As we’ve talked about in the last few posts, you have this external world coming at children, and you have this internal corruption within them. So what is your job as a parent?

Your job is to teach that little one the law of God and lead them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. First and foremost, you are an evangelist in your home.

First of all, children need to know they are sinners. They need to know in no uncertain terms how deep sin goes in their nature. They need to be taught that they will feel impulses that are wrong, illegitimate, dishonoring to God and emblematic of the fact that they are alienated from Him. And they need to be shown clearly the consequences of that sin: the forfeiture of blessing, difficulty, death and eternal hell. Children need to know that.

Children need to be evangelized with the truth of sin, the truth of death and the truth of hell. You can’t preach grace and forgiveness if they don’t understand law and judgment.

Your children need to understand more than that Jesus wants to be their friend. They need to know about God’s law. They need to know that they have violated it and that they have no capacity in them to keep it and to please God. They can keep it externally, but their hearts have to be transformed, or they will die and perish in eternal fire. In other words, you evangelize a child just like you evangelize anybody else.

Children should be terrified about eternal punishment, shouldn’t they? It’s a terrifying reality. Children are more susceptible to those terrors, and they’re also more susceptible to the winsome glories of heaven. You don’t leave that out.

Your children need to know that God is angry with the wicked every day, and that includes them. He’s very angry with their sin, and He will punish them in hell if they are not forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ. They need to understand that. They also need to understand that if they put their trust in Jesus Christ, their sins are forgiven and they need not fear, and they can live with the hope and the joy of heaven.

So a parent’s first task is to pursue, vigorously, the eternal salvation of their children.

Remember, your children are ignorant of the gospel which saves. You have to tell them. They are sinful, and they lack a solid fear of the consequences of their sin. They don’t have that. But you can reinforce that through the consequences you bring to them when they break the law of God.

Your children are selfish, self-centered and proud. They crave worldly pleasure. They are frivolous and thoughtless about serious matters. They are influenced by the world around them, and they are greatly affected by evil friends. They cannot understand the blessings of salvation. They cannot understand the joys of conversion unless they see them in your life.

So, leading your little ones to God is a formidable task. But it is a thrilling one.

You want to use terminology they can grasp. You want to be very clear and very patient in communicating the message. You don’t want to drown them in a sea of verbiage. You don’t want to crush them under the weight of some heavy, complicated argument. But when Scripture does speak of how you teach your children, the emphasis is on thoroughness:

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

In other words, you are constantly teaching them the truth about God, judgment, grace, forgiveness and salvation. You don’t have to be confusing and complex, but you don’t want to be too simplistic, either.

Don’t soften the part of the message that sounds unpleasant. Talk about hell and judgment. Talk about the blood of Christ. Talk about the cross and atonement for sins. Don’t tone down the demand for commitment to Christ and for surrender to His lordship. They need to know all of that.

Children cannot be saved until they’re old enough to understand the gospel clearly and embrace it with genuine faith. But you start teaching them as soon as you can. God will know when that heart-readiness comes.

People always ask me what that age is. It’s different for every child, but they do need to be mature enough to understand sin, righteousness, repentance, faith and punishment. They need to be old enough to understand the seriousness of their sin and the nature of God’s holy standard.

It’s your job to just start teaching and teaching and teaching. And as they develop that understanding, God will work His work when they reach the point of comprehension. I like to call those “steps toward God,” and every time your children take a step toward God and say, “I want to ask Jesus into my heart,” you affirm that. God knows when it blossoms into the real thing.

This post is based on a sermon Dr. MacArthur preached in 1996, titled “God’s Pattern for Parents, Part 1.” In addition to serving as the pastor of Grace Community Church and the voice of Grace to You, Dr. MacArthur is the chancellor of The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, Calif. You can learn more about TMU at masters.edu.