Editor’s Note: I updated this article with a fresh introduction and extra guidance to help parents disciple their kids.
I’m going to start this article with a bold statement: The Gospel is the most important thing a parent can pass on to their kids, and that starts with understanding it ourselves. And I have also learned that the gospel isn’t just something we pass on to our children. It’s something we need to keep coming back to ourselves, again and again, because it has more to offer us than we often realize. Please sit back, lie down, stand, or continue with your usual reading habits, and let me offer you a Gospel refresher or even introduce you to the Gospel for the first time. Let’s go!
First of all, the word Gospel means “good news.” We’ve all been the recipients of good news before: Good news about our job, about someone getting married, that a baby was born, or simply that someone wants to buy you coffee. But the good news we’re discussing is more profound than that. It’s the good news that God, through His Son, Jesus, has rescued us from OUR sin problem. Let’s do a quick survey to unpack what the Bible teaches:
Creation
In the book of Genesis, we learn that God created the heavens and the earth. He created everything that we can see around us. And after he created all things in our beautiful world, he created man and he created woman. God told Adam and Eve, the man and woman he created, to enjoy the world He had given them. He wanted them to joyfully take care of the world, creatively cultivate it, and multiply themselves through human reproduction. Check, check, and check. At this point, Adam and Eve were living in a world free from sickness, emotional turmoil, broken relationships, and death. God gave them only one command – don’t eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Simple. Don’t. Eat. From. This. One. Tree.
Fall
Adam and Eve were loving life in this paradise created by God. Can you imagine living in a world without the problems that we face on a daily basis? Strange for us. Normal for them. But that was about to change.
Sin Enters the Picture
The Bible says in Genesis 3 that a crafty serpent (known elsewhere in the Bible as Satan) asked Eve a crafty question:
- Serpent: Did God actually tell you not to eat of any tree in the garden?
- Eve: We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
- Serpent: You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
- Eve ate the fruit and shared it with Adam, who also ate it. Then the Bible tells us that their eyes were opened and they realized their nakedness.
Sin Effects Everything
At this point, Adam and Eve wanted to hide from God because they knew he was holy and they were not. They were sinners. Before they ate the fruit, they felt a freedom to be with God all the time. Now they wanted to hide from him because their eyes were opened to the fact that they were sinners and God was perfect.
Sickness, frustration working the land, pain in childbirth, relational difficulties, and eventually death was their new reality. They had to leave the perfect Garden of Eden that God gave them. From now on, they and their descendants, including every human being that’s ever been born, would live with the reality of sin and the separation from God that this brings.
Redemption
God immediately started the work of relational redemption and restoration. For the remainder of the Old Testament God worked through imperfect people, including but not limited to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, and many imperfect kings to lead us to the birth of Jesus.
Jesus, fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life and willingly sacrificed Himself for the sinful people He loves to pay the price for our sin. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And then in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The best news we will ever hear is that God wants to offer us eternal life in His Son. This is mercy, not getting what we deserve. And grace, getting what we don’t deserve, all in one package. Good news!
Restoration
God is in the process of making all things new. In this life we live with a tension that theologians like to call “the already but not yet.” We are already forgiven in Jesus, but we continue to live with the reality of sin. We have the Holy Spirit guiding us towards truth, but we still have the ability to suppress that truth and live by the flesh.
New Heavens and New Earth
When Jesus returns and God ushers in the new heavens and new earth, we will no longer have the possibility of sinning. We will finally be free from the curse of sin, sickness, pain, and death. We will finally be able to live and celebrate exactly what God intended for us. And while we live on this earth, until he returns, we are given the responsibility to share the Gospel (good news), create things for God’s glory, cultivate the land, love God, and love people. We do all of this knowing that God’s love has no bounds and that our work on this earth is not in vain. God is restoring all things!
Our Connection with the Story
All of us can identify with this story because it is part of our family story. Adam and Eve are the ones who sinned against God. True. But they represent all human beings. Have you ever heard this question: Do we sin because we are sinners? Or are we sinners because we sin? The answer is both. We are born sinners so it is natural that we start sinning from a young age. But we all know it, deep at the core, that we do choose to sin on a daily basis. We sin. We are sinners. It’s all true at the same time.
The Rescue that God Offers Us
Our inherited sin and our personal sin separate us from God. But praise God that he doesn’t leave us in that condition. God sent Jesus on a rescue mission to save us from the sin that we were unable to save ourselves from. This is profoundly wonderful news. It is the good news that lays the foundation for our lives. We no longer find our identity as a sinner but as a sinner who was graciously rescued from our sins through Jesus. It changes the trajectory of our lives. We are free to live holy lives and lives of gratitude and lives of love towards others all because of what Jesus did for us.
Our Response to the Gospel
You and I, along with our children, are given the wonderful opportunity to respond to the Gospel message with repentance and faith. A heart change is needed. We repent of our sins and acknowledge that God is good. So good, in fact, that He made a way for us to have a relationship with Him. All of us who know Jesus have the responsibility to live like this. That’s why it’s so important for parents to have a solid understanding of the Gospel. Once we know it, we get the awesome opportunity to teach this to our kids. Thanks be to God!
If you want to go deeper into the gospel, two books I’d put in every parent’s hands are What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert and What is the Gospel? by RC Sproul. Both are short, clear, and worth reading more than once.
The Gospel Drives Our Spiritual Growth
More Than a Starting Line
Here’s something that I think many of us, including myself, need to be reminded of regularly: the gospel isn’t just the starting line of the Christian life. It’s the fuel for the entire race.
Think about how easy it is to slip into a performance mindset as a Christian — and especially as a Christian parent. We tell ourselves things like, “I need to read my Bible more,” “I need to pray harder,” “I need to be a better example for my kids.” And while those things aren’t bad in themselves, when they’re driven by guilt or a desire to earn God’s approval, we’ve lost the plot. We’ve forgotten what the gospel actually says about us.
You Are Already Loved
The gospel tells us that God’s love for us is not based on our performance. It is based on what Jesus has already done. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s not a reward for doing well. That’s simply the reality for everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus. You are fully loved, fully forgiven, and fully accepted — right now, today, even on your worst parenting day.
We Grow Because We are Loved
So what does this mean for how we grow? It means that we don’t grow in order to be loved. We grow because we are already loved. That’s a massive difference. When a child knows they are unconditionally loved by a parent, they thrive. They take risks. They come back when they fail. The same is true of our relationship with our Heavenly Father. His love, secured for us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, creates the safest possible environment for our growth.
The Gospel Propels Us Forward
This is what theologians sometimes call gospel-driven sanctification. The gospel propels us forward. Knowing that Jesus took our sin and gave us his righteousness in return doesn’t make us want to sit back and coast; it makes us want to live differently. It stirs gratitude and gives us the courage to repent quickly when we mess up, because we know that our standing before God doesn’t change when we do.
As parents, we find this incredibly freeing. We can teach our kids to read the Bible, pray, serve others, and love people. Not as a checklist that earns God’s favor, but as a joyful response to the favor we already have. The gospel isn’t just something we believe when we first come to faith. It’s the lens through which we live every single day.
Recommend Resources
My Personal List of Family Discipleship Resources
Family Discipleship: A Biblical Guide for Parents
Colossians Family Bible Study
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