Teaching Children The meaning of salvation and Holiness!

 

Thought for Today - June 18, 2025
Teaching Children The meaning of salvation and Holiness!

By: Robert A. Searles
I thought it might be profitable to some if I shared with anyone who might be interested, the following Sunday school lesson which I taught to my sixth grade class some time ago. This is a simple lesson meant to be taught or read to children at the fifth or sixth grade level.
Boys and girls if you are here in church or Sunday School this morning, you are not here by accident. You are here listening to the Sunday School lesson or the preacher because God is calling to you, and inviting you to make plans to come and live with him in his beautiful home in heaven forever, and enjoy all the good things he has to offer.
God is calling you to himself, and the bible says: "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation ( or behavior); because it is written, be ye holy as I am holy" 1 Peter 1: 15, 16.
What does it mean to be holy? To be holy means to be spiritually clean - not soiled or dirtied by sin, or bad thoughts, or bad behavior, disobedience, or unbelief. God is holy. God is perfectly clean spiritually, no sin in God's heart or mind. God has never done anything wrong. Jesus , who is God in human flesh, never sinned. He is perfectly spiritually clean. God's home in heaven is spotlessly clean and beautiful. Nothing there is dirty or unclean, and nothing can enter God's home in heaven that is dirty or unclean.
If we want to someday go and live with God forever in his beautifully clean and spotless home in heaven, we first must be made holy or clean. This does not just mean to be clean on the outside of our bodies where everyone can see, but God sees into our hearts and minds, and when God looks into our hearts and minds and sees how we might be angry or mean to our brothers and sisters, and playmates, or if we lie, or steal, or cheat in school, or do those things that we know we should not do, then he knows that we are not yet clean or holy enough to live with him in heaven because these things would never be allowed in heaven.

Lets play a pretend game this morning. Lets pretend that Linda lives in a big beautiful house, and has her own beautiful room with thick wall to wall carpeting, and beautiful furniture and fancy curtians, and bedspreads. Lets pretend that Linda has invited her cousin Jane to come spend the weekend with her in this beautiful clean house. She is to sleep in Linda’s bed, and walk on the expensive carpet and enjoy every thing that Linda has because Linda called and invited her.
Now lets pretend that it is also Easter Sunday Morning and both girls are planning to go to Sunday School and church together, and Jane’s parents had bought Jane an expensive brand new spotless white dress for the occasion. Jane is all nice and clean and dressed in her pretty white dress when she arrives at her cousin Linda’s farm home.
Now, we know that no farm would be complete without some pigs and a pig pen. Pigs are by nature, very dirty animals, and they like to bury themselves in the same muck and mire that they go to the bathroom in, if you know what I mean. What a mess a pig pen is, and how it smells! If you have ever seen one or been near one you will know what I mean.
Lets pretend that before Jane goes inside her cousin Linda’s home that she meets Joe S Tempter. The middle initial "S", by the way, stands for Satan. So Mr. Tempter meets Jane before she goes into the house and he says to her, "come on down by the barn and see the new piglets that have just been born." Of course, Jane , being a city girl, and not able to see piglets every day, forgets about her beautiful clean white dress, and that she is going to stay in her cousin's beautiful home, and runs with Joe Satan Tempter down to the pig pen.
Well, can you guess what happened? Sure enough, while Jane is climbing on the fence that surrounds the pig pen to get a better look at the pigs, her feet slip and - ku-plunk - splash, right down into that stinking muck and mire with the pigs, - beautiful Jane , pretty white dress, and all. Oh, what a mess! Oh, what a stink! Now how could she ever go into her cousin's house, and walk on her carpets, and sleep in her bed as dirty and smelling as badly as she did, she thought?
Happily, Linda’s mother saw what had happened, and she ran downs to where Jane had fallen into the mess she was in, and she said to Jane , Oh! What a mess! If you will come with me I will clean you up and give you my own daughter's best dresses to wear, even better and prettier and more expensive than you had on, and then you will be clean again, and you will again be fit to walk on these beautiful carpets and sleep in this nice clean bed, and you will no longer smell bad.
What did Jane have to do to be able to stay in her cousin's house, and sleep in her cousin's bed? She had to agree with Linda’s mother that she was filthy dirty and smelled bad and needed to be cleaned up and put on different clothes. Jane accepted what was offered to her and became cleaner and smelled better even than before,
This is just a pretend story to illustrate in a similar way how God has provided a way for us to be made clean or holy in his sight, and fit to live in his home in heaven.

God looked down from heaven and saw all the men and women and boys and girls that he created and loved being tempted by Satin and Falling into Sin, and by his amazing grace, provided a way by which they could be rescued from their sins and made clean and fit to live with him in Heaven forever.
The bible says that while we were yet sinners or stinking and smelling bad before God because of our sins, Christ died for us on the cross and offered his own blood to wash us and cleanse us from our filthiness and tear off our old filthy rags and to be clothed with his righteousness and make us fit to live with him.

In order for God to make us clean, we must agree with God that we are sinners, and are unclean before him, and ask him to forgive our sins and come into our heart and make us clean through his son the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we have believed in Jesus and asked him to forgive our sins and come into our hearts and make us clean, then we have become the children of God, and we need to be very careful to keep ourselves clean and not become dirty again.

The world in which we live is full of sins and evil, and is like a filthy pig pen as compared to the holiness of God. We need to ask God to help us to stay away from all those things that smell bad to him. Satan, the tempter, goes around seeing who he can trap and cause to fall into the pig pen again, but God is there to help us if we will obey him.

Some of the things that can make us dirty and smell bad before God are: lying, cheating, being mean to others; disobeying parents; smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages,; taking drugs; watching bad television shows; going to wrong places; following bad friends. If we are to be holy as God is holy, we must stay away from all of these things. We must think of God often, pray often, read his word often, and ask him to save us. This is what it means for us to be saved and be holy and clean as he wants us to be.
Is there any one this morning who would like to ask Jesus to save them and make them clean in his sight so that some day they can be sure to go and live with him forever in heaven?

Dear Reader, This invitation was given at the end of the lesson to boys and girls in our Sunday School class. Whatever your age may be, this invitation is extended to you as well.
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                             Psalm 26:7