Explaining the Gospel to Children

During one of my first conversations with my then-preschool- aged daughter about Christ and her need for salvation, she was lying in my lap looking up at me. The perfect scenario for my precious little girl to learn about the Gospel, I thought. But soon after I started explaining in my very best kid-friendly theology, she became distracted. Still looking up at me from my lap, she announced,"Mom? Did you know that you have tiny hairs inside your nose?"

The second time she brought up questions about salvation, we were only a couple sentences into the conversation, when she noticed, "Look Mom -- I have lines on my toe!"

Talking to kids with short attention spans about these somewhat abstract ideas can be challenging. So one way we tried to help our little girls understand the Gospel was to create a gulf of sin right in our family room. Here's how you can do the same.

Item(s) Needed:
Colored Tape

Preparation:
Place one long line of colored tape on one side of a room representing God and another line of tape at the opposite end of the room representing "me." Then using the tape again, spell out the word, "sin" in the middle to illustrate how our sin separates us from God.



Lesson:
Next allow your children to try and cross from one line to the other -- they can hop, jump, skip or dive. Ours even tried cheating by shimmying along the couch. One word of caution, don't underestimate how far little legs can jump -- put the lines far apart to avoid their actually making it across to God!

Talk to your kids about ways people might try and get to God on their own. Then read Romans 3:23 together to explain how even with our very best efforts, we still fall short of God.

Next read Romans 5:8 and 6:23 together to show them how Christ died for us to make a way for us to be with God. Use the tape to make a cross from one side of the "divide" to the other to help them see how only Jesus can take away our sin and make a way to God. Kids will enjoy helping you mark the cross with tape and balancing on the narrow lines to make their way over to the other side.



If your children are still following, you can spend some time talking about how we receive this gift by admitting that we have sinned and deserve death and and about how we can receive God's gift of salvation in Christ. We can do this by repenting or turning away from our sin and trusting in Him for salvation.

Closing Prayer: If your child understands and is ready, guide him or her through a prayer to place their faith in Christ. However if they are not ready to respond, don't push the decision. Instead pray for the Spirit to continue whispering Truth to their hearts in ways they will understand. Then be ready to continue taking opportunities to respond to questions. Even if you only get a few sentences of simple explanation into them before they trail off to random notions such as nose hairs or toe lines, you can still know that you are laying an important foundation for their growing faith!

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Do you have a practical way of helping children understand the Gospel? If so, please share it by commenting below.