In the last newsletter we started looking at the teaching of the Bible on conversion. One reason for looking at this is because the professing Church is under the judgment of God and seemingly blind to what is going on. The churches are being attended and membership roles are being filled with those who think they are saved when they are not. Pastors urge people to perform their duties and they are done, though an external duty is not what is commanded by God. When God commands people to pray, they are to pray from the heart and are to seek Him for Himself and for His glory to be manifested. When He commands people to worship, they can only worship if it is done in spirit and truth (John 4:24). God does not just command an outward or perfunctory rite to be done, but instead what He commands can only be done from a soul that has been born from above and has the life and Spirit of Christ in it. God alone can work in the soul what He commands. A human being can only obey God if s/he is in union with Christ and have that life, love, and power in the soul that enables and lives in the person to do so.
The church is not the physical building, but is the body of Christ. A lot of activity can be done in a building but the true church consists of those who have the life of Christ. This aspect of life is vitally important to the subject of conversion. Sinners are dead until they have life. Regardless of whether the sinner or group of sinners takes the name of Christ and practice many traditions, they are neither Christians nor part of the true Church unless they have the life of Christ. 1 John 5:20 gives the teaching on this: “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” It is not that Jesus Christ gives us something other than Himself that is eternal life, but that He Himself is eternal life. No one has eternal life apart from Jesus Christ because Christ in the soul is eternal life. The Gospel of John 1:4 tells us that “in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” In I John 1:2 it says that “the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” It is Christ who is life itself that was manifested.
This point must be driven home to churches. Sinners are dead in sins and trespasses and must be made alive. It is not that they have the ability to start doing things that make them alive and it is not that they can change their own hearts from death to life. It is God alone that can raise the spiritually dead and give them life. He gives them life by giving them new hearts and Christ Himself. The life that God gives is Christ Himself. Ephesians 2:1 tells us very clearly that sinners are “dead in trespasses and sins” and verse 3 says that they are “by nature children of wrath.” At this point in the letter to the Ephesians Paul is writing directly to the people there. He told them what they were before God made them alive and then what God did to make them alive. The only reason that these people who were dead in sins and by nature children of wrath were made alive is because God had mercy on them. His love and mercy were seen in making them “alive with Christ” (v. 5) and doing that by grace apart from anything they had done. God saves sinners “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph 1:6) which is only found in Christ.
A church will never have true unity and true life apart from the life of Christ in the souls of each person and then as a group. A church is not a place primarily where people are built up in themselves or where good things are done, but it is to be a place where the life of God in Christ is manifested. So many people want to be good, do good things, practice the Christian disciplines, and attend a place that is pleasing to the eye and ear. But those things may be nothing but self-righteousness. A church is where Christ dwells in His people and He is its wisdom, life, sanctification, redemption, and all things. However, when people attend a local church and do not have the life of Christ, the church takes on a different approach. It may become organized and may be orthodox, but it does not have the life of Christ. Those with the life of Christ know that something is wrong but they don’t know specifically what is wrong. The problem is that death has come in and religion and organization rules rather than life itself. When religion rules rather than the life of Christ He is not the focus in reality though He may be in name.
Ephesians 2:5 gives an important point in this. It tells us that God “even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” The word “with” can be thought of in at least two different ways. One way is to think of being made alive as Christ is made alive and then to be with Him. Another way to think of “with” in this context is to think of the way that life comes to the sinner. Perhaps the best way is to think of both ways as being true. God makes sinners alive with the life of Christ and by Christ Himself. It is Christ who is the source of life and only by being united to Him can a person have life itself. One must do more than just believe the facts; one must be made alive with Christ and so have the life of Christ Himself in the heart.
It is quite clear how necessary it is for souls to be actually converted by God and to receive the life of Jesus Christ. In one sense we are talking about how conversion must happen and what it is, but we are also keeping in mind what is going on and what is not going on in the churches. Surely it is obvious that a mere acceptance of a doctrine as true does not change the heart of a dead sinner from death to life. It is also obvious that attending a church does not in and of itself change the heart from death to life. It is even more obvious that doing a few or even many good works will not change the heart of a sinner from death to life. Life cannot come from that which is dead in and of itself and which is by nature a child of wrath. Life can only come to a soul that is changed by the hand of God who then gives it true life. God changes a soul in regeneration and then gives it life by joining the soul with Christ and making them one. The soul that is one with Christ is now joined to life itself and will live by that life itself. The soul can now say with Paul that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
A church must have those with life or it will be dragged down by death. A church can be dragged down by modern Pharisees, by lack of prayer, and lack of fellowship which are all signs of death. But even if people are orthodox in doctrine, they may have prayer that is not true prayer. There can be many things that appear as fellowship but are not really fellowship. A true church consists of people that truly have the life of Christ so they can know Christ in truth which goes beyond doctrine alone. A true church consists of people that truly have the life of Christ so they can pray with life. A true church consists of people that have the life of Christ so they can have the fellowship of Christ rather than just doing things at the same time. While there are many that take the name of Christian and there are many building with “church” on the door in America, that does not mean the reality of those things are there and are more than just the name. The life of Christ must really be there.
The nature of true conversion is not just an academic study, but it is a teaching of Scripture about the action of God that is utterly necessary for the Gospel and for the life of the churches. It is not enough to tell people some information about the cross of Jesus Christ and then tell them they need to believe that, for as we know the devil believes all of that. It is also true that the devil may be in attendance at many churches every time the door is open as well. He loves to have people make decisions and do moral things so he can deceive them into thinking they are Christians. What the devil wants to hide from people is that they must have God actually convert them from being children of the devil to being children of God. For this to happen they must be made alive in Christ Jesus. This is not just a decision or just an “emotional” event; it is the activity of the living God in the souls of human beings. An agreement to a truth or a prayer uttered is not the same thing as the hand of God coming upon the soul and giving it the life of Jesus Christ so that the soul may participate in the life of God.
The last newsletter and this one have pointed to two vital facts. One, the Bible tells us that people must be born from above in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is the work of God in changing the soul by the work of the Spirit and making it capable of true spiritual activity. Two, the Bible teaches that for a soul to have life it must be made alive with Christ and then to have the very life of Christ in the soul. Eternal life is not just something out there that we know nothing about, but eternal life is to have Christ Himself in the soul and for Christ to be the life of the soul. One can preach and teach many truths about Christianity and still not have Christ as life itself in the soul. Churches can do many things and yet not have the fellowship of Christ at its very heart. The doctrine of conversion which is so vital to the salvation of souls and to the very life of the true Church must be restored to the heart of the Gospel. God does not just promise to deliver people from hell, but He promises to change their hearts so that they may know Him and share in His life. The New Covenant is not just that people are saved from hell, but that God will live in souls and work His commandments in and through them. The teaching of conversion and the life of Christ in the soul is good news to those who see just how dead they are. The teaching of conversion and the life of Christ is good news to those who labor in dead churches. Let us all seek the Lord for His hand to move upon our hearts and the hearts of others. May the life of Christ truly be exalted through His Church which consists of those He truly lives in and through.
God Loves... Himself 
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