The doctrine of conversion has virtually been lost in the modern day. We have replaced the conversion or transformation of the soul by trading it for a prayer, a decision, signing a card, walking an aisle, an intellectual grasp of a doctrine, or perhaps even a different type of lifestyle. This has wreaked havoc within the visible Church. It has done this by filling the roles, the pews, and the pulpits with those who have made decisions but have not been truly converted. When a local church admits as members those who have prayed a prayer rather than having been truly converted, the standards are easily met. The standard of conversion is then a choice or act that a human makes rather than the changing of the soul by the hand of God. Churches must not be deceived into thinking that because it preaches what is called the “Gospel” today that it is teaching people what the Bible teaches about how people are truly converted. There is the message of the Gospel but there is also the application of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit as well. As long as we think that the Gospel is a message to the intellect that a person must simply make a choice about, we will miss the power of the Gospel and its application to the whole soul by the Holy Spirit.
If you will reflect upon the previous paragraph you will see why the local churches are in such trouble and in the grips of a deadly enemy. Many people have made an intellectual decision and yet their soul has not been changed by the Spirit of the living God. Others have walked an aisle and are given over to a lot of activity that is provided by the local church and yet that does nothing but hide their lost condition to them. If any doubts arise about their salvation, that just provokes them to work all the harder. Book after book on evangelism has poured from the presses and yet they continue to neglect the biblical teaching of a true and thorough conversion. In the past the books on salvation were about the conversion of the soul, yet now we give people a small amount of intellectual information and tell them to make a decision. Indeed they make a decision, but the faith that Scripture teaches about is a faith that is a consuming faith and an absorbing faith. It is the deepest conviction of the soul and that requires that people be new creatures in Christ Jesus. The controlling belief of the soul must be that of faith and trust in Jesus Christ and not just a momentary decision that flits around in the brain. It must be a faith that is anchored in a soul that has been born of God and has been converted from one creature to a new one.
In contrast to the message that is popular today among all the theologies, Jesus taught that a person must be born from above (again) to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is true that we hear the words “born again” fairly often, but what does the Bible teach about it? How does the teaching of Scripture on the new birth correlate with the teaching on conversion? It is helpful to see these teachings (new birth and conversion) as at the least illustrating each other rather than as being opposed to each other. Those who are born from above are converted people. An adult must be converted in order to become like a little child (Mat 18:1-4). When a person is born from above that person is now a child of God rather than a child of the devil. The new birth has converted the person from having one father to another. The new birth is not just something discussed; it is something that God does on and in the souls of human beings. These actions of God actually change the soul and make it into something new so that now the person is a new creature in Christ. The whole of salvation is not just a declaration of God that the person is just in His sight; it includes making the person a new creature. Indeed justification by faith alone is the teaching of Scripture on how God declares the sinner just, but we also have the biblical teaching of the new birth and conversion. We must wrestle mightily with Holy Scripture to discover the beauty of the whole of Scripture on this teaching.
John 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The texts in John are familiar ones. We will not spend a lot of time expounding each detail, but what we want to see is the mighty change that happens in the new birth and the One who actually effects this change. They tell us that “familiarity breeds contempt.” In the context of looking at Scripture familiarity hides a lot of truths. As people grow spiritually they are given deeper insights and deeper truths. If they just read a verse with the understanding that they had as an infant in the things of God, they will never grow and get beyond that. There is so much we miss if we just rest on the familiar. John 1:11-13 is in the Prologue of John which sets the tone for the book as well as some of the vitally important issues. This is a provocative part of John. The Jewish people were referred to as His own and yet as those that did not receive Him. But to those that received Him; those were the ones given the right and authority to become children of God. A Jewish person reading this text would have been shocked. If we could have our spiritual sensibilities heightened, we would be shocked too. The Jewish people were not chosen because they were great, smart, or strong, but because God chose them to shine forth His glory. When God came to humanity in Christ Jesus, He started with the children of the devil to make them His children by His will and grace. It is not by all the works of human effort or moral goodness that a person becomes a child of God, but by faith.
A person must be born as a child of God to be a child of God. Verse 13 shows us this and also shows that this new birth must happen before one will believe in His name. Those who believe in His name (v. 12) were (past tense) born of God. This is not a terrible doctrine; it is one of great hope. This shows us that the very worst of sinners should look to the grace of God because He saves based on His great name and omnipotent will rather than the power and ability of humans. The text specifically tells us that this birth as a child of God is not according to the blood or ancestry of a person. It is not because a person is Jewish or not, but because God saves by His own will and His own ability. We must be very careful how we view our children as well. God loved Jacob and hated Esau though they had the same parents. Jacob was born of God by grace and not of a line that went according to blood.
God takes a sinner and makes that person His child not because of the will of a husband or of the desires of the flesh, but also not because of the will of any human being. The new birth comes because of the will of God Himself. This text takes great pains to show that the new birth is not on account of anything a human being is or does. It strips human beings of all hope that they might have of who they are or of what they can do and directs them to the fact that salvation comes as a result of the work of God in the human soul. The grace that Christ came and was full of (John 1:14-18) is a grace that is not given because of who a person is or on account of what a person has done, but only to the glory of His great name. Salvation is by faith in order that it may be by grace (Rom 4:16). Salvation is by grace alone in order that it may be to the display of the glory of God alone. How fitting it is that John 1:11-13 is right before verses 14-18 which shouts out the glory of His grace.
One of the first teachings of Jesus that John lists is the new birth in John 3. Once again Jesus gets to the same issues. The new birth is not the work of a human being and is not because of the bloodline of any human being. The English words “born again” are accurate, but they do not fill in all that needs to be said. Mark 15:38 uses the same Greek word when it says “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” The word in Mark 15:38 has the idea of from the top or from above. John 3:31 also uses the same Greek word this way: “He who comes from above is above all.” The word has the idea of again if something has happened first, but is primarily the idea of from above. If a person is born of the flesh, then to be born from above will also mean that the person must be born again to be born of the Spirit. In John 3:3-5, therefore, the idea is that a person must be born from above/heaven/again in order to see the kingdom of heaven. A person born of the flesh must be born from heaven or born from above to see or enter the kingdom of heaven. One must be born of the Spirit in order to be of the Spirit.
The ramifications of these verses are enormous. For a person to be truly converted it is God that must cause the person to be born from above and by the Spirit. A true conversion is something that happens to a person that is born of a human nature and now that person is born of the Spirit and of the will of God. That person was the natural child of human parents which was according to a bloodline and according to a human choice, but now that person is born of the living God and has a new nature from above. The conversion of the human soul is not just a human choice and is not just a simple happening; it is the work of God in taking a child of the devil and making it into a child of the living God. The whole person is changed, even from top to bottom. The work of conversion is one that displays the glory of God in changing sinners to partake of His glory and love Him above all earthly things. The new birth and conversion truly makes a sinner a new creature in Christ.
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