Center for Biblical Theology and Eschatology
Is there an “age of accountability” in the Bible?
by VBVM Staff - June 14, 2011
I have always been taught that there was an age of accountability taught in scripture, meaning that children who die before a certain age are automatically saved. I've even heard a Baptist peacher say he prayed when his children were born that if they were not going to accept Jesus as adults then God should take them before they reach the age of accountability. He had a daughter die at 2 years old and he believed God answered his prayer. He quoted Romans 7:9 saying when we become aware that our sin separates us from God, sin is revived in our lives and we are held accountable to God from that point. The Law shows us what sin is and therefore condemns us to death before God. Is this viewpoint correct?
Before we answer your question, it's important to remember that Scripture cannot be interpreted on the basis of our feelings or personal experiences. In the case of the Baptist pastor you mentioned, his personal experience and feelings concerning his deceased child are simply not relevant to our understanding of Scripture. Though his point of view may be a source of comfort for himself and his family during a time of mourning, they offer us no insight concerning the truth revealed in God's word. We must consult Scripture for our answers.
Secondly, proper interpretation of Scripture is a matter coming to an understanding of what the author meant as he wrote the words. We must guard against reading into the text our preferred views. When single verses of Scripture are taken out of context and explained in isolation, they become a pretext for misusing Scripture in support of an incorrect interpretation.
Finally, we must state up front that Scripture never specifically mentions an "age of accountability." The term never appears in Scripture, and neither does the concept. Scripture never suggests that children are innocent of sin or that they will not be held accountable for their sin. Every argument made in favor of an age of accountability rests on supposition and implication using single verses of Scripture taken out of context.
In fact, the Scripture clearly teaches the opposite perspective. All people are entirely sinful and fully accountable for their sin every day of their lives.
For example, Paul teaches:
Eph. 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Eph. 2:2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Eph. 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
And the Psalmist wrote:
Psa. 53:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.
Psa. 53:2 God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there is anyone who understands, Who seeks after God.
Psa. 53:3 Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
And David testified concerning himself:
Psa. 51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
Psa. 51:3 For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
Psa. 51:4 Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.
Psa. 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Notice how consistent Scripture is on this point. As David himself says in Psalm 51, he was "conceived in iniquity," meaning he was born with a sin nature from the start. He also said that his sin was ever before him, meaning there was never a time when his sin was not present. Furthermore, David declares that God is blameless when He judges us for that sin, because sinful men deserve judgment. There is no escaping the reality of our sin and our debt before God.
Secondly, the Psalmist says in Psalm 53 that is no one who does good and everyone is evil. Furthermore, when God looks down upon mankind, He finds no exception to this rule. No one - no adult nor child - is "good" before God. As Jesus Himself said:
Mark 10:18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
So, Scripture teaches all humanity have gone astray. No one does good, not even one.
Then Paul teaches every human being is born a child of wrath. We are by nature sinners. Someone once said that we are not sinners because we sinned; we sin because we were born sinners. So our sinfulness is not something that develops later in life. It is something we have at birth because it is in our nature to sin.
These passages (and many others) teach the universality of sin. We are born into Adam's sin nature and our nature condemns us from our first breath. Furthermore, the Bible never provides an exception to this fundamental Biblical principle. If there were an exception to the principle of the universality of sin, we should expect the Bible to call it out plainly and explain it explicitly, since something so important and so contrary to other teaching would require careful explanation. Instead, the Bible is utterly silent on any exceptions.
As Paul wrote:
Gal. 3:22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
More importantly, if it were possible for God to overlook the sin of even one child and permit that child to enter into heaven apart from faith in Christ, then why would He have needed to send His Son to die on the cross? If entrance into Heaven were possible apart from faith in the sacrificial atonement of Christ, then God need not put His Son to death in the first place. Instead, He could have forgiven everyone's sins apart from faith in the same way He supposedly overlooks a child's sin. Clearly, this is not only illogical but unbiblical, since Scripture tells us that faith in Christ is required and is the only way to Heaven:
John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
The Baptist pastor you mentioned proposed that Romans 7:9 taught an exception to this principle, but it does not teach an exception and we can see this clearly when we read the verse in its full context.
Rom. 7:1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
Rom. 7:2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
Rom. 7:3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Rom. 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Rom. 7:5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
Rom. 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Rom. 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “ YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”
Rom. 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
Rom. 7:9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
Rom. 7:10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
Rom. 7:11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Rom. 7:12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Rom. 7:13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
Paul begins this chapter in verse 1 by stating that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as they are alive. By jurisdiction, Paul means the Law has the power to condemn us and judge us for our sin. Notice Paul says this power exists "as long as he lives." All men stand condemned by the Law for their sin from the first day of life. The condemnation of our sin doesn't wait for some later day of accountability; on the contrary, we are condemned all our lives.
Secondly, Paul says if we hope to escape the Law's condemnation, we must die to the Law, because the Law's jurisdiction only ends when we die. In verse 3 Paul uses an analogy to illustrate his point. Like a married woman who can only remarry after her husband dies, we must die to free ourselves from the Law so we can then be free to be married to Christ. Our spiritual death is accomplished on our behalf by Christ, since by His death we were considered to die to the Law and be freed from its jurisdiction.
Then Paul asks in v.7 if the Law itself is the source of our condemnation? Paul says no. The cause of our condemnation was our own sin. The Law was merely the instrument God used to reveal our sin to us. For example, until we learned from God's Law that coveting was a sin, we couldn't understand that we were sinning when we coveted. Therefore, the Law condemns us only in the sense that it reveals our sinfulness to us. The Law cannot be said to be the cause of our sin and condemnation. We were always sinful and always condemned, but we just didn't know it.
Before we discuss verse 9 specifically, let's revist the context of this passage. Has Paul been talking about children in this passage? Has he described any exceptions to the principle that all men are condemned for their sin? Has he suggested that dying before a certain age will save us from the punishment of sin? Has he alluded in any way to an age of accountability?
Clearly, the answer to all these questions is no. Therefore, as we approach verse 9 we must guard against "reading in" any context other than the one Paul himself is teaching. Paul has been consistently arguing that sin and condemnation are universal, and the Law was God's instrument to reveal our sin. He has never varied or departed from this line of argument.
From this point, we are now ready to understand verses 8-11. In these verses, Paul teaches using the example of a sinner who doesn't know God's Law. Paul says that apart from (a knowledge of the) Law, sin is dead. What does Paul mean? Well, we know from Paul's earlier teaching in Romans 5:12-14 that the penalty of sin existed even before the giving of the Law to Moses. Paul said death reigned from Adam to Moses, so the penalty of death didn't depend on a knowledge of the Law. Men were still condemned for their sin even before they understood God's standard for holiness.
So when Paul says in Romans 7:8 that apart from Law, sin is dead, he can't mean that sin doesn't carry a penalty before we know the Law or that our sin isn't counted against us. This viewpoint would contradict Paul's earlier teaching in chapter 5. Rather, Paul is speaking in the first person from the perspective of a person who is ignorant of their debt before God. Before the Law was revealed, I couldn't appreciate my jeopardy before God. Sin was "dead" in the sense that it was unappreciated, and my conscience enjoyed a false sense of security, thinking myself alive when I was actually spirtually dead.
Once the Law was reveal to me, however, sin "became alive" to me. My conscience became aware of my sinfulness and I came to understand my condemnation before God. Therefore, Paul says in verse 9 that I "died," meaning I lost my false sense of innocence. Paul is not suggesting that a person becomes accountable for sin at a later point in life as a result of learning the Law. On the contrary, he is teaching that we were always under condemnation for sin (see Romans 5:12-14 again), but our awareness that we were condemned before God was brought to life through our knowledge of the Law.
We can see even more clearly that this was Paul's meaning in v.13. Paul asks rhetorically if the Law is the source of our spiritual death and eternal judgment? In other words, Paul is asking the very question the Baptist preacher proposed: Did the arrival of the Law result in my condemnation and was it the cause of my penalty? Paul responds may it never be. Paul specifically denies this viewpoint saying that the Law is good and holy, and therefore it was not the cause of our eternal loss. The cause of our condemnation was our sin, and the Law was merely given to reveal our sinfulness to us.
From this truth we must conclude that children are accountable for their sin just as adults, and all are accountable without respect to a knowledge of the Law. In fact, if we were to interpret Romans 7:9 to mean that a lack of knowledge of the Law is an excuse before God, then what do we conclude about the millions of people who lived and died before the Law was given to Moses? And what about a person today who lives in an isolated place and has no access to read the Law of God? Are they accountable for sin? The Bible says that all men are accountable for sin and all have sinned, with or without knowledge of the Law:
Rom. 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.
Rom. 2:12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;
Paul shuts the door on any argument that presumes ignorance of the Law will save us from judgment. There is no excuse of ignorance available to men of any age.
Therefore, since the reason for our eternal death is our own sin (and not our knowledge of the Law), then all men are under the curse of eternal death from the first moment of life, since all men are born sinful in the likeness of Adam. Our condemnation before God is not a function of our awareness of our sin or of the Law; it is the consequence for having been born sinful.
Unfortunately, some have ignored these truths of Scripture and have chosen to teach as doctrine a precept of man (see Matthew 15:7-9). We might ask why did this Baptist preacher (and others like him) feel the need to invent the concept of an age of accountability? What problem were they trying to solve? The answer is they were trying to account for what happens to children who die too young to profess faith in the Gospel.
Those who proposed an age of accountability invented an unbiblical answer to that question, for the Bible gives us a very different answer to this question. The Bible's answer is profound, because it centers on a proper understanding of the way men are saved in the first place.
Some Christian denominations commonly teach that salvation is the result of an act of human will in accepting the Gospel. They maintain that a person is saved by hearing the Gospel, understanding it, and deciding to believe it. When the person professes their belief, God responds to the person's decision by delivering His Holy Spirit. This view of salvation is commonly called the "free will" view, because it holds that men are saved by a willful decision to believe in the Gospel. Regrettably, the free will view of salvation produces a dilemma that necessitated the invention of an "age of accountability." The dilemma is how does God save people too young to participate in this decision process?
The Biblical Answer
In truth, the Bible teaches that salvation occurs in a different way.
First, the Bible teaches that no man seeks for God:
Rom. 3:10 as it is written,
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Rom. 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
Furthermore, when we existed in our natural, flesh state as an unbeliever, we were spiritually hostile toward God and we could never subject ourself to God's decrees.
Rom. 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
Rom. 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
Rom. 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Most importantly, the Gospel message itself is incomprehensible to an unbeliever:
1Cor. 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Even when Jesus walked the Earth and demonstrated the truth of His claims to be the Christ, yet still people did not accept His testimony. Jesus Himself taught that those who are not His cannot accept His testimony:
John 10:24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, “ I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.
John 10:26 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me
The Bible teaches in these passages (and many others) that the natural man (i.e., an unbeliever) is spirtually opposed to God, does not seek for God and is incapable of understanding spiritual truths. Biblically speaking, there is no such person as a "seeker." It is spiritually impossible for an unbeliever to seek the true living God, and even when the truth of the Gospel is presented to an unbeliever, they will always reject it since it cannot be accepted by the natural man, according to Paul.
So how can anyone believe and be saved??? Scripture seems to teach that it is impossible. As the disciples asked:
Mark 10:26 They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?”
Mark 10:27 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”
God saves those who cannot (and will not) save themselves. The way God saves sinners according to the Bible is very different from the process taught by "free will" proponents. In the Bible, the process of salvation begins not with a message or a human decision but with an act of God. What is impossible for us to do by our own decision or will, God is prepared to do on our behalf. This is the true Biblical definition of grace.
First, the Bible says that our salvation was something God determined to make happen. God's will - not our own - determines who will be saved. Paul says this most clearly in Romans:
Rom. 9:15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.”
Rom. 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Our salvation does not depend on us "inviting Jesus into our hearts," as some might preach. God doesn't wait for our invitation, because no man ever extends such an invitation. As Paul teaches, our salvation does not depend on a man choosing God (i.e., the man who wills) nor does it depend on our personal efforts to accomplish good works (i.e., the man who runs). Instead, our salvation depends entirely on God's decision to show us compassion and elect us to saving faith. As God Himself said, He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. His mercy and compassion don't rest on our will or effort. The decision to save is solely God's alone.
Paul repeats this truth in Ephesians:
Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Eph. 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
Eph. 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
Eph. 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
It was the kind intention of God's will that resulted in us having been chosen for salvation even before we were born - even before the foundations of the Earth were laid!
Next, Scripture teaches that our salvation process begins with a work of the Holy Spirit. Consider these passages from Scripture:
1Cor. 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
John 6:65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
The process of salvation begins with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is the moment the Holy Spirit comes upon us and quickens our hearts to hear the Gospel and believe the testimony of Christ. Without this work of the Holy Spirit, we would never accept the things of God, as Paul said. Since the Holy Spirit must be present and working in our hearts BEFORE we will come to faith, we understand that God must act first in choosing to send us His Spirit so that we will receive the Gospel.
In Matthew 16, Jesus taught this same truth to the Apostel Peter following Peter's famous confession of faith, telling Peter that his faith was something given to him by God.
Matt. 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matt. 16:17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Paul also teaches this truth in Ephesians:
Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Eph. 2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Paul teaches that our faith was a gift of God. Our ability to believe in the Gospel was the result of God's gracious work through the Spirit, so that we could never boast that our salvation was the result of our decision or will or sound judgment, etc. We believed in the Gospel because we were made to believe by the Spirit. Glory be to God!
Following the Spirit's work in the heart, a person then responds in faith. First, the person comes to an understanding and acceptance of the Gospel recognizing their changed spiritual perspective. Next, they profess their faith publicly. Lastly, they obey Christ's command and are baptized. These are all expected human responses to the spiritual change God produces in the heart by His Spirit.
Having established how we are saved, we can now understand the disposition of children who die at an early age. If salvation is not an act of human will (or intellect) but is solely dependent on God's grace and mercy, then we must conclude that anyone can be saved at any age. Even an infant can be given the gift of faith by God's Spirit, and regardless of the child's age or their inability to express their faith publicly, they are still believing.
Scripture gives us proof of this possibility. First, we have the example of David again:
Psa. 22:9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast.
Psa. 22:10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Isn't that remarkable? David confesses that he was made to trust in God (or believe) while he was still a nursing baby. In fact, David says that he was cast upon God from birth. David's account in the Psalms tells us that God is capable of producing faith in someone even while they are too young to hear and understand the words of the Gospel, much less express their faith to someone else. Because our salvation is accomplished through a spiritual understanding (not by an intellectual understanding), salvation doesn't require that our brain have developed to any specific degree. It is purely a work of God by His Spirit in our spirit.
Next, consider the example of John the Baptist:
Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.
Luke 1:14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,
Luke 1:15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.
Like David, the parents of John the Baptist were promised that their son would receive the Holy Spirit even before he was born. Paul teaches in Romans 8:14 that the leading of the Holy Spirit is evidence that we have become children of God by faith. Therefore, John the Baptist became a child of God while still in his mother's womb!
If it were true that salvation necessitated a person have the will and intellect to understand and receive a Gospel presentation, then how do we explain the experience of John the Baptist? How could the angel say that John the Baptist would receive the Holy Spirit before he was born? Are we to assume that John heard and understood the Gospel while in the womb? Clearly, the answer is no. Rather, we must conclude that the process of salvation is not dependent on human understanding. It is in entirely God's hands, and He is capable of granting the gift of faith and thus saving infants if He chooses.
Sadly, men didn't need to invent an answer to the question of what happens to infants who die. We didn't need the false teaching of an age of accountability. Instead, we only needed to understand the way God teaches that He saves men: He intervenes mercifully into our sinful lives and grants us new life by His Spirit thereby making us new creatures in Christ. Since we know He can do this to anyone at anytime, then we can rest in the confidence that children are not outside His reach nor without His grace.
| Verse by Verse Ministry (VBVM) of San Antonio is a non-profit, non-denominational, Christian ministry dedicated to promoting the preaching and teaching of God's word clearly and boldly, in its proper historical and theological context, and for the purposes God has ordained: to persuade the unbeliever of the truth of the Gospel and to equip the saints for the work of ministry. This ministry was founded in 2003 on a commitment to provide compelling, verse-by-verse teaching of God's word at no charge (2Cor 2:17), thus ensuring the whole counsel of God is proclaimed (Acts 20:27). |