Unclean or Holy

We live in a day of such great individualism...we are all separate atoms...we may bump into each other...but never are we a part of one another, influenced and intermingled with each other.

According to this thinking the dad is an individual, as is the mom.

The children are separate little atoms, untouched by the parents actions.

What happens in mom and dad's life with God doesn't do anything "really" in the life of the children.

If the children want to be "in covenant" with God then "they" must be the ones who make that decision.

God forbid that the parents would be able to make that decision...or...gasp...that God, the Creator and Governor of Heaven and earth could actually make that decision for them.

But we see that the Bible teaches us that the parents actions do effect the lives and status of their children.

The Apostle Paul tells us "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy."

God is telling us that even one parent entering covenant with God makes a world of difference in the lives of their children.

Let's work out a story according to this passage.

Atom thinking is faulty.

There was an unbelieving family, dad, mom and the two sons.

One day dad hears the gospel and becomes a Christian...what does the Apostle Paul say happens in the lives of the children, what happens to their status before God?

Ooohh, they stay the same until they do something about it!!!!!

Is that what God says?

God says that when Dad trusted God and entered covenant [baptized] that the children went from being unclean...to holy...set apart for God.