Like a Little Child
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. (Mark 10:15)
Some think that progress in all things is achieved by increasing the knowledge, sophistication, and complication of the matter, whatever it is. Wisdom knows differently, however, that true progress is achieved by simplifying what had been undecipherable.
Mount Everest lay covered in snow, unconquered and seemingly unconquerable until, in 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay found a way. It was a simple and ingenious innovation, that allowed them to get past the technical difficulties, and to scale earth’s tallest peak. At 28,800 feet, just some 300 feet from the summit, they were confronted by a forty foot wall of rock and ice that could spell doom to their venture. Hillary broke down the technical challenges by finding a crack in the wall, wedging shoulder and hands, he “levered” himself up the ice wall and lowered a rope to pull up Norgay. And then they walked the remainder of the way to the top. This forty foot wall of rock and ice came to be known as the “Hillary Step.”
Christ, the Master, revealed a way to span the moral gap between us and God. Or, in the analogy of climbing Everest, he has established a way to scale this unconquerable spiritual mountain that none has been able to master without divine help. There is something within us that blocks the way to God, that prevents us from entering into the kingdom of God — it is called sin. Christ himself spanned the distance from heaven to earth, to make payment himself for the sins of the world, bearing them in his own body. He has moved the mountain of grace from heaven to earth. But there remains a simple but essential matter that is on the human side of the equation — we must put aside our pride and lay ourselves at his feet.
Like a child: This does not describe innocence, for children are not innocent creatures as all parents know. They may not be steeped as deeply in sin as adults are, but they are not set as examples due to their relative lack of sin. As grace proclaims, sinlessness on our human part has never been requirement for salvation, or else Christ died in vain. Neither was Christ, by this statement, advocating ignorance, stupidity, playfulness, or a lack of seriousness. Specifically, Christ did not say that we must receive him “while still a child.” Though it is advisable to come to Christ early in life, and it is dangerous to put off repentance, faith, and obedience, childhood salvations are not required. Many, like King Mannasseh, only come to repentance late in life, but still they are included into the company of the redeemed (2 Chron. 33:12–13).
“Like a child,” describes the humility of soul that does not think in terms of earning or deserving, rather only in receiving, that comes with a spirit that is teachable, with a character that is moldable, and with a desire to please God. As a child finds its identity in the home, and has not yet formed such ambitions of worldly fame, power, or prestige, so we come to God through Christ in simplicity and fidelity of heart. Children are quick to love and to love in simplicity, before they are knocked about by this world and turned into the “proper skeptics” of adulthood.
We must be inquisitive, as children, must learn as children (that is the learning age), and in learning must believe, Oportet discentem credere — A learner must believe. The mind of a child is white paper (tabula rasa — a mere blank), you may write upon it what you will; such must our minds be to the pen of the blessed Spirit. Children are under government; so must we be. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? (Matthew Henry)
With the temper and spirit of a child teachable, mild, humble, and free from prejudice and obstinacy. (Albert Barnes)
Childhood has a special adaptation to Christianity. For instance, take dependence, trust, simplicity, unconsciousness, and docility. These are the very characteristics of childhood, and these are the very emotions of mind and heart which Christianity requires … a faculty of living in the present, free from anxious care and worldly hearts. (Alexander Maclaren)
As totally disclaiming all worthiness and fitness, as if he were but a week old. (John Wesley)
How does a little child receive the kingdom of God? The little child learns to obey its parents simply and uncomplainingly… Jesus here presents the little child with trusting and simple and loving obedience as the model for adults in coming into the kingdom. (A.T. Robertson)
William Barclay identified the traits that Christ alluded to as: humility, obedience, trust, and a short memory. The church would be much blessed by being filled with people with short and shallow memories of others’ faults, and long and deep thoughts of the grace and mercy of God.
I would add to all of these traits that children are also relatively free from worry, as compared to adults. A child looks to the future optimistically, and we in Christ look forward to eternity. In him we have hope and our “youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psa. 103:5). It was a prophecy that in the age of the Church and of the Spirit, in which we live today, visions for the elderly will be common place: “your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).
These words of Christ he never fully explained, or put limits on them. This has opened them up for abuse in some forms — some have gone too far in listening presumed childlike traits that the scripture does not mention. Yet we must assume that Christ knew what he was doing when he spoke these words, and that his Spirit would lead in the understanding and applications of them. So we have some God-given liberty in our interpretation of them — a liberty that we must guard closely so as not to abuse.
Application for us: To what degree have we let the world damage or even destroy our child-likeness that Christ spoke of here? Have we become proud in learning, untrusting and unforgiving toward others? Have we let the unbelief of others plant seeds of doubt and skepticism in our own hearts toward God? Have we lost the beauty and the thrill of being able to call God “Our Heavenly Father?” Have we neglected trust in God and tried to take on our own shoulders the running of this universe? Childhood should mean peace and security, and a childlike spirit trusts in Christ and rests in him.
How wonderfully restoring it is to our souls to just come again to Christ in child-like faith, to just believe — simply and clearly, to love him and trust him, to feel the warmth and assurance of his love. A child allows adults to do for him what he cannot do for himself, and in this spirit we must allow God to do for us what he and he alone can do.
A final thought: I was deprived of my father as a young boy because he abandoned our family, and was thrown too early into the stresses and challenges of adulthood. I could, of course, do nothing about any of that and God has been gracious to become my Father to my fatherless soul. But I would be a fool to deprive myself of God’s fatherhood, to not claim by faith the blessings of his faithfulness. I, like many in these days, have needed a double portion of faith not to worry, because the natural inner security that should have been mine by the influence of a faithful, loving, and responsible earthly father, was never mine.
Perhaps you are like this as well. But I believe in God and have experienced his grace and power that can plant inner security into every heart that trusts in him. I have no human experience to fall back on, so it must constantly be by faith that my heart is guarded. If God can do this in me, then he can do it in you as well.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4:4–9)
