Romans 9:11 “for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls.”
We have seen in previous sections that although we are all born spiritually alive to God, there comes a time in each of our lives when God holds us accountable for our sin, and it is on that day that our spirits die, for we were born under the law and not under grace. And so the obvious question that is then asked is at what age does God hold us accountable for sin? In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit teaches us that all children, from conception until birth cannot sin, for He tells us that they cannot do good or evil. And so clearly children in the womb are not held accountable for sin and therefore their spirits remain alive to God throughout that period.
Psalms 106:37-38 “They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, (38) and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood.”
We have also seen that from birth until a certain age, that God deems all children to be innocent and thus not accountable for the sins they commit. The passage of scripture quoted above confirms this truth to us, for in it God tells the Israelites that their children that they had sacrificed to demons were innocent, and that their parents had shed innocent blood. And so we see that as long as God considers children to be innocent and without knowledge of good and evil, that their spirits remain alive to God.
Romans 7:9-11 “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. (10) And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. (11) For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.”
But we have also seen in the above quoted passage of scripture that at a certain age, that God deemed Paul to have transitioned from being a child to becoming a man. And so it was at that time that God held Paul accountable for sin for the first time in his life. When God did that, Paul committed sin as a man for the first time, and his spirit then died.
Genesis 17:24-27 “Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. (25) And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. (26) That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; (27) and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.”
So, at what age did God deem that Paul was now a man and no longer a child? It has been taught that the age of accountability is different for each person, and that God holds some accountable for sin at an earlier age than others. But that is not what the bible teaches. The bible is very clear about the age of transition from being a child to becoming a man. And that age is thirteen. It is significant that God chose to give Abraham the covenant of circumcision in the year that Abraham’s son Ishmael turned thirteen, for the above quoted passage of scripture reveals that it was at the age of thirteen that Ishmael transitioned from being a child to becoming a man. And again, it is significant that according to Jewish law, when Jewish boys are thirteen years old, they become accountable for their actions and become a bar mitzvah. In other words they transition from being a child to become a man.
Michael E.B. Maher
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