Catechism in the Classroom: Reflections of a First-Grade Teacher
Do you know what will test your embrace of the doctrine of total depravity? Hearing 15 six-year-olds look up at you, with the sweetness and innocence present only in a child’s eyes, and say, one after the other, “I am corrupt in every part of my being.”
I grew up in a home with parents who taught me to inhale with joy the fragrance of TULIP. Being familiar with these doctrines from a young age, I assumed their truthfulness and enjoyed arguing to represent them, particularly when someone ignorant enough to hold an alternate position was present. I felt proud to champion these truths with boldness and conviction (and on occasion, to show that I wasn't taking things too seriously, a little bit of sass).
Though I maintain a deep gratitude for my early exposure to these precious doctrines, I look back on my early embrace of them and find aspects of it sorely lacking. Championing these truths was more often a quick regurgitation than a thorough digestion of them. I mean that I did not wrestle through the profundity, and yes, even the difficulty that some of these realities present. I could hold my own in the context of theological youth-group banter, but I did not sit with the theology we volleyed back and forth so effortlessly. I didn’t ponder deeply what it meant exactly when I said, for example, that under Adam’s curse we are totally depraved.
I grew up in a home with parents who taught me to inhale with joy the fragrance of TULIP. Being familiar with these doctrines from a young age, I assumed their truthfulness and enjoyed arguing to represent them, particularly when someone ignorant enough to hold an alternate position was present. I felt proud to champion these truths with boldness and conviction (and on occasion, to show that I wasn't taking things too seriously, a little bit of sass).
Though I maintain a deep gratitude for my early exposure to these precious doctrines, I look back on my early embrace of them and find aspects of it sorely lacking. Championing these truths was more often a quick regurgitation than a thorough digestion of them. I mean that I did not wrestle through the profundity, and yes, even the difficulty that some of these realities present. I could hold my own in the context of theological youth-group banter, but I did not sit with the theology we volleyed back and forth so effortlessly. I didn’t ponder deeply what it meant exactly when I said, for example, that under Adam’s curse we are totally depraved.
Doctrine Tested
God has been gracious to keep my heart fully convinced of the soundness of these doctrines, but he has also been gracious to refine and deepen my belief in them. One such instance of deepening came recently, in the ordinary weekly rhythm of what Agape Christi calls “memory checks” — a simple procedure where a teacher or volunteer tests each student for their retention of the week’s memory work. One particular week, the assigned catechism question was as follows,
To which each student was to reply,
Friday afternoon came as usual and I sat in a small blue chair with my clipboard and pen in hand. My first student came out, two little buns of curly dark hair situated on the top of her head, with her soft dark eyes eager to relay her memory work to me. First, she recited a Bible passage from Isaiah 40, and then my question came: “Macey, how sinful are you by nature?” Her tender voice replied, “I am corrupt in every part of my being.”
Though I fully anticipated her reply to my question (I had it written down in front of me), something about hearing it come from her — a six-year-old girl, dressed in a blue plaid dress, which she spun gently as she repeated, "I am corrupt in every part of my being" — took me by surprise. “Very good, Macey, please get Peter for me.”
My next student came out, his humble blue eyes wide, bright, and also ready to give his answer to my question: “How sinful are you by nature, Peter?” “I am corrupt in every part of my being.” Again, though I had complete foresight into his response to me, I was taken aback by his answer.
They came one after the other, until 40 minutes later I had listened to 15 six- and seven-year-olds tell me, in the first-person-singular, “I am corrupt in every part of my being.” At the end of this Friday memory check I was on the verge of tears. Why? What happened to my youth-group boldness? Where were my quick-witted comments? I felt none of the argument-adrenaline I did before. Instead, I felt almost weary. I was worn down by hearing fifteen children, so seemingly innocent, recite a confession I had so easily touted with triumph.
Q: “How sinful are you by nature?”
A: “I am corrupt in every part of my being.”
Though I fully anticipated her reply to my question (I had it written down in front of me), something about hearing it come from her — a six-year-old girl, dressed in a blue plaid dress, which she spun gently as she repeated, "I am corrupt in every part of my being" — took me by surprise. “Very good, Macey, please get Peter for me.”
My next student came out, his humble blue eyes wide, bright, and also ready to give his answer to my question: “How sinful are you by nature, Peter?” “I am corrupt in every part of my being.” Again, though I had complete foresight into his response to me, I was taken aback by his answer.
They came one after the other, until 40 minutes later I had listened to 15 six- and seven-year-olds tell me, in the first-person-singular, “I am corrupt in every part of my being.” At the end of this Friday memory check I was on the verge of tears. Why? What happened to my youth-group boldness? Where were my quick-witted comments? I felt none of the argument-adrenaline I did before. Instead, I felt almost weary. I was worn down by hearing fifteen children, so seemingly innocent, recite a confession I had so easily touted with triumph.
Reckoning with the World's Scorn
Why am I saying this? Because I think Christians who have grown up with the immense privilege of good teaching need their embrace of that teaching to be tested, really tested. We need to stand up to the steel-man argument of our opponent, look him in the eye, and determine on the basis of the Scriptures if our embrace of that teaching can still hold. That Friday memory check served as this kind of moment for me — a reckoning with all the world could throw at the doctrines of grace. In this case the steel man looked like a blue-eyed little boy who shuffled his feet as he spoke.
As I pondered this on my drive home from work, I could hear the world’s scorn ringing in my ears. I could hear John, a man I met on an airplane the week before, who practically laughed when I told him I believed God wrote the New Testament. What would John, a representative of the world’s ridicule of the hard truths in Scripture, say about those 40 minutes? He had spoken with contempt about the Catholic school he attended growing up where he was brainwashed with religious nonsense. John would probably flash a bewildered, angry look at me: “You’re going to make an innocent six-year-old kid tell you they are corrupt in every part of their being?”
As I pondered this on my drive home from work, I could hear the world’s scorn ringing in my ears. I could hear John, a man I met on an airplane the week before, who practically laughed when I told him I believed God wrote the New Testament. What would John, a representative of the world’s ridicule of the hard truths in Scripture, say about those 40 minutes? He had spoken with contempt about the Catholic school he attended growing up where he was brainwashed with religious nonsense. John would probably flash a bewildered, angry look at me: “You’re going to make an innocent six-year-old kid tell you they are corrupt in every part of their being?”
A Blood-Bought Answer
Well, am I? Yet, that's not the most important question to ask. The crucial question is this: Does God say that six-year-olds and every person born under Adam are corrupt in every part of their being?
Not only this passage, but many more throughout Scripture lay out the truth that in Adam, every person born is corrupted by sin through and through, and therefore we are born without God and without hope. And yet, the precious news of the gospel is that Christ did not leave us there. God does not leave the six-year-old with the simple admittance that he is corrupted by sin. His mercy and pity compelled him to give us another answer to different question:
Let the world go on in laughing scorn. Those redeemed by the Lamb may embrace difficult doctrines, yes, but we hold them with deeper joy and expectation than the world will ever know. Because, when by the Spirit a person genuinely owns their thoroughgoing corruption, Christ does a miraculous work. He sprinkles on that person his spotless blood and cleanses him, so that instead of being corrupt in every part of his being, he is renewed in every part of his being. That is good news for my friend John on the airplane, for my first grade class, and for a first grade teacher who is growing deeper in the doctrines of grace.
We have already charged that all . . . are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:9–18)
Not only this passage, but many more throughout Scripture lay out the truth that in Adam, every person born is corrupted by sin through and through, and therefore we are born without God and without hope. And yet, the precious news of the gospel is that Christ did not leave us there. God does not leave the six-year-old with the simple admittance that he is corrupted by sin. His mercy and pity compelled him to give us another answer to different question:
Q. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer. (Westminster Shorter Catechism)