The effect of the Spirit’s work in conversion is enormous. If we could chart the distinctions and contrasts between those that say that faith is an act of the will or a prayer and then the Bible’s teaching of the Spirit’s work in conversion, the contrast and differences would be great. Next week, if things go as planned, we will begin to look at conversions that Scripture records. But this week we will look at the nature of conversion by its effects.
1. Scripture reaches us that a truly converted soul is one that is united to Christ. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (I Cor 12:13). The one joined to Christ is married to Christ and is part of the Church which is the body of Christ (Eph 5:22-33). An intellectual choice or an act of the will cannot join a sinner to Christ.
2. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul lives by that union with Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is the work of the Spirit and is not in the power of the intellect or will.
3. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul is one that is in communion (intimate knowledge of) with God through Jesus Christ. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). “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” (I John 5:20). Eternal life is to live in intimate communion with God through Christ. It is to know God which is to have Christ in the soul and the soul to be in Christ.
4. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul has the love of God shed abroad in the soul and actually has the God of love abiding in it. “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom 5:5). “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (I John 4:16). The soul that has been truly converted is united to Christ and so the love of God for the Son also goes to those who are united to Him and married to Him. It is not just that the converted soul receives something, but the soul receives love Himself.
5. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul is a new creature in Christ Jesus. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (II Corinthans 5:17). “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:15). In conversion the Spirit makes the unbelieving sinner into a new creation. It is not just an act of the intellect or an act of the will; it is the Spirit making the sinner into something that is new. It is a new creation. As II Corinthians 13:5 teaches, the old things have passed away but new things have come. This is real change.
6. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul is now a new creature of faith that loves. Faith is not just the work of the intellect or the act of the will, but it is the act of the renewed soul and the whole renewed soul. “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:15). “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). These are parallel passages using the same language. Both passages say that it is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but each passage says something different about what matters. But is it really different? 6:15 says that what matters is a new creation. 5:6 says that what matters is faith working through love. We can put the two together and say that a soul that is a new creation is a soul that has faith working through love. In other words, a soul that is a new creation is a believing soul. Conversion, then, is when the Spirit changes the soul from deadness in unbelief to one of life in faith and that life is Christ and consists in love and love is the fulfillment of the law. The soul that is a new creation is a believing soul. The soul is converted when the Spirit creates a believing soul in Christ and that is a new creation.
7. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul is one that is born from above and of the Spirit. “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”…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” (John 3:3, 5, 6). No human can just have an intellectual belief nor come up with an act of the will to cause him or herself to be born from above. This is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit.
8. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul is the temple of the living God. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (I Corinthians 6:19). “Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE” (II Corinthians 6:16). “In whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:21-22). In conversion the Lord takes a soul and takes away what is evil and cleanses it so that He may dwell in it. The Lord does not just dwell in temples made by human hands, but in temples of souls that are from His hand and are new creations.
9. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul is one that has been reconciled to God. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom 5:10). Reconciliation is only possible when the nature of a sinner has been changed from one having enmity with God to one that has love for God. The glory of God shines in that it takes sinners who had nothing but enmity toward Him and reconciles them in love. “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Colossians 1:22). This is through and by Christ, not the human intellect or will.
10. Scripture teaches that a truly converted soul is a child of God. God starts the work of conversion with sinners who are children of the devil. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father…Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother” (I John 3:8-10). Surely it is clear that it is the work of God to take one that is a child of the devil by nature and is in slavery in darkness to change that person to a child of light and a child of God. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13). It is God who rescues and transfers sinners.
This has not an exhaustive list, but it serves to show the enormity of true conversion and how it is beyond the act of man. The enormity of what it takes to convert the soul shows that it is the work of the living and infinite God. The work of conversion is so far beyond what a human soul can do it that it is obvious that it has to be the work of God. The effects of conversion absolutely militate against any human being having an ability, whether in the mind or will, to do any one of these things much less all of them. The effects of conversion put on display the glory of the grace of God in saving sinners apart from anything found in them. The effects of conversion are the fingerprints of God on and in the soul and must not be confused with the work of human beings.
The effects of conversion show that it is not an act of faith which saves the sinner as such, but it shows that a regenerated soul is a believing soul. Faith is not just one act of the soul, but it is the state of a soul that is now a new creation in Christ Jesus. When Adam and Eve fell they fell into spiritual death and into a state and nature of unbelief. They were full of self and pride. All who are born of a human father and mother, as all other than Christ are, are born dead in sins and trespasses. It takes God to create a new and living soul which is a believing soul. No act of intellectual belief and no act of the will can make a believing soul, that is, a living soul. It is God that takes dead sinners and makes them new creatures that can share in His divine nature (II Peter 1:4) which is Christ in you the hope of glory (Col 1:27). The glory of God shines in it and to try to share in this is like Uzzah touching the ark.
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