What I Never Heard in Sunday School

I still have the first Bible I was ever given. Words on the black, fake leather cover say it’s not just a Bible but a Holy Bible. And the cover also has my name printed in gold letters near the bottom. Along with all the other third graders, I received my Bible in Sunday school at my church. I think the church high-ups viewed this gift ritual as a rite of passage. Maybe the size and weight of a real Bible would be enough to keep young whippersnappers out of trouble and on the straight and narrow path. I don’t think that strategy was completely successful. But I felt special. Now I had my own Bible.

That big, black book spent most of the time on my bookshelf. Its contents seemed important but complicated. So, I rarely opened it. And when I did, the breeze created by thumbing its pages had an air of mystery and the smell of holiness.

Sometimes I would tuck that Bible under my arm and bring it with me to Sunday school. The feeling was something similar to wearing a new pair of shoes. Initially there’s pride, even elation, but soon the newness wears off. Eventually, it was easier just to leave that book at home. Sadly, I don’t recall ever needing my Bible in Sunday school.

In Sunday school, we plastered Bible characters onto flannel boards and sang This Is My Father’s World accompanied by a half-tuned, hand-me-down piano. And our teachers suggested that being good enough to get into heaven comes mostly by trying exceptionally hard to behave yourself.

I wouldn’t expect elementary-aged kids to have the theological acumen to grasp biblical nuances. But from my vantage point of years past Sunday school, I now see glaring omissions of truths I should have heard even as a child. Simply put, some things got left out—some very important things. Here are six essential truths I never heard in Sunday school:

God always loves you no matter what you do.

One of the great temptations is to make good behavior a prerequisite for getting God’s love. Many assume God loves those who behave themselves into being worthy of His love. In this arrangement, the quality of our conduct is in direct proportion to the amount of love we can expect to receive from God.

But this common equation falls apart once we discover that God is loving. God must love. God is love (1 Jn. 4:8). God can’t not love. For God, love is not just an attribute; love is in God’s nature. It’s who God is. We are all, therefore, recipients of God’s love regardless of our conduct.

God’s love is most clearly expressed in the gift of Jesus. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). And in that most famous of Bible verses, John 3:16, we’re told, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The phrase “God so loved” in this passage does not mean God loved so much, although that’s true. In John 3:16, the words God so loved mean God loved in this way or God loved like so: He gave His Son for everyone. This gift of Jesus is the once-and-for-all proof of God’s love for us even though we’re sinners who don’t deserve His love.

You don’t become a good person by trying to keep the Ten Commandments.

Many try their hardest to keep all the right rules, especially the big ten. Some courthouses, schools, and even state capitol buildings display the Ten Commandments as reminders of a moral obligation.

But no one ever becomes a good person by trying to keep the Ten Commandments. Those 10 laws and 603 others were given by God to the nation of Israel. Those laws were a kind of constitution mediated through Moses to help govern God’s people who, up to that point, had only known a life of slavery in Egypt.

But something changed in the New Testament. God tells us that the believer in Jesus is “not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). That’s a drastic change. God has given a new covenant to replace the old covenant. “He has made the first [covenant] obsolete” (Heb. 8:13).

For the curious seeker of spiritual truth, the Old Testament law may be the area of the greatest misplaced allegiance. The law can never get you to be good; it can only get you to act good. God tells us that no one can be justified by keeping the law; instead, we need a righteousness that is apart from the law (Rom. 3:20-21).

Your salvation is received by grace in an instant of faith, and it lasts forever.

If we could behave ourselves into a right relationship with God by keeping all the rules, then Christ died for nothing (Gal. 2:21). Turns out, we need help. And that help comes from outside ourselves. It comes from Jesus.

I was 13 years old before I heard that Jesus took my sins on Himself, died in my place, and extends the offer of salvation free of charge by belief alone. Incredible! On a long, wooden pew in a small chapel, along with a few other teenagers, I believed in Jesus—I became a Christian.

Receiving that gift by faith took place in an instant of time. That’s how salvation occurs. Like the instant of a birth, we are transformed from death to life in a moment of faith (Jn. 3:3, 5-7). Faith is just a response to God’s generous offer—a persuasion or confidence that what God says is true. That new birth experience comes through God’s grace and leaves no room for us to brag about how we might have earned or deserved our salvation (Eph. 2:8-9).

We receive our salvation in an instant of faith, but it lasts forever. Why didn’t anyone tell me this? I’m convinced I could have rejoiced in that truth even as a child! Now I confidently affirm that my salvation is forever. We can delight in Jesus’ words, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (Jn. 5:24).

Believe in Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes to live in you to help you.

I don’t recall hearing anything about the Holy Spirit when I was a child in Sunday school. Maybe that’s because placing the Holy Spirit on a flannel board might prove challenging. What would He look like?

I’m convinced it’s impossible to talk about the Christian life without talking about the Holy Spirit. We might say that the Holy Spirit is the secret to living our lives with God. The moment we place our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of us.

Most of us would prefer Jesus standing beside us in flesh and blood. But Jesus reminds us that it’s better if He goes away. That’s right, better! Only then will He send the Holy Spirit to help us (Jn. 16:7). The Holy Spirit is our comforter and guide. He reminds us what Jesus said, and His convicting power is unleashed in the world. And what better way to understand God’s Word than through a personal connection with the Author.

Jesus promised not to leave His followers as orphans but to send us His Spirit (Jn. 14:18). So, true to His word, He gives us the Holy Spirit, and He will never abandon us. Once we believe in Jesus, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit guaranteeing we’ll be with God forever (Eph. 1:13-14). And get this, God helps us live on purpose by giving us spiritual gifts—supernatural endowments of the Spirit to help us make a unique contribution for building up the body of Christ (Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12).

The Spirit helps us abide in Christ and produce fruit or results from our connection with Jesus. Only if we abide in Christ do we see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

Bad things happen even to good people.

I think the impression I got as a child was that if I’m on God’s side then He’s on mine and nothing bad will ever happen to me. Isn’t God a protective bubble of sorts? Doesn’t God prevent evil and harmful accidents from encroaching on my safe space?

Maybe in an effort to keep kids safe, we don’t talk about the unsafe, especially in Sunday school. If harm or pain comes into our lives, is that a sign that God let His guard down? Is God really incapable of protecting us all the time? Maybe we’d prefer a congenial genie instead of an unreliable God who seems unpredictable when it comes to our protection from harm.

In Sunday school, I never heard that bad things happen to good people. What do we do with crushing disappointment when it arrives in the form of personal tragedy? Could it be easier to just walk away from God when it seems He doesn’t uphold His end of the bargain? Many people do.

Sometimes God may not answer our prayers in the way we want them answered. But He is still good and loving. God grieves over the brokenness in our world. And death and suffering are part of sin’s stranglehold on creation. One day God will make everything right. We’ll live in complete peace and joy with no more pain or suffering.

In the meantime, God works in upside-down ways. Trials and hardship can actually be a catalyst for our own growth toward maturity in Christ. These challenges are an indispensable requirement for our progress toward Christlikeness. The idea seems almost absurd, but we can rejoice in trials because they change us for good if we respond God’s way (Jms. 1:2-4).

God will reward you for your faithfulness.

Salvation is not a reward; it’s a gift given freely through God’s grace. And heaven is a generous guarantee for every Christian. But in addition to the experience of heaven, faithful believers will also be rewarded when standing before Jesus.

Anticipation of reward at the judgment seat of Christ is one of the primary motivators for living for God (Rom. 14:10, 2 Cor. 5:9-10). But many believers are still unaware of this promise. The judgment seat of Christ may be the most important biblical truth you’ve never heard of. But it’s throughout the Bible.

After becoming a Christian, God looks for us to invest our lives in things that matter for eternity. And we’ll be held accountable for our investment. If we build our lives on the foundation of Jesus, we’ll be rewarded. If we build poorly, reward will be withheld (1 Cor. 3:11-15). Invest our lives well and we’ll hear God’s approval, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:20-23).

I like to picture this concept of rewards as one where every believer has a full cup for all eternity, but the size of our cups differs. Live well, and we’ll have a larger cup—a greater capacity for a more profound experience of heaven and God’s eternal kingdom. After belief in Jesus, we prepare for eternity by storing up treasures in heaven in anticipation of being rewarded by Jesus (Matt. 6:19-21). Living a godly life makes a difference in this life and in the life to come (1 Tim. 4:8).

We’ve each been given one life along with the gifts and talents God has graciously provided for us. Now it’s up to us, with God’s help, to be diligent in investing all that we are for God’s glory (2 Pet. 1:5-8, Matt. 25:14-30). When we stand before Jesus, could it be that we’ll hear Him ask us, “What did you do with what I gave you?”

I’m grateful for my Sunday school experience as a child. But essential truths were left out—truths that are the foundation of our faith. I never heard them in Sunday school. These truths help us understand more about how life with God really works. And they make all the difference in the world in creating a joyful and flourishing life with God.