Where is age of accountability in the bible

It is in their nature as little sinners, from the moment of conception. Therefore, if God allows any child into Heaven who has not yet reached an age where they are morally responsible, it must be entirely because of his grace that they enter, not because they are innocent. That being said, does Isaiah teach an age of accountability? For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

In its immediate fulfillment, the prophecy predicts a child will be born, and before he is old enough to be weaned, the kings threatening Ahaz would be defeated.

Some commentators think that this refers to a legal age of accountability or manhood. Jewish customs taught that a male child becomes an adult by age Numbers sets the age at 20 for those who were accountable for their sin in the wilderness.

All those under 20 were not judged. Acts And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Colossians For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. Isaiah Deuteronomy I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. Psalm James John Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me. Is the law sinful? Instead, the Bible is utterly silent on any exceptions.

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 saving faith in Christ, then why should any person have need to confess Christ? In fact, 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 is supposedly overlooks a young 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:. Prominent advocates for this position have proposed that Romans 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.

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 authority to condemn us and judge us for our sin. Notice Paul says this power exists "as long as he lives. 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. 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. Notice, coveting was always a sin; we just didn't appreciate the fact we were sinning until God's law taught 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 ask 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 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 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 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 revealed to me, however, sin "became alive" to me, Paul says. His conscience became aware of his sinfulness and he came to understand his condemnation before God. Therefore, Paul says in verse 9 that he "died," meaning he lost his false sense of innocence and realized he was under condemnation. He was always under condemnation, but only then did Paul realize his jeopardy.

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 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. Paul asks rhetorically if the Law is the source of our spiritual death and eternal judgment? Paul is asking did the arrival of the Law result in his condemnation and was it the cause of his penalty? Paul responds may it never be.

Paul specifically denies that our condemnation comes only after we realize we are sinful. Paul says 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 everyone is accountable without respect to the degree of their awareness of sin. In fact, if we were to interpret Romans 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? Surely they are, for no one is acquitted apart from the atoning work of Christ accepted by faith. The Bible says that all men are accountable for sin and all have sinned, with or without knowledge of the Law:. Paul shuts the door on any argument that presumes ignorance of the Law will save us from judgment.

There is no excuse for ignorance no matter our age.