Jimmy Needham, in his song, “Grace Amazing” (from his album, Nightlights) truly does present grace as it ought to be presented, amazing. And how does he do this? The same way any good Soteriology (doctrine of salvation) does–by starting with a good Hamartiology (doctrine of sin), namely, our total inability or total depravity. As Needham says, “That’s how it is with us all. We weren’t just damaged we fell dead at the fall.” And in doing so he recognizes that salvation is dependent on God’s sovereign grace. “Unless You breathe life into me I won’t ever feel my dead heart beating. But you open these blind eyes to see.” And the fact that God has made believers alive, who once were dead and could not give life to themselves, is what makes grace amazing. The Blind don’t give themselves sight; God does. In short, grace is amazing because the recipients of grace had no part in it. “That’s what makes Your grace amazing.”
Sin
The Depravity of Being Good
Talking about the film “Courageous,” Andy Naselli stated, “some may embrace moralism and feel good about themselves as they try to earn God’s favor by being good dads. This is not the fault of the film but more a comment about how in our depravity we can be very, very bad by being very, very “good.” We can make an idol out of just about anything—even family.”[1] This is a perspective of depravity we don’t often think of, but it is very true.
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Age of Accountability
What is “Age of Accountability”
This concept holds that infants, rather young children, and the mentally handicap are under grace and will inherit eternal life if they were to die. (The age and mental capabilities determining this point are thus subjective and indeterminable–although some will supply an objective age).
False or Inadequate Explanations
These false views are not really involved in the purpose of this article, thus, I am not going to much time on their claims nor why they are incorrect views. I am simply going to list these alternative ideas so to give a better understanding of the true view as by comparison with these false views.
A rather popular idea among sacramentalists is that original sin is wiped away by the sacrament of baptism. Thus if a baby dies before being baptized the child will go to hell, but if baptized before death he, the child will go to heaven as a result of baptism. This is a false, man-made tradition that is nowhere taught in the Bible. Baptism is that which believers do in obedience to God’s commandment. It is done after salvation and is a symbol of our baptism in death and resurrection with Christ (Romans 6:4).
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Kirk E. Miller 