Introduction

There's something about long road trips that tends to prompt questions from the children. And I'm not just talking about the "Are we there yet?" questions. No. As the fields flow by a child's vision they stimulate hundreds of questions about life, and why God made clouds float, and do baby cows have teeth? But they also have lots of questions about God's purposes in life. For some parents this can prompt irritation. But verse 20 encourages us to take advantage of such questions - and use them for discipleship. They are great opportunities for discipleship, and when properly answered, can stimulate even greater curiosity about God, God's Word, and His world.

Don't get irritated by questions - expect them (v. 20)

Verse 20 begins by anticipating such questions. It says, “When your son asks you in time to come…” God assumes that your children will ask, and He wants us parents to be ready to answer. And you don't have to be a theologian to answer all their questions. In fact, it is probably better to be a story teller. I wish I had learned how to tell stories better when my children were younger.

So when the son in the back seat asks, "Dad... why do we go to church and Johnny doesn't?", instead of sighing, dad smiles because he knows that this is a perfect opportunity for more discipleship.

Curiosity is an opportunity for discipleship

And curiosity should be taken advantage of. Usually, children are far more curious than many adults sometimes are, which means that children are in a far better place to learn than many adults are. Every "Why?" question is asking others to help them to understand reality, and is a doorway to the child's heart.

Explain faith - don't assume it

And children love to ask questions about the Bible lessons that they have heard. They are quite capable of asking questions like the one in verse 20: "What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?" Now, you may not be able to provide a perfect answer, but you can at least start. I find it interesting that the child has not yet embraced the law - he didn't say, "commanded us." He said, "commanded you." Which may explain why the beginning of the answer is the Gospel, not an immediate answer concerning the law. So even how questions are asked can adjust our discipleship. And in the process of discipleship in this section, the dad helps the child to take ownership.

It would be easy for a father to say at this point, "Son, you've grown up in this family. You should know the answer to that." But God does not want us to shut down curious minds. There is a huge difference between exposure to the Bible and really understanding the Bible. A child can be exposed to family worship, and hear everything that everyone else is hearing, and even notice the Scriptures being modeled by the parents, yet still not grasp why. It's sort of like a person being exposed to a car by riding in it every day, but not really understanding how it works. So the father does not assume - he explains. He tries to go a bit deeper than he has gone before.

Never tire of your Gospel story (v. 21-23)

And in this father's explanation, he begins with a story rather than beginning with the rules that the son has asked about. He gets to the rules, so his answer is not avoidance of the question. Instead, it is setting the context for his answer. It is the story of Israel's redemption. But it could just as easily have been his own Gospel story. We should never tire of the Gospel being on our lips when we dialogue with our children.

And in your outlines I've broken up the essence of the Gospel story using four words. Verse 21 begins the story: "then you shall say to your son: 'We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand;'" That clause gives us the first two Gospel words in your outline:

Bondage - "We were slaves..."

The first word is "bondage." He says, "we were slaves" - implying that they aren't slaves anymore. They have experienced the freedom that we looked at in the first two exchanges of last week's sermon in Colossians 3:1-4. In fact, the whole book of Exodus is a book on redemption, and the book of Leviticus points to Christ as the only source of redemption, the reason for God's law, and the only way to keep God's law. So this father is pointing the son back to the bondage that all Israel once experienced. He could have described it in very graphic terms - the daily beatings, the hunger, the daily drudgery, and the other painful things that they experienced. This narration would hugely help the child to appreciate the fact that (because of the covenant) he has not been experiencing that slavery.

Of course, Israel's story is a paradigm for the story of all of our lives outside of Christ. This dad could have just as easily have said, "Son, I wasn't always free. I was bound to sin, to fear, to selfishness - and sin was absolutely ruining my life. I thought I could improve on my own, but every time I tried, I failed. I was a slave to sin. Try as I might, I couldn't conquer my temper, my lusts, and my covetousness. It wasn't until someone introduced me to Jesus that I began to see how Jesus could supply everything that I was lacking. When I cast my sins on Jesus and trusted that His death was sufficient to deal with all my failures, I was overwhelmed with peace for the first time in my life. I also began to experience His power in overcoming my sins and my demonic bondage. It was glorious! And you too can experience God's grace helping you to overcome some of the sins that you have been struggling with." So the bottom line is that bondage to sin is the experience of every person who has not put his or her trust in Jesus (who was their future Messiah).

Your own narration of how God's grace helped you to overcome a life of bondage can give your child a concrete desire to know the reality of the same freedom from bondage in his or her own life. Bondage need not be a mystery. Every example of bondage to sin that your child experiences can easily become the basis for the Gospel story to take root.

Deliverance - "the LORD brought us out"

"Deliverance" is the next glorious Gospel word. The text says, "the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand." Dad basically says, "It wasn't that we figured it out. It wasn't self-improvement. It was that God came for us, adopted us into His family, rescued us from Satan, and gave us a new purpose. It was undeserved grace. This is why we worship God every day and why we can't get enough of thanking God for having delivered us from such bondage."

Such concrete explanations can help our children learn to appreciate why worship and praise should always be on our lips. We serve a glorious Savior who has indeed delivered us from bondage.

Power - "signs and wonders"

The next word that I love is "power." Oh my! This word needs to be on our lips far more. Our children need to know that there is a power available to each of us to do what God has commanded us to do. We need to point to this before we go on to explaining the laws and commandments of the Bible. The law must always be explained in the context of the Gospel. Their disobedience needs to drive them to the Gospel. The Gospel is the only way that the law becomes the perfect law of liberty.

The children need to know that Christianity is not just a belief system. It is a belief system - a glorious belief system, but it is far more than that. The God who made this universe is now on our side offering His power to overcome the things that previously we could not overcome. So this dad mentions in verse 22 God's "signs and wonders."

And as the car continues to drive down the road, dad might mention situations that he absolutely could not change on his own, but God could and did. Or he might mention the time that they didn't have enough money to pay the rent for their house, and they had nothing more to pawn at the pawn shop, so mom and dad had dropped to their knees and asked God to rescue them. And dad says, "A man came up to our house and told us that God had put on his heart to give us this envelope. We thanked the man and he left, never to be seen again. Well, when we opened up the envelope, inside was exactly the amount of money we needed to pay our rent." Stories like this connect with children and make them want to know about God's signs and wonders in their own lives. The dad might say, "We wondered if that man might have been an angel. We don't know for sure. But we do know that God sent that man to us just when we needed him."

And dad keeps telling stories to the child of the reality of God's power - His signs and wonders in their own lives. Some of God's provisions were ordinary signs of God being with them and other were wonders - miracles of huge magnitude. But through transparent sharing with the children, God begins to become just as real to the child as He is to the parent. I think that is what God is wanting to happen in this paragraph. For God to become just as real to the child as He is to the parent.

This is what discipleship is all about. It's not just transferring head-knowledge. It is transferring the reality of God's work and His presence into the lives of your children in tangible ways that connect. Of course, this assumes that you have experienced God's power in a real way. And if you haven't, I would encourage you to look up last week's sermon on Colossians 3:1-4 on the web and pray the prayer at the end of that sermon¹ - and keep praying it until you begin to experience the reality of God's power on a daily basis. Ephesians 1:19 says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is a power that is at work in the lives of those who live by faith. It is our inheritance because we are united with Jesus. And Paul tells us to keep seeking those things which are above (where Christ is) and asking the Holy Spirit to transfer the life of Christ into your life. It is heaven invading earth. Now, if you have experienced the third exchange in last week's sermon, then you should have similar stories of God's signs and wonders in your own life.

Purpose - "that He might bring us in"

The next word is "purpose." I think you can see some of the parallels between these four words and the four exchanges that we looked at last week in Colossians 3:1-4. Verse 23 shows the purpose for Israel. "Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers." God had a purpose for Israel, and He has a purpose for every individual that He saves - including an eternal purpose. And it is a certain purpose - a purpose that God has sworn will happen.

So while dad is driving the car, he might keep looking at the road ahead and say that just as we are driving somewhere with a goal and a purpose, God has a goal and a purpose for our lives, and we keep discovering more and more of His purpose for us. You tell your son, "Life is an exciting adventure when you know God. We aren't driving aimlessly, and God's purposes for our lives are not aimless either."

Now this boy understands something that connects. God is real. He is not only a savior in the past, but He is working in their lives day by day. This is what discipling our children is all about. It is helping our children to connect with the reality of God's grace at work in our lives.

Explain the "why" of obedience to your children (v. 24)

But children don't run out of questions. And the child might repeat, "So why all the commandments?" In this case, the child doesn't have to repeat because dad remembers. Now that he has explained the Gospel, he explains why God has given His laws to us.

The laws show our relationship to the covenant LORD (v. 24a)

In the first part of verse 24 the father says, "And the LORD commanded us..." The word "LORD" is in all capital letters, and any time that you see that, you know that it is God's covenant name, Yehowah (or some people pronounce it Jehovah - either pronunciation is OK. Some people pronounce it Yahweh. I don't buy that pronunciation because I believe the vowel points were inspired and added by Ezra to clarify the true pronunciation of words. It is either Yehowah or the Anglicized Jehovah). Anyway, Dad could go on to explain, "God entered into covenant with us, and drew us into such a tight relationship with Him that He was willing to reveal His name to us. That is so awesome! God loves us. He has adopted us. We are in His family. And He is faithful to His covenant when we look by faith to Him. He is our covenant God, and He has placed His name upon us."

And the dad might say, "Just as I give commands to you because you are in relationship with me, God gave commands to us because He is in a close relationship with us - all of us. He loves us and He wants the best for us, and He knows better than we do what direction we should take. His commands show us the direction that our lives should take, and show us how we can reciprocate the same covenant love back to Him."

God's laws give structure to our lives (v. 24b)

And of course, those commands were not intended to be mere theory. They were intended to structure our lives, which is the next point. They aren't just commands to read about as if they have nothing to do with us. Verse 24 goes on to say, "commanded us to observe all these statutes..." And the dad can say, "Son, the reason I am involved in guiding your life is because I love you. The reason God is involved in our lives is because He loves us. And observing and keeping His laws shows that we understand and appreciate our covenant relationship. God is structuring every area of our lives with these commandments. They give us guidance for our careers, for our worship, for our physical care of our bodies, for the spiritual care of our souls. In the past we have already looked at the meaning of each of the synonyms for the law, so I won’t repeat them this morning. But God's commands structure absolutely everything that we do. That's why we want to live by every word of God."

And that might lead to more questions about how the Bible structures our lives. So dad might have to be prepared to explain how hidden in God's commands are axioms for mathematics, geometry, science, and other areas of life. (We will look at those next week, Lord willing.) But God's law is not about a legalistic "do this" and "do that" that has no connection to life. No - it all connects in a very tangible way. When we keep God's commands and cherish them, God opens those commandments up to us in a way that makes life make sense.

God's laws develop reverence for God (v. 24c)

But dad goes on to explain that this relationship that structures our lives was designed to also instill fear in us. So he goes on to say, "to fear Yehowah our God." "You see, son, God is more powerful than our mayor, our governor, or our king. God created the whole world, and though He loves us dearly, He also expects us to honor and respect him - even more than you honor and respect your parents."

When the children see that the parents have reverence for God, that reverence begins to convince the child of what a great God we serve. It begins to catch the heart of the child. God is so great that we gladly reverence Him.

God's laws are not arbitrary - "for our good always" (v. 24d)

Dad hastens to add, "for our good always" (verse 24). What does that mean? Well, it means (in part) that "God's commands are not arbitrary; they are always intended for our well-being, safety, happiness, and our good." The dad might go on to say, "Do you remember the time that I yelled at you 'Son, stop right now! Stop!' and you obeyed. You didn't realize that your were almost ready to step on a nest of rattle snakes. But because you obeyed me instantly, you didn't get bit. And you were glad. In the same way, we can rest assured that God's commands are always for our good. Some commands are for our spiritual good; others are for our economic good; others are for our country's good; and some commands are even for our bodies’ physical good. We have a good God and He has given us good laws. This is why we regularly thank God for His laws and rejoice in them." You see, this is the kind of natural conversation with a child that can instill an even greater desire in that child to know God and to study His Word.

God's laws help promote an enduring culture (v. 24e)

Dad goes on to say in the last part of verse 24, "that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day." That's another way that God uses His laws for our good - but this time corporate good - to promote an enduring culture. I love what one commentary said on this verse. It said,

A shepherd does not erect a fold about his sheep to prevent them from having a good time with the wolves, but rather that he “might preserve” them “alive"²

This is making God's covenant instruction as practical and real as possible for your children. Children need regular instruction throughout the day - not just in mathematics and biology, but in the foundation for mathematics and biology - that we must presuppose God and His Word in everything we do. God's laws reveal His character, correct the muddied knowledge of His law that was written on our hearts, and correspond to the world that He made in such a way that it helps us to be a success. The Apologetics Conference this Saturday will tie all of this together by showing how the Christian worldview is a cohesive worldview that is consistent and comprehensive of all of life. (Now, you probably shouldn't show up at the conference if you haven't registered. But there is still room if you want to register. And there is a special price to members of DCC - 5 bucks.) Anyway, there is a perfect correspondence between God, His revelation, His image in man, and the world out there. And Dr. Greg Bahnsen was so brilliant in showing the total cohesiveness and consistency of the Christian worldview. It is the only worldview that has that total cohesiveness. And I highly recommend that you come to the conference to see that. It's dealing with three foundational issues of worldview. And then there is going to be a question and answer time. And there will be a bunch of books for sale by various vendors. (You can tell that I am doing a sales job for it.)

Define true righteousness (v. 25)

In any case, this dad's instruction of his child continues in verse 25. He says, "Then it will be righteousness for us." Dad is explaining what true righteousness looks like.

Being in a right relationship with God (v. 25a)

It starts with a right relationship with God. Now, he has already dealt with that to some degree in verses 20-23, but commentators point out that this phrase deals with that right relationship with God as well. Let me explain. The phrase I just read ("Then it will be righteousness for us") uses the Hebrew word ṣĕdāqâ, rather than the word for holiness. Commentators point out that it is the word used in Genesis 15:6, where it says of Abraham, "And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." When we believe God and commit ourselves to live in covenant with Him, it is at that very point righteousness for us - even before we have started maturing in obedience. He is talking about a right relationship with God - in other words, justification. Let me quote several commentators so that you can see that this is not just Phil Kayser's interpretation. The New American Commentary says,

"The word used here is ṣĕdāqâ, the very one applied to Abraham as a result of his having believed in the Lord (Gen 15:6). Later Judaism wrongly concluded that covenant keeping was the basis for righteousness rather than an expression of faithful devotion. But true covenant keeping in the final analysis is a matter of faith, not merely of works and ritual. Thus the central feature of the covenant stipulations is their providing a vehicle by which genuine saving faith might be displayed (cf. Deut 24:13; Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; 4:1–5; Gal 3:6–7)."³

The New International Commentary on the Old Testament says much the same. It says,

"Righteousness in this context describes a true and personal relationship with the covenant God (see also Gen. 15:6), which not only would be a spiritual reality, but would be seen in the lives of the people of God. Thus the answer to the son’s question finally focuses on the proper relationship of a man to God, and the fruit of that relationship in daily life."⁴

Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary says,

"Moses did not offer the people a works-righteousness by keeping the Law. Righteousness is a right relationship with God. God initiates this relationship, and His children respond to it as an expression of love."⁵

John MacArthur says,

"6:25 righteousness for us. A true and personal relationship with God that would be manifest in the lives of the people of God. There was no place for legalism or concern about the external since the compelling motive for this righteousness was to be love for God (v. 5)."⁶

Albert Barnes says,

"it shall be our righteousness] i.e. God will esteem us righteous and deal with us accordingly. Moses from the very beginning made the whole “righteousness of the Law” to depend entirely on a right state of the heart, in one word, on faith."⁷

So the dad points out that our commitment of faith to covenant with God draws us into a relationship with God of legal righteousness. That's a very important foundation for dealing with the law of God. But that faith is not a dead faith. It is a faith that works. So the next phrase continues:

Careful obedience is consistent with that right relationship (v. 25b)

"...if we are careful to observe all these commandments..." David Guzik points out that no one can perfectly keep all God's commandments, which drives us back to our relationship with God, who alone can make us righteous and who alone can sanctify us. As I pointed out in last week's sermon, all four exchanges are tied together. They cannot be separated. But that means that justification cannot be separated from sanctification.

In any case, careful obedience is consistent with that right relationship with God and always flows from it. I think that takes seriously the Hebrew grammatical connection implied by the “if,” though the Hebrew word “ki’ is better translated as “when.” The word “if” can be ambiguous. But either way, the book of James points out, we have a dead faith and a fake justification if we never keep God's commandments. Jesus died to give us His righteousness legally. But everyone for whom He died also gets Christ's resurrection life being lived out through Him in sanctification as well. In other words, the first two legal exchanges that we examined last week automatically result in at least some experience of the third exchange - where we see God putting into our lives what we could not do on our own - the practical righteousness of Jesus. But we need to pursue that third exchange more and more.

A righteousness lived out coram deo (v. 25c)

And all of this is not just to look good before others. This dad goes on to say, "to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God..." It is a righteousness lived out coram deo, or before the face of God. If you only live to keep up with the Jones' expectations, or dad's expectations, you are deviating from God's path of righteousness. You are like that deaf man in last week's sermon who is pretending to hear the music in the room, and pretending be fulfilled by tapping his feet, snapping his fingers, and swaying - but doing it all to music he has not heard - he's deaf. He's just imitating those who can hear the music. All he can do is pretend to be fulfilled. But if you keep all God's commandments before His face, moment by moment you will not only realize your own inadequacies, but you will realize the power that God continues to work in you and through you.

This righteousness looks to God to define obedience (v. 25d)

But finally, dad says that we can't make up our own moral code. True righteousness looks to God and to God alone to define obedience. This is the problem I have with natural law ethics - it’s not looking to the law of God in Scripture to define true righteousness. Dad says, "as He has commanded us." Those who are justified and in right relationship with God don't need to lower God's standards in order to keep them. Why? Because they are secure in justification, and they are keeping God's commands out of love, not in order to be saved. So they don't need to lower God's standards. There is a logic in the order of the paragraph.

Nor do those who are justified want to lower God's standards. While confessing our unworthiness (as the first verses clearly do), we also confess our deep desire to be more and more holy, more and more conformed to God's image, and to experience more and more of His grace. But it is our legal security in God's covenant grace that enables us to keep going before His throne and to keep asking for more grace to keep His commandments. So it is important to maintain the order of verses 20-23 in order to rightly keep verses 24-25. And when children see that deep desire in the parents, they begin to catch it for themselves.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, this little section tells moms and dads how to converse with their children and disciple them in a Gospel-oriented way. It reminds us that every question is an invitation to tell a story - the story, and to apply that story to the situations of life that those children find themselves in. It's a call to be real with our children, transparent with our children, and to pass on the faith that we treasure to our children.

J. Vernon McGee had one of the best applications of this whole passage of any commentary that I read. And he's not even Reformed, but I really like what he said. It's a bit long, but I think it is worth reading. He divides the entire passage up into three phrases, "I have been saved...I am being saved... [and] I shall be saved." It's a little bit different than my structure, but I think it captures the essence of the paragraph as well. So, if you want, you can write these three phrases as three sub-points under the conclusion. He said,

[First] I have been saved. We already have eternal life. We already stand before God in all the righteousness and merit of our Savior. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11–12).

[Second] I am being saved. God is working in my life, shaping, guiding, molding me to conform me more and more to His own dear Son. “… Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13). This is not working for salvation, but the working out of salvation in our lives.

[Third] I shall be saved. Don’t be discouraged with me, because God is not through with me yet. And I won’t be discouraged with you, because God is not through with you either. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

And McGee goes on to say,

A dear little lady got up in a testimony meeting and said that every Christian should have printed on his back a sign that reads: “This is not the best that the grace of God can do.” How true that is! God is not through with any one of us. But “when he shall appear, we shall be like him.”⁸

Amen! This realization that God has saved us out of bondage by grace alone, that He continues to produce His character in us (by grace working through our labors), and will continue to do so until the day of Jesus Christ is (I think) a very encouraging message. May we embrace it and communicate it to our children. Amen.