57; Galatians 2:20)?

DECLARING OUR ALLEGIANCE
The preparation of the next generation of ammunition is mission critical for the advancement of the kingdom of God. The responsibility is nearly overwhelming. No wonder Solomon began Psalm 127 with “unless the Lord builds . . . unless the Lord guards.” As we carry out our orders we must remember that our allegiance is always to Jesus Christ—not to our own wisdom or power. Our sufficiency comes only from Him and not from ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). Let us rest in the crucified King as we raise up the next generation of ammunition.

This article originally appeared in BreakPoint WorldView magazine.

Jimmy Davis is associate editor of the Worldview Church and pastor of Riverside Church in Knoxville, Tenn. He also maintains The Cruciform Life Blog.