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Chapter 9
Converted by Grace
When we speak of the conversion of the sinner by grace, it may be well to consider for a moment the question as to the relation which this particular blessing of salvation sustains to the rest of God's wonderwork of grace whereby He redeems and delivers us from sin and death and makes us partakers of His eternal glory. In the chapter on justification we remarked that this is the most fundamental blessing of grace: for God loves the righteous only; and therefore, unless we are justified, declared righteous by Him, we cannot expect any token of His favor. In this sense, that is, as the ground of all other blessings of salvation, justification is first. But this must not be misunderstood. It does not mean that in order of time the sinner first receives the gift of righteousness by faith, and that thereupon he is regenerated, united with Christ, called and converted. From God's viewpoint this is certainly true. Before God His people are justified from eternity; and He beholds them forever as perfectly righteous in Christ, and as such He blesses them. Moreover, this sentence of justification, our righteousness in Christ before God, was realized in the cross and resurrection of our Lord. And it is also true before the consciousness of the believer that by faith he first. of all takes hold of this righteousness of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, before he dare hope for any other gift of God's grace. Yet the fact is, of course, that when the sinner performs that act of faith whereby he lays hold upon the righteousness of Christ, he is already reborn unto new life, called out of darkness into God's marvelous light, united with Christ in the Spirit; and he has already received the gifts of faith and conversion. For it is only as a reborn, called, and believing sinner that he can embrace Christ as his righteousness. Even though justification is the ground of conversion, the justified sinner is a converted sinner. The Scriptures frequently speak of this conversion of man, and they employ different terms to denote this wonder of grace. The Old Testament uses a word in the Hebrew which simply means "to turn" and is sometimes translated thus, while at other times it is rendered by our English "convert." "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the sou1." (Psalm 19:7) The psalmist vows that he will teach transgressors the way of Jehovah, and then sinners will be converted unto Him. (Psalm 51:13) "If the wicked will turn from all his sins" and keep God's law, he shall surely live. (Ezekiel 18:21) The house of Israel is called to turn themselves from idols and from all their abominations. (Ezekiel 14:6) The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but in this, that he turn from his wicked way and live. Hence, the Word of the Lord comes to apostatizing Israel: "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways." (Ezekiel 33:11) They are exhorted to turn to their God and to keep mercy and judgment (Hosea 12:6); to turn unto Him with all their heart, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. (Joel 2:12, 13) In the New Testament two words are used for conversion. The one means approximately the same as our English word "conversion" or "convert" and denotes a complete turning about. The other really signifies a change of mind, that is, of the whole inner man, and is translated "repentance." The Lord says to His disciples: "Except ye be converted; and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3) John preached the baptism of repentance, that is, of an inner change in the sinner. (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3) The apostles come to the people with the exhortation: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted." (Acts 3: 19) And they preached that God had exalted Christ to be a Prince and Savior, "for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5: 31) And the church in Jerusalem glorifies God, acknowledging that He "also to the Gentiles granted repentance and life." (Acts 11:18) And Paul was sent to the Gentiles "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," and that "they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." (Acts 26:18, 20) Moreover, conversion in the broader sense is called sanctification, cleansing, purification, the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man, the mortification of the deeds of the body, etc. (II Corinthians 7: 1; I John 3 :4; Ephesians 4:22-24; Romans 8: 13) From all these different passages of Holy Writ, and from many others, we may gather what is the Scriptural teaching concerning true conversion. First of all, we learn that it is a complete and radical turning about in a spiritual, ethical sense of the word. It is a turning from Satan to God, from enmity against God to the love of God in Christ, from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, from corruption to holiness. By nature the sinner is motivated by enmity against God; and as a result, his whole life is directed in the way of darkness and sin. He loves the darkness rather than the light. His heart and mind and will, and all his desires and inclinations turn away from God and are enslaved to the will of the devil. Hence, also his outward life and walk is turned in the direction of unrighteousness. He walks away from God and contrary to His precepts. But in conversion he turns away from all this in order to turn to the living God. His hatred of God is changed into love, his darkness is turned into light, his love of iniquity is turned into a love of God's precepts, and his members which he yielded as instruments of unrighteousness he now yields as instruments of righteousness unto God. I stated that this conversion, this spiritual turning about, is complete. By this I mean that it is a turning about of the whole man, with his internal life as well as with his external walk. It is not an external reformation by virtue of which a man for some reason changes his external deportment, so that he who once was a drunkard now lives soberly, or one who lived in sexual abandonment now walks in chastity. But it is a turning about in our outward walk which is rooted in an inner change of the heart and mind, of the will, and of all the affections. And from this it also follows that conversion is a radical change. It is a break with sin as sin, and a turning to God for God's sake, a love of righteousness for righteousness' sake. It is, therefore, not a turning away from some sins and a keeping of some of God's precepts. It is hatred of all sins, and a fundamental delight in all the precepts of the Lord our God. This complete and radical turning about of the sinner is conversion. From this it will also be evident that conversion has two aspects.The first of these is that it is a turning away from sin with all our heart and a fighting against sin. This, in general, is what the Bible means by the putting off of the old man, or the mortification of our members which are upon earth. Its chief characteristic is repentance, or true sorrow over sin. By this you may surely know that you are converted. If you wonder sometimes whether or not you are converted, it is well to ask yourself the question whether you are truly sorry for sin. For the chief characteristic of true conversion in this life is not that you are always on the mountain tops and perform many wonderful good works but that you repent in true sorrow after God. I say: true sorrow. For there is also a false, a counterfeit sorrow of the world. The two, however, may easily be distinguished from each other. For true sorrow is rooted in the love of God, while the sorrow of the world is really love of self. The former is sorrow over sin as sin, that is, because it is contrary to the will of God; the latter is sorrow over sin because of its evil consequences. Counterfeit sorrow over sin really rejoices in iniquity, and it would freely indulge in it; but always the wages of sin are death, and this the sorrow of the world regrets. As a result, true sorrow over sin is a radical break with all sin; but counterfeit sorrow is a break with certain sins, and that only to the degree that their commitment appears dangerous and harmful for the time being. Godly sorrow, therefore, leads to life and salvation. Or, as the apostle expresses it in II Corinthians 7: 10, it "worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." But the "sorrow of the world worketh death." The latter really plays with sin. It likes to go the way of sin as far as possible without experiencing the evil consequences of a life of corruption. And the result is always death. But true sorrow over sin is a sure manifestation of conversion. If the prayer of the publican is yours, "God, be merciful to me a sinner," you may be sure that the grace of conversion was wrought in your sou1. The other, or positive, aspect of conversion is the turning to God and to the way of His precepts. This the Bible calls the putting on of the new man in Christ. The apostle writes in Ephesians 4:22-24 that the truth in Jesus is: "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." This new man is the dominion of the new principle of life which the Holy Spirit instills into your heart when you are reborn. And to put on this new man signifies the constant endeavor to place yourself and your whole life under the gracious dominion of that new life. And let us not make the mistake of imagining that one who thus puts on the new man now does some great things for Christ, or that he turns the world upside down, and strives to bring the kingdom of God on earth. All such high-sounding phrases mean nothing in actual life, are but idle boasts, and mislead those who are truly converted unto God. But it does mean that you strive to walk as children of light, and that, too, in all your earthly life in the midst of the world that lieth in darkness, in word and deed. You have a delight in the Word of God, so that you seek and use every opportunity to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And you strive to be pleasing to God and to live according to His precepts. In your personal life, as well as in your family, in the communion of the church as well as in society, on Sunday but also during the week, in your office or factory -- wherever you are, or whatever you do, you earnestly endeavor to walk in all good works before God and men. Thus men will see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. And you are willing to endure the reproach of Christ and in the cause of your Lord not only to believe on Him but also to suffer with Him, confident that your reward in heaven is great. Such is true conversion. You will understand that conversion is a matter that concerns your whole life as long as you are in this world. Its beginning may be either very sudden and striking, so that you can point to the place and the hour when this wonder of grace was first performed upon your soul. Or it may be gradual and unnoticeable, bound up with the early years of your childhood, so that you cannot at all remember that you ever were converted. The former is usually the case with those who live in ways of gross sin until they have reached the age of maturity. God suddenly stops them in their pursuit of sin, and turns them radically about. Paul was so converted on the way to Damascus. The latter naturally occurs when we are instructed in the truth of the gospel from infancy, learn to stammer our prayers on mother's lap, and never depart from the fear of the Lord, but walk in His ways from childhood. And let me say that the latter is far preferable to the former, and that he who can mention the date and the place of his conversion has nothing to boast because of it. By all means, let him not make of the experience of his sudden conversion a ground of confidence that he is really converted. Often, it seems, this is done. You may frequently hear people boast that they know that they are converted because some ten or twenty years ago they came to Christ. The question is not at all how and when you were converted, nor whether you had an experience of conversion several years in the past, but whether you are converted today. For whether you were converted suddenly or gradually, as far as the beginning of your conversion is concerned, it surely is only a beginning. It must continue throughout your whole life. It is never finished until you close your eyes forever upon things mundane, your body is laid in the grave, and your soul is with Christ in glory. Nor must we even imagine that conversion gradually becomes less necessary as we grow in grace. The contrary is usually true. Always there is with the Christian the old man, seeking to regain his former dominion; and never does he get rid of the body of this death. And always the new man in Christ must watch and pray and fight the good fight. We must be converted and convert ourselves as long as we live. This leads us to the final question: is conversion the work of man, or of God in Christ? The correct answer to this question is this: conversion is that work of God in man whereby the sinner repents and walks in all good works. God converts the sinner, and then the sinner turns. Conversion is, first of all, a gift of grace. He gave repentance to Israel (Acts 5: 31); but also to the Gentiles He granted repentance. (Acts 11: 18) In Jeremiah 31: 18, 19 we read: "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh." That expresses the true relation between God's work of conversion and our turning from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, from the devil to God in Christ. No man is able or willing to convert himself, unless God converts him first. Nor does God's work of conversion leave the sinner inactive, like a "stock and block." In conversion God changes the mind, and the sinner sees all things in a new spiritual light; God turns the will, and the sinner begins to hate sin and long for righteousness; God works in the heart of the sinner true repentance, and the sinner repents; God draws and the sinner comes; God calls the sinner to turn from his wicked way, by His Word of irresistible grace and power, and the sinner obeys, turns, and finds that God is abundantly merciful. Always God is first in the whole work of salvation, and man's activity is only the fruit of the grace God works in the heart. For we are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves: it is the gift of God. And the converted sinner will never boast of his work in conversion but give the glory to Him of Whom and through Whom and unto Whom are all things! He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord! |
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