In my decade-plus-long tenure as a youth pastor, I have reviewed many applications for baptism. The goal was for students to explain their story of trusting in Jesus and articulate the gospel, which they would soon publicly proclaim. There is one application I still remember to this day.
In it, the student expressed that she always felt that her obedience to Christ had to be perfect. She thought that the options were: go to church all the time and be perfect, or burn in hell. Eventually, she walked away for a time because she said that faith, as she understood it, was manipulative and suffocating. She felt that she could never be perfect to please God, so why do so? She hated God, the church, and everything about the Christian faith. Everything that people around her in the church used to reinforce good behavior was based on shame. How did she get that idea? Why was she pursuing baptism now?
Understanding Grace in a World of Reward/Punishment
Grace can be a foreign concept for teenagers because the primary motivator in almost every context of their lives is reward/punishment—the carrot in the front and a stick in the back. In school, they are rewarded with grades, scholarships, college admission, and even award ceremonies for their academic achievement. In sports, if they don’t focus at practice, the team is punished by running suicides. At home, if they speak disrespectfully to parents, they lose their phone privileges.
It is natural for teenagers to conclude that the Christian life has the same reward/punishment paradigm. On the surface, this appears to be the case. We go to heaven if we are good Christians, we go to hell if we reject God. We are told to do certain things (go to church, pray) and to avoid others (premarital sex, lying). In the law of the old covenant, God even promises blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience as the Israelites enter the promised land (Deut. 28). Like my student in her testimony, this can cause us to give up on the Christian life because we just can’t meet the high standards, no matter how hard we try. As we grow to understand the gospel, we learn that the heart of it all is a grace-based paradigm. Here are three reasons why:
Grace Means Salvation is Unmerited
After the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea, God gave them the Law on Mount Sinai. Most people think God’s conversation with Israel on Sinai starts with the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). But right before that God says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex. 20:2). God tells his people how to live after telling them who he is and what his relationship to them is. He is not only a judge who gives us a law; he is a loving Father who rescued his children when they had no way of saving themselves. The law is born out of a relationship, not a reward/consequence paradigm.
In fact, the truth behind the law is that none of us is capable of meriting anything with God. Behind the list of dos and don’ts is a clear message: “If a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law” (Gal. 3:21). No one is capable of keeping the entire law, which is why we need a savior. We teach our kids to love God, but how much do we teach about how God loves them—that he sent his Son to die for them? The first stresses obligation, while the second stresses an identity built on grace. If we teach them that his love for them precedes anything they do or don’t do, it will be easier to see their lives as a response to grace rather than as an audition for acceptance.
Grace Teaches Us to be Holy
People commonly understand grace as letting someone off the hook after a transgression. If you don’t pay your electric bill on time, the power company will sometimes give you a grace period, meaning they won’t charge you a late fee upon submission. But that is not the Bible’s definition. Paul gives us a clearer picture of grace: “For the grace of God…teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12 NIV). God’s goal is for us to be made into the image of Christ (Col. 3:10), so his grace in salvation is meant to accomplish this purpose.
In the world, grace is often an excuse to continue in self-indulgence. But in the Bible, grace fuels a holy life. It teaches us to say no to that which displeases God. Coaches, teachers, and even parents sometimes believe in withholding benefits because they want teenagers to earn them. But God’s love and salvation are not carrots handed out upon a sufficient performance. Rather, they are the power to live the life that pleases him, something no teen can do on their own.
Grace is How We Access God
One of the benefits of great academic, artistic, and athletic performance is the admittance into exclusive groups. The National Honor Society recognizes great academic achievement. Youth orchestras have auditions to find the most talented musicians. Elite sports teams hold tryouts to get the best athletes. The admittance is selective and based on performance. If you survive the initiation, you can hold your head up high for being part of such an exclusive group. No one can merit being part of God’s people. This is incredibly humbling for many teenagers who base their identity on being top-tier students.
At the same time, it’s an incredible relief. Scripture says, “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Rom. 5:1-2 NIV). Our access to God is not based on our performance; it’s based on his grace. We are justified by faith, not by works, college applications, letters of recommendation, or grade-point averages. And that faith we have is a grace from God. He made salvation possible by sending Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sins. Our access to God is not based on anything we can do, but on what God has done for us in Christ.
Not the End of the Story
As you can probably imagine, the story I shared was only the beginning of that student’s application for baptism. She went on to describe how God had met her and showed her a new faith, one that depended on him alone, not on what she had or hadn’t done. He opened her eyes to see the unconditional grace and faithfulness that he has shown his people from the beginning of time. She is now faithfully serving God well into her young adult years.
The teenagers we serve may see the world as a stage on which they have to perform. After all, they are constantly striving for a limited number of spots on elite sports teams, musical groups, and top-tier colleges. This can lead them to dismay in the realization that they will never measure up. But as spiritual leaders, we can help them see that this is not how the gospel works. The grace of God is the reason he hears us in prayer. It’s the reason we can live a life pleasing to him. It’s the reason we can be counted righteous in his sight despite our sin. It’s based on God’s love for us, not anything that we can offer him.
Our Foundations of Grace curriculum gives students a richer understanding of what it means that they are saved by grace through faith by exploring two of Paul’s richest books: Romans and Ephesians.
