Evangelism is a vital but dangerous issue. God has commanded that His people are to take the Gospel to the world. However, the Gospel is under attack. The devil wants the Gospel to be diluted or misdirected. He works overtime to deceive people regarding the Gospel. He wants people to deny the true nature of sin and the need for repentance from the heart. He wants people to trust some in Christ, but not completely. He wants people to trust in Christ and believe in Him as Savior, but not as Lord. The devil is not bothered by people becoming religious and very moral. As long as self-love and selfcenteredness still reign in people, the devil has them right where he wants them. People deceive themselves with their outward morality, and it is a great deception.
A moral conversion happens in different ways. One, the person has a conscience and knows that he must change. All have some inward knowledge of God and of basic right and wrong because God put it there. So many people who have lived to some degree immoral lives become moral and pacify their conscience. Two, many are raised in church and so have moral instruction. So they are able to say a prayer, make some form of commitment, continue in morality, and think that they are converted. Three, many seem to trust in their outward behavior as evidence that they are converted. Indeed James does teach that faith without works is dead, but does that necessarily mean that because works and morality are present that saving faith is there? Clearly not. There are other kinds of moral conversions, but these three examples can serve in a broad way as a picture of moral conversion.
In Scripture, the Pharisees are very moral people who are enemies of the Gospel. In fact, all moralists are enemies of the true Gospel. The Pharisees trusted in themselves, their morals, and their good works. They refused to confess their sin and thus resisted Jesus and His Gospel. They wondered why Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners instead of with them. But Jesus Christ did not come to call righteous people; He came to call sinners (Luke 5:30-32). Those who are well do not need a physician, the sick do. This is vital in evangelism. When people refuse to confess or admit their sin, we can know that Jesus is not calling them. They have no need for the good news and will in fact resist any message that tells them that they need it. The Gospel is only good news to those who feel the bad news of their hearts, are under conviction of their sin, and know their desperate need of a Savior. The Gospel is wonderful news to the person who has felt the flames of hell lapping at his soul. But those who are moral and think that they are good, the good news is not all that good at all. The Pharisees did not see the Gospel as good news, it just made them angry. Moralists are angered at the true Gospel and resist teachings of sin.
We see in Luke 18:9 that Jesus told a parable to some who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.’ The picture that He gave there is that of a Pharisee who prayed to himself (yes, the text says “to himself’). No one can really pray to God and thank God that he is moral compared to others as he looked down on others. People who truly pray to God are those who are humble in heart and not proud of their own morality. So selfrighteous people are like that when they trust in their own righteousness. They are not humble and do not really trust in the righteousness of Christ alone for salvation. They are lifted up in their own eyes, and even if they give Christ some of the credit, they don´t really trust in Him alone.
The evangelist, then, has to be careful not to breed this type of convert. Just because a person has some sense of sin does not mean that the person is really convicted of sin. “To err is human’ is known by many, but to make a mistake and to err is not the same thing as to be convicted of sin and broken in heart. David said that he knew his sin, but he only knew his sin when he saw that it was “against You and You only have I sinned’ (Psa. 51:1-4). The practice of true evangelism requires that we probe deeply in the hearts of people. A moral conversion is quite easy to accomplish and we don´t need a lot of help from God to obtain it. But if we are to deal with the hearts of people and go to a true conversion, the Spirit of God must work or there will be no conversion.
What is the real issue behind the three types (as set out above) of moral conversions? The problem with all three types is that these people have not been turned from their real nature of selfishness and pride. A person who sins out of selfishness can also be moral from selfish motives as well. A person who has some moral upbringing and prays a prayer at some point can also go on in selfishness and pride and be deceived about the nature of true conversion. Then the person who has perhaps gone through many things but now trusts in his works as evidence for salvation. Trusting in works is never safe since one is always to trust in Christ alone. Many people in the world who hate Christianity do good works. So, a person can see that Christianity is true and simply never turn from his selfish heart while doing good works. He is not able to see that his works are from himself and not from Christ.
One text (I Cor. 13:1-3) clearly teaches us the dangers of the moralist. It matters not how many good works the person does, there is no benefit without love. It matters not how nice, how religious, or even to what degree a person is given to good works, without true love those works are of no benefit. It does not matter how good a preacher or conference speaker a person is, if they do not have love, they have become “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.’ It does not matter how much knowledge a person has or even how much faith a person has if he or she does not love. Without love, “I am nothing.’ Even if the moralist gave all of his possessions to feed the poor and gave his body to be burned in the name of Christ, yet without love “it profits me nothing.”
There is nothing that a person can do to save himself. There are no good works that in and of the works themselves that are demonstrative evidence that a person is saved. A person can give all that he has away and even give his body to the flames, but in the end is not converted. Works do not save and they cannot show a person with certainty that he is saved. The point, then, is that moral conversions are extremely dangerous and yet they are utterly worthless. The evangelist has to be ready to go to the issues of the heart and deal with people like this in truth. Until a person has been turned from self-love and selfishness, which means that all a person does is motivated by self, a person is not converted. Only those who truly love are converted.
The evangelist must be aware of how dangerous moral conversions are and strive to avoid the traps of them. Modern evangelism is ill-quipped for this because of the lack of the application of biblical theology to the practice of evangelism. We are told that we must get people to do many things, but we are not told to guide people to the place where they are humbled and broken from pride. If the real issue is that the nature of man is selfish and proud, then truly that nature must be changed to one of love. The only way this happens is if God changes the heart and puts His love in that heart. God is the only source of love in the universe and true love comes from Him alone. All works can be done by the natural man. Only true love cannot be copied in its true nature. Some of the kindest and nicest people in the world are not kind and nice out of a true love. Most of the good works in the world are done without true love. Let us beware.
How many people in our churches have simply undergone a moral conversion? How many people are there that truly love God simply because of who He is and not just because He is thought to have done something for them? How many people truly look after the true good of others and take joy in the good of the other people apart from selfish concerns (even religious honor and concerns)? How many people work for the glory of God and do not worry about which human gets the honor on earth? How many are willing to do good and do it solely for the pleasure of God and not so that they will be honored? Ah, how deeply the sword of the Word cuts.
Until pastors preach and teach the dangers of moral conversions, our churches will have deceived people in them. Even if we preach the Law and the standards of Christ the hearts of people might not see the depths of pride and selfishness. That leaves their chief idol untouched. There is nothing that a selfish and proud person cannot do in outward religion. The zeal of the proud person can burn hotter than the true believe which gives him who trusts in his own works (down deep) a lot false confidence. Until a person repents of selfishness and pride, a person is not converted no matter how moral he may be. This is a person who violates the two Greatest Commandments in the very best things that he does. This is what happens when the heart of the person is not converted. His very morality is used to deceive him. This must be pointed out or the deception remains.
Those who practice evangelism must realize that there are many who are deceived. There are many who will be evangelized with their hearts left untouched and as such utterly deceived by false evangelism and moral lives. They may weep out of a deceived love for Christ at times, but sinners love those they think love themselves. To be true to the Gospel, we must learn to undeceive people by reaching the depths of their pride and selfishness. Unless those things are touched and changed, all is truly lost. A changed life is good, but it is not always a sign of salvation. It can be nothing but deception. Children who are moral and well behaved is to be desired, but it can also cover up selfish and proud hearts. We must beware of these deceptions and learn how to deal with deceived people if we are going to be faithful messengers of the Gospel rather than contributors to deception ourselves.
God Loves... Himself 
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