The teaching of Scripture on conversion is spread through the whole Bible rather than all the truth located in one or two verses. The whole Bible must be looked at and the truths it teaches about conversion must be gathered and examined from the whole rather than just taking a verse and building the whole truth about it from that. In the last three weeks the emphasis has been on the biblical teaching that the mind must be enlightened, the affections changed, and the will ordered to be like Christ. In other words, human beings come into this world depraved in all aspects of the soul. For a soul to be truly converted, then, each aspect of the soul must be converted. Only God the Creator can convert the soul in aspect or all aspects. Therefore, it is very clear who must do the work. The converted soul is the work of a craftsman (Eph 2:10) and, as II Corinthians 5:17 teaches us, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Whatever our view of salvation is, it must take into account that it is God that does the work and therefore old things are done and new things have come. This week we will look at what believers in the past have gleaned from the whole of Scripture.
In the Shorter Catechism, which has been revised for Baptists, there is a lot of powerful and helpful instruction for us today. Three of the questions (30-32) and the answers will be given below.
30. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? [A] We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit.
31. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? [A] The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.
32. What is effectual calling? [A] “Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.”
These questions and answers as found in the catechism teach a lot of the biblical view of conversion. We need to study them. The old view had a great influence on the modern view as well. In the Baptist Faith & Message we can see much of the same teaching. While there have been wording changes and even structural changes through the years, at least a lot of the same teaching is found. The following is from the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
II. C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ.
IV. Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.
The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Divines, being the basis for much of the Baptist Shorter Catechism, speaks strongly of effectual calling or, as the modern version terms it, “effective calling.” It says that effective calling is the work of the Spirit. It then speaks of enlightening the mind and renewing the will. It then says this: “This is how He persuades and makes us able to receive Jesus Christ.” This is powerful language and should teach us that the salvation of sinners is far more than what the sinner is able to do in his or her own power. Salvation is the work of the Spirit who makes sinners able to receive Christ. The work that the Holy Spirit does in making people able to come to Christ is His work in enlightening the mind and renewing the will. It is His work in convicting people of sin and of righteousness. The Gospel is all about the glory of God and not just what man needs to be saved. The Gospel is the good news of what God does to save sinners rather than what they can do for themselves. The Gospel is not just good news about what God has made available for sinners and is now contingent upon their prayer or choice, but it is about what God does in working faith and Christ in them.
The 1689 London Baptist Confession is very explicit about the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing sinners to Christ. In chapter 14 (on Saving Faith) it tells us where faith comes from: “The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word.” In chapter 9 (of Free Will) it shows in clear language the work of God in the soul: “When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good.”
The 1689 Confession also speaks strongly as to the work of God in chapter 10 on Effectual Calling.
“Those whom God hath predestinated unto life, he is pleased in his appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.”
In the old Confession of Faith (1823) of the Calvinistic Methodists of Wales, we also see some of the glorious work of the Spirit in bringing sinners to Christ. It speaks of the work of the Spirit like this: “To save sinners, it is as necessary to apply as it was to provide the plan of salvation.” This points to a great failure in our day to teach the application of redemption. Instead we point to Christ in some way and tell sinners to believe. But we don’t tell them of the necessary work of the Holy Spirit who must work in them the very ability to believe. The Welsh Confession also says this: “to make them willing in the day of his power, and guide them into all truth.” It is the work of the Holy Spirit “to convince them of sin, show them their state of misery, reveal Christ to them, draw them to him, and create them in him; then will they be members of his mystical body.”
In modern evangelistic methods, whether by Arminians or Calvinists, the work of the Holy Spirit is at best mentioned. In most conservative churches a person must at least confess a belief in the Trinity, but in evangelism we don’t act as if there really is a triune God. In modern day evangelism Jesus is the only member of the Trinity mentioned, but it is His human nature that is focused on. This happens because it is thought that all that is needed is a prayer or an act of the will. The biblical teaching on conversion as a whole is either not known or set aside. Sinners must be converted by the work of the Holy Spirit in applying the work of Christ to the soul which includes conviction of sin by and teaching of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Sinners must be made alive by the Spirit because they really and truly are dead in sins and trespasses. It is the Holy Spirit who must teach sinners about Christ, enable them to come to Christ, and then join them to Christ. The Gospel is not that sinners must come up with a belief in their own power, but that the Holy Spirit will transform sinners so that they have a faith from the depths of their changed souls that are united to Christ. Apart from Christ and His work in us we can do nothing spiritual.
We have looked at what men throughout history have said about conversion in the language of effectual calling. We must know that the majority of what is going on today does not fit with the great Confessions of the past. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the same Gospel as the Gospel of God. The Gospel of God has been planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and then applied by the Spirit. It is only when the Gospel is applied by the Holy Spirit is it truly a Gospel of grace alone. That is something that the men who spent years writing these Confessions knew and thought was important to include. They also gave copious amounts of Scripture to show where they found these teachings. The Confessions of history teach us what many godly men believed and spent years in meetings to agree on. Are all of these men and all of those Confessions wrong? To change an old saying around a little, “They who refuse to learn the truth from godly men in history are doomed to repeat the heresies of history.”
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