“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.” Psalm 145:3-4 NKJV
*Take a journey with me as we travel together back in time to the ancient Roman Empire. Robert Wolgemuth, in The Most Important Place on Earth: What a Christian Home Looks Like and How to Build One, shares how he and his almost-eight-year-old granddaughter viewed a massive piece of art in a Charlotte, NC museum. It was Jean-Leon Gerome’s 1863 piece called Early Christian Martyrs in the Coliseum at Rome. Personally, I first came across this piece of art myself at Wisconsin’s Northern Grace Youth Camp, where I found a hundred-year-old copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, which I later paid my oldest son something like $20 to read cover-to-cover at about 10 years old.
There was indeed a real-time in history when Christians whose supreme allegiance was to the Sovereign Potentate, the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore refused to bow the knee and confess with their tongues that “Caesar is Lord” were condemned to the arena with wild beasts as entertainment for the Coliseum’s blood-thirsting masses. Reflecting upon this sobering reality, Wolgemuth’s challenge for us is to “imagine what it must have been like to sit down with your family and explain what being Christians in your neighborhood would mean. The answer takes different to a whole new level, doesn’t it? But the message has some similarities to your family and mine today. Culture-friendly can’t be on our family’s priority list. That builds nothing in our homes and takes us nowhere. Different should be on that list.”
Advancing the Cause of Christ Begins at Home
“Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches” (Pr.24:3-4 NKJV).
Advancing the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth through biblical family life is central to the Grace Commission because the spiritual health and vitality of the local church are built upon the spiritual health and vitality of the Christian home. The stewardship responsibility of this cause of Christ encompasses the comprehensive nature of the biblical worldview, in general, and the gospel of the grace of God, in particular. Where will the next generation of pastors, missionaries, and ministry leaders come from if churches and families lack the wisdom, vision, and courage that is needed to co-champion the next generation and advance the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth? It is not the responsibility of ministry training schools to raise them up because ministry training begins well ahead of time right at home with dad and mom as they live on mission in Christ and are anchored in the local church together with their children.
It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that demographics are grim and radical changes must be made by churches and families moving forward as co-champions of the next generation. The strength of our gospel outreach both here and abroad depends on the spiritual health and vitality of American Grace churches. Therefore, if you and I care about God’s glory being magnified through the salvation of rebel sinners among all nations worldwide, then we must care about our country, our churches, and especially our homes. Since advancing the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth begins right at home with biblical marriage and family life, we must take very seriously how students of history like Rod Drehr encourage “Christian parents [to] be intentionally countercultural in their approach to family dynamics.”1 We must do so with dead serious urgency through the irreplaceable nature of 1. Manhood, 2. Marriage, 3. Fatherhood, and 4.a Multiplied Legacy to the praise of God’s glory in Christ Jesus throughout eternity.
Advancing the Cause of Christ through…The Irreplaceable Nature of Manhood
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion…” (Gen. 1:27-28a NKJV).
When the Lord Jesus Christ Himself spoke galaxies into existence just about 6,000 years ago in six literal 24-hour days, He also branded mankind in His image with a stewardship responsibility described as the cultural mandate of dominion (Gen. 1:26-28; 9:1,6-7; Ex. 20:11; Psa. 8:6-8; 33:6; Col. 1:16). As the God-ordained leader, provider, and protector of his family, Adam was entrusted with the duty-bound mission of the irreplaceable nature of manhood. Robert Lewis defines “A real man” as “one who rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously, and expects the greater reward…God’s reward.”2 In contrast to Adam, who failed to defend the integrity of God’s character, the veracity of His Word, and, as the proverbial knight-in-shining-armor, to rescue the damsel in distress from the fire-breathing dragon, as it were, biblical manhood is not aloof with indifference but rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, and leads courageously (Gen. 2:15; 3:6-10; Neh. 4:14; 1 Cor. 16:13-14).
Cultivate Biblical Manhood. There is a war against traditional masculinity and especially biblical manhood that is producing a massive crisis in American culture, which includes the church and family. The good news is that God’s Spirit is beckoning to the hearts of men, young and old, to be a catalyst towards positive change beginning on the grassroots level right at home. Biblical manhood can be intentionally cultivated through the spiritual disciplines of systematic Bible reading, prayer journaling, and Scripture memorization, along with active engagement with a robust local church community. In pursuit of this kind of spiritual muscle, remember how a wise man once said that “the difference in our lives a year from now will be due to four things: 1. the places we go, 2. the people we meet, 3. the books we read, and 4. the challenges we face” (Pro.27:17; 1 Tim. 3:15; 4:7,13; Titus 2:11-14).
Advancing the Cause of Christ through…The Irreplaceable Nature of Marriage
“And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mat. 19:4-6 NKJV).
The Lord Jesus Christ, in His earthly ministry to the nation of Israel, affirmed the historicity and authority of Genesis by quoting from each of the first two chapters in virtually the same breath, thus upholding the irreplaceable nature of marriage (Gen. 1:27; 2:24; Rom. 15:8). Despite what the sexually perverse spirit of the age that is hell-bent on rebellion against Almighty God asserts, biblical marriage upholds God’s nuclear design, gender roles, and the glory of motherhood (Rom. 1:18-32; Eph. 5:21-33; Titus 2:3-5). A married dad and mom and kids is the gold standard or bull’s-eye of the target designed by God as the natural or nuclear family and is not some type of so-called Western cultural construct. Whereas the extended family is still a blessed part of God’s purpose for the home, He began in the very beginning with a biological man and a biological woman whose marriage relationship establishes the household as central to advancing the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth.
This biological reality is also upheld by God’s design for gender roles within marriage, based on creation order, to reflect the triune nature of the Godhead and Christ’s headship of the Church, which is His Body, that submits to His perfect and sacrificial leadership (1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:22-25; 1 Tim.2:13). Perhaps the most controversial truth of the irreplaceable nature of marriage is that God’s biblical design upholds the glory of motherhood. Radical feminism and the Marxist agenda of woke paganism are in rebellion against the beauty, nobility, and glory of being a wife and mother, which the Holy Scriptures affirm with the utmost honor and dignity in the sight of God (Psa. 128:3; Pro. 31:10-31; 1 Tim.2:15; 2 Tim.1:5; 3:15; Titus 2:3-5).
Regardless of what the sirens of the age assert, only biological women have children, and God’s Word lauds the blessedness of the fruitful womb (Psa. 127:3-5; 139:13; Mal. 2:15). The irreplaceable nature of marriage builds civilization, fills this world with image-bearing worshippers of the one true and living God, and advances the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth beginning right at home.
Cultivate Biblical Marriage. God’s design for marriage is fueled by a sacrificial, sanctifying, and cherishing love from the husband’s heart at the helm of the household and demonstrated in practical reality day by day for the glory of the Sovereign Architect and Omnipotent Powerhouse of biblical family life. Be intentional at cultivating the virtues of love and respect by communicating with your spouse in ways that speak the language of their heart in practical reality (1 Cor. 13:4-7; Eph. 5:33). In other words, demonstrate love through what Gary Chapman describes as the five languages of love: 1. Physical Touch and Closeness, 2. Words of Encouragement, 3. Acts of Service, 4. Gift Giving, and 5. Quality Time.3
Advancing the Cause of Christ through…The Irreplaceable Nature of Fatherhood
“As you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calles you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thes. 2:11-12 NKJV).
The Lord God Himself is the perfect Father and epitome of fatherhood whose holiness, righteousness, and justice, along with His merciful lovingkindness and super-abounding grace, renders who He is and all that He has done in and through the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ worthy of all praise. Having been branded in the image of this perfect Father, His Spirit beckons all men to be champions of biblical fatherhood that invests wisdom, instills vision, and infuses courage into the hearts of their children to the praise of His glory in Christ Jesus (Gen. 18:19; 2 Chron. 32:7-8; Neh. 4:14; Eph. 6:4).
Every dad is impacting the next generation whether he realizes it or not because our lives automatically affect our progeny whether or not we are living godly in Christ Jesus. Dads must take heed to themselves before God as the divinely ordained counselors of wisdom, communicators of vision, and cultivators of courage in the hearts and minds of their children (2 Cor. 5:9-10; 1 Thes. 2:11-12).
Cultivate Biblical Fatherhood. Make time for what’s important by carving it out in this season of life before it’s too late by making the following daily and weekly rhythms of life a priority: 1. Family Suppertime, 2. Family Worship, and 3. Family Church Attendance. Gathering around the family table for a meal is one of the most significant disciplines of life that fathers ought to deliberately prioritize on a regular basis for the sake of advancing the cause of Christ right at home (Deut. 6:6-7; Ps. 128:1-3).
In tandem with this old-fashioned habit is what the saints of old called Family Worship or the Family Altar, where fathers would lead their families spiritually through Bible reading, singing hymns of God’s praise, and praying together. Any given Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and should, therefore, find fathers leading the way as their families gather to attend church with other families to worship the Lord in song, hear the preaching of His Word, and fellowship with the saints at their local assembly (Mat. 28:1; 1 Cor. 16:2; Col. 3:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 10:24-25).
Advancing the Cause of Christ through…The Irreplaceable Nature of a Multiplied Legacy
“Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God…” (Ps.78:4b, 6-7a NKJV).
Advancing the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth through biblical family life from generation to generation is a vision for gospel ministry that must be championed because every one of us are heirs to the past and ancestors to the future. This kind of biblical legacy champions the blessing of children, godly character, and generational faithfulness to the gospel purposes of the Lord Jesus Christ. While the spirit of this age vaunts itself in the abortion holocaust, Almighty God is the Author and Progenitor of life as every precious life is priceless in beauty (Ps. 139:13-16; Jn. 8:44; 10:10).
It’s one thing to have children but quite another thing to intentionally shepherd their hearts in the pathway of wisdom, righteousness, and godliness. The biblical goal of education is moral and spiritual development in the fear of God having awe and reverence for who He is as Creator and Redeemer, along with a wholehearted devotion to His Word (Ps.1:1-6; Pr.1:7; 9:10; Eph.6:4).
Other aspects of childhood experience have a place, but such things like academics, athletics, and social status threaten to subvert the biblical goal of education in the humanistic pursuit of admission to an Ivy League university, earning an NCAA Division I scholarship, or garnering the status of a social media celebrity. Biblical legacy also champions generational faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Famously, the 18th-century pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards was instrumental in the First Great Awakening in the colonial era, but his greatest legacy was the spiritual impact of his family life upon future generations. Be the kind of hero that your progeny in future generations can be grateful for because the testimony of your life points to the irreplaceable nature of a multiplied legacy to the praise of God’s glory in Christ Jesus (Ps.78:1-8; 145:1-4; 2 Tim. 2:2).
Cultivate a Multiplied Legacy. Pray for your children and grandchildren to be blessed with wisdom, vision, and courage. Wisdom to understand the times in which we live through the lens of a comprehensive biblical worldview, spiritual vision to see beyond what is to what could be as far as their lives and ministry are concerned, and courage to initiate decisive action for the cause of Christ (1 Chron. 12:32; 2 Chron. 32:7-8; Eph. 3:20-21; 5:15-17). Also, pray for your children and grandchildren’s future spouses and the families in which they are being raised. Ask the Lord to bring them together in His perfect timing and use them to raise up a godly generation that fears, honors, and serves the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus Christ (Psa. 78:6-8; Pro. 22:6; 31:10; 1 Tim. 1:17).
Finally, pray for your children and grandchildren to gladly receive the blessing of children themselves as a result of their hearts being filled with a passion for advancing the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth beginning right at home through biblical marriage and family life (Gen. 1:28; 9:1, 7; Psa. 127:3-5; Pro. 24:3-4).
The Gathering Storm Over the Generations
In the same spirit as Wolgemuth’s encouragement for biblical family life to mean something radically countercultural, whether it was in the ancient Roman empire or this present evil age, Al Mohler issues another bold challenge for the church and family because of the gathering storm coming over the generations to the secularization of the culture.4 It is looming on the horizon, and intentional ministry training must be co-championed by the church and family in three powerful ways: 1. Christian parents [and grandparents] must view church as the highest and utmost priority for their family’s weekly schedule; 2. Christian parents [and grandparents] need to be serious about the effects of technology, screen time, and social media, and 3. Christian parents [and grandparents] must endeavor to fill their homes with the fragrance of the gospel. Advancing the cause of Christ to the ends of the earth through biblical family life is the stewardship responsibility of our generation. Come what may, let us be faithful to the praise of God’s glory in Christ Jesus!
- Drehr, R. (2020) Live not by lies: a manual for Christian dissidents. New York, NY: Sentinel.
- Lewis, R. (1997) Raising a modern-day knight. Colorado Springs, CO: Focus on the Family Publishing.
- Chapman, G. (1995) The five love languages. Chicago, IL: Northfield Publishing.
- Mohler, Jr., R. Albert. (2020) The gathering storm: secularism, culture, and the church. Nashville, TN: Nelson Books.
*Featured in the June 2024 issue of The Berean Searchlight.
