God Loves… Himself

In an introduction to the book Divine Energy written by John Skepp, John Gill wrote the following words:

The subject matter of this treatise, which is the only one he ever published, is of the greatest moment and importance, viz. the Conversion of man; without which he must be miserable, and which he cannot effect of himself, and must be done only by the invincible power and efficacious grace of God; as is clearly held forth in the Scriptures, and fully proved in the following discourses. Nothing is more common than to mistake in this great affair, and nothing more fatal; the mistakes about conversion and faith…The insufficiency of moral suasion to produce these things is most clearly proved; the nature, use, reach, and compass of it are truly stated; and by undeniable arguments and instances it is shewn that there are such lets and hindrances in the way of a sinner’s conversion to God and faith in Christ, as that it is impossible and impracticable for moral suasion ever to remove them; and which only can be done by the power and efficacy of Divine Grace…it is most clearly demonstrated that Man is passive in the reception of the Spirit as a spirit of conviction and saving grace, in regeneration, as effected by him, in a soul’s vital union to Christ, and in the first beginnings of spiritual motions of grace.

In Gill’s Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity he speaks directly to the teaching of Scripture on conversion himself. He gives a short list of some that conversion is not:

1. An external one, or what lies only in an outward reformation of live and manners, such as that of the Ninevites; for this may be where internal conversion is not, as in the Scribes and Pharisees; and is what person may depart from, and return to their former course of life again; and where it is right and genuine, it is the fruit and effect of conversion, but not that itself,-2. Nor is it a mere doctrinal one, or a conversion from false notions imbibed, to a set of doctrines and truths which are according to the Scriptures; so men of old were converted from Judaism and Heathenism to Christianity; but not all that were so converted in a doctrinal sense, were true and real converts; some had the form of godliness without the power of it, had a name to live, and be called Christians, but were dead, and so not converted; thus the recovery of professors of religion from errors fallen into; to the acknowledgment of the truth, is called a conversion of them, James 5:19, 20…But the conversion under consideration is a true, real, internal work of God upon the souls of men; there is a counterfeit of it, or there is that in some men who are not really converted, which is somewhat similar to that which is always found in those that are truly converted; as, a sense of sin, and an acknowledgment of it; an apprehension of the divine displeasure at it; great distress about it, a sorrow for it, humiliation on account of it, and an abstinence from it; and something that bears a resemblance to each of these may be found in unconverted persons; though their concern about sin is chiefly for the evil that comes by it, or like to come by it, and not for the evil that is in it; so in converted persons there is, sooner or later, light into the gospel and doctrines of it; particularly the doctrine of salvation by Christ, which yield relief and comfort to them under a sense of sin, and encourage faith and hope in God; and there is something like this to be observed in some who are not truly converted, who are said to be enlightened, that is, in a notional and doctrinal way; and to taste the good work of God, though it is only in a superficial manner; and to receive it with joy, with a flash of natural affection, which lasts for a while; and to believe it with temporary faith, historically, and become subject to ordinances; but yet in all this there is no heart-work.

There is a massive amount of truth to be mined from these statements of John Gill. His writings, if heeded, would provide a necessary correction to much that goes on within so-called Evangelical Christianity and that includes much of Reformed thinking as well. It is easy to pray a prayer and to make a moral change of sorts and be considered a believer or a Christian today. It is easy to have the intellectual beliefs of Christianity and then of Reformed theology and be considered a Christian. The human heart is easily deceived as long as the deception falls in line with the ruling and governing love of the self. The devil is the deceiver by nature who is also a liar by nature and so lies and deceives on a constant basis. Revelation 12:9 calls him “the great dragon” and “the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.” He works hard at deceiving human souls about conversion since in conversion the glory of God (which Satan hates) shines with great beauty.

Gill instructs us, from the first quote above, that “Nothing is more common than to mistake in this great affair, and nothing more fatal; the mistakes about conversion and faith.” A doctor may make a mistake and a person may die, but a mistake about conversion is eternal damnation. One mistake is that moral persuasion will do what is needed. Surely they are converted if they are doing good things. Yet, Gill says, “nothing is more common to mistake.” Has human nature changed? Has the devil changed? If not, we are still liable to this mistake. Yet to say we are still liable to this mistake is weak. Our very nature of sin, pride, and self-love drives us to this mistake with great force. The devil is hard at work in each person and those around them to get them to make that mistake. The world is hard at work to convince itself and others to make this mistake. The religions of the world are busy trying to get people to make this mistake. Much of professing Christianity is busily working at deceiving themselves and others about this mistake. Yet, as Martin Luther wrote, “one little word shall fell him.” Jesus said this in Matthew 18:3: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Gill points out that true conversion is not merely a doctrinal one, but it is an internal conversion that is needed. Here is a source of great error in academia, both in the secular and theological realms. We think that if a person goes to seminary and learns many academic things that s/he must be converted. Perhaps we think that if a person has latched onto or believes to some degree the great teachings of the Reformers in history that this person must be converted. A conversion of the mind or of the notions does not necessarily mean that the heart has been converted. We see throughout the Gospels people that were convinced of something concerning Jesus when they saw His miracles. In other words, they were intellectually convinced in some manner. But when the teachings of Jesus began to demand of them that they deny themselves and follow Him, they would turn away. When a person is not truly converted to Christ that person will turn from Christ when a true denial of the self is required. If the heart is not turned from self, Christ will be turned from when turning from self is required. Though self may claim Christ as master and deceive self into believing that, we can only have on and true master (Mat 6:24).

There is nothing about truth in the brain that changes hearts of human beings. Truth in the brain is not a sign that the truth has changed the heart. It is possible to hear lectures that are quite orthodox while the lecturer is actually dead in sins and trespasses. It is also possible to hear orthodox sermons and agree with them but hear them while one is dead in sins and trespasses. The truth is but a mere word in a sense unless it is made powerful in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Unless the Spirit makes the soul alive with the truth the truth is but a propositional statement in the brain of one that is dead in sins and trespasses. Only God Himself can deliver a soul from its pride and self-centeredness. If the soul is not delivered from its pride and self-centeredness it will use truth to puff itself up and focus on itself with. As Paul teaches us, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” (I Cor 8:1). It is not our knowledge that changes the soul, but it is God knowing us that changes the soul and then knowing Him is eternal life in the soul (I Cor 8:3; John 17:3; I John 5:20). True knowledge of God which comes in the spiritual knowledge of Him and love for Him only comes from His work in us in giving us light and love of Himself.

Gill shows us that many will have sorrow for sin, but not for the evil of sin and not because it is wrongs God Himself, but only because of the consequences that it brings on them. This is much like a criminal that is sorry that he was caught and sorry that he has to pay, but he is not sorry for the evil of sin itself. The soul that has been changed by God has sorrow over the evil of sin as it is against God (Psa 51:4). Then in a statement that indicts virtually the whole of Evangelical Christianity today, Gill speaks of those that have some notion of Christ and have a taste of the Gospel but only in a superficial manner. They even receive it with joy, though it is only a flash of the natural affections. These people have some relief from the conviction of sin and exercise something of a historical faith. They even practice the ordinances of God, yet their hearts are not changed. Here is the great danger of modern versions of Christianity. We teach people to agree that they are sinners or have made some mistakes and then to pray a prayer, yet there is nothing about a true change of heart worked in them by God. We teach people to believe certain doctrines, yet they are not taught of God about the nature of a changed heart. We teach people a certain form of morality, yet they don’t learn the true morality of love that comes from a changed heart. We teach people spiritual disciplines, yet they practice them without a heart that has been renewed by the living God. The whole inward person must be changed according to Jesus or the person will perish. We must get beyond the externals and realize that people must have this work of God in the heart or they will perish forever. Salvation is not just to be delivered from hell; it is to be delivered from self. Salvation is not just to become better; it is to become a new creature in Christ Jesus (II Cor 5:17) with old things passed away. That is God’s work in the soul.

In previous newsletters there has been a concentration on the need for man to be converted and on the awful bondage that human beings are in due to the pride and self-centeredness of the heart. In past centuries the nature of man in pride and self-centeredness was seen as the background for the nature of conversion. If the nature of sin is pride and self-centeredness, then for the soul to be truly converted it must be humbled from its pride and turned into a soul that is God-centered. Some quotes will be given below to show that this was indeed what was focused on in the teaching on conversion.

God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another-God alone. As long as he is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God; but plans out for himself (or at least hopes and longs for) a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation. But he who is out of doubt that his destiny depends entirely on the will of God despairs entirely of himself, chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work in him; and such a man is very near to grace for his salvation. So these truths are published for the sake of the elect, that they may be humbled and brought down to nothing, and so be saved. The rest of men resist this humiliation; indeed, they condemn the teaching of self-despair; they want a little something left that they can do for themselves. Secretly they continue proud, the enemies of the grace of God. (Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther, Revell Publications)

So also it is a habit or disposition natural to the souls of men to entertain an high thought of their own strength. And hence men are so prone to reject such doctrines as teach that men are naturally helpless, and dead in trespasses and sins, and can do nothing for themselves. And hence so many embrace the doctrines of free will-that any man can convert himself if he pleases without any more than common assistance-and slight and despise those schemes of salvation that teach the arbitrary and mighty influences of the Spirit of God in men’s hearts. Again, ’tis a disposition of soul natural to all men to have an high thought of their own righteousness. And hence, they are prone to reject those doctrines that teach man’s absolute dependence on the free and sovereign grace of God and salvation by the righteousness of Christ. (Knowing the Heart: Jonathan Edwards on True and False Conversion, International Outreach)

While they sought to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. Hence therefore the second work of humiliation is required, whereby God plucks away all his props, and emptieth him wholly of what he hath or seemeth to have. For pride (unto which humiliation is opposite) is but the rawkness of praise, and praise is a fruit of a cause by counsel, that hath power to do or not to do this or that, as he sees fit. Humiliation is the utter nothingness of the soul, that we have no power, it’s not in our choice to dispose of ourselves, nor yet to dispose of that which another gives, nor yet safe to repine at his dispose. In a word, as in a scion before it be engrafted into another stock, it must be cut off from the old, and pared, and then implanted. In contrition we are cut off; in humiliation pared, and so fit to be implanted into Christ by faith. (The Application of Redemption, Thomas Hooker, International Outreach).

You must let go of self; your own righteousness and all self-confidences must be parted with, you must be humbled and emptied of your selves, if you would be prepared for the receiving of Jesus Christ…Before you can love Christ, your heart must be taken off from sin. Get therefore a conviction of sin as the greatest evil in the world. Be persuaded what an evil thing and a bitter it is, to transgress God’s Law, and thereby to affront the highest Majesty, the great King of glory. (The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ, Thomas Vincent, Soli Deo Gloria)

It is true, Christ is applied to us next by faith, but faith is wrought in us in that way of conviction and sorrow for sin; no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sins, unless he first see, be convicted of, and loaded with them. (The Sound Believer, Thomas Shepard, Soli Deo Gloria)

Men cannot exercise faith until the heart is prepared by a sense of danger and the insufficiency of other things. If they don’t see their danger, they can see no occasion that they have come to Christ. If they don’t see themselves liable to wrath, how can they come to Christ to save them from wrath? As long as they imagine that they can help themselves, they will not come to Christ for help. Men can’t trust in Christ alone until they are driven out of themselves. They cannot come as helpless and undone until they see themselves so. (Guide to Christ, Solomon Stoddard, Soli Deo Gloria)

The work of regeneration being of absolute necessity unto salvation, it greatly concerns ministers especially, in all ways possible, to promote the same; and in particular that they guide souls aright who are under a work of preparation. There are some who deny any necessity of the preparatory work of the Spirit of God in order to a closing with Christ. This is a very dark cloud, both as it is an evidence that men do not have the experience of that work in their own souls, and it is a sign that such men are utterly unskillful in guiding others who are under this work. If this opinion should prevail in the land, it would give a deadly wound to religion. It would expose men to think of themselves as converted when they are not….Men must see the plague of their own hearts, their helplessness, and that they are like the clay in the hand of the potter before they come to Christ, and so will be afraid and searching themselves. But if they do not know any necessity of preparation [of the Spirit of God], they will take the first appearance of holiness for holiness; and, if they find religious affections in themselves, they will grow confident that God has wrought a good work in them.

It would, likewise, expose them to bolster up others in false confidence…But another who is a stranger to it will be ready to take all for gold that glitters and, if he sees men religiously disposed, will be speaking peace to them. He will be like the false prophets saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. So men will be hardened. It is a dismal thing to give men sleepy notions and make them sleep the sleep of death. (Guide to Christ, Solomon Stoddard, Soli Deo Gloria)

Solomon Stoddard went on to list several men that believed what he spoke of. But simply from a look at Habakkuk 2:4 we know that faith cannot abide with pride: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.” The proud one and the one with faith are contrasted with each other. It is easy to understand, though it is hard to apply it to ourselves, that pride cannot dwell with faith. Pride must be repented of in order for there to be faith in the soul. Pride is focused on self and the abilities of self. Pride may think it is trusting in Christ and will exercise what it thinks is faith, but a broken and humbled soul is the only soul that has true faith. We are commanded to believe in Christ, but with no further instruction we will think that faith or belief is something that we can do with no change of heart at all. We are told that we are sinners and need a Savior from that sin, but we are not told that pride is the very essence of sin and that we have not repented of sin until we have repented of our pride. We are also not told that we need a Savior from our pride and ourselves. So we pray a prayer or walk an aisle and think we are converted people. This is to do nothing but sleep the sleep of death.

Souls must be thoroughly humbled or they will be left in their pride. Only the humble receive grace because the proud cannot do so. The dark cloud that Solomon Stoddard spoke of is present in our day. This deadly wound to Christianity has been dealt and we are suffering the effects of it. When the first signs of gold are taken for gold and hearts are not searched, then churches are filled with unbelievers. Our evangelism, though saying the words of the Bible, is no longer biblical evangelism because the pride of human hearts is left intact rather than broken. A truly converted soul is one that has been deeply humbled and broken from its strength of self and trust in its own abilities. This is a soul that has experienced the truth that it can do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:4-5). This is the soul that realizes that humility is not something that is put on or is a simple choice, but it is the emptiness of self that the Spirit of God has to do. Until the Spirit of God empties the soul of pride and self (though we will never be free from this perfectly until heaven), faith will not be in the soul because Christ will not dwell in a soul that is proud and self-centered (Isa 57:15). God only dwells in the contrite and lowly of spirit. A truly converted soul has been transformed from a proud person to a humbled one. This is the one that trusts in grace alone.

This will perhaps be an offensive article to some. However, there are many people in the world that need to be offended because the true Gospel is offensive. We live in a day where it is expected for all to speak and write in such a gracious way that no one will be offended. Jesus, Paul, and the prophets would not live down to such standards. That should show us that our ideas on these things are not biblical. Jesus spoke the following words: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS'” (Mat 7:21-23).

This text should chill us all to the depths of our souls. It should make us examine ourselves as Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5. It should wake us up and teach us to be careful about those we assume are believers. Jesus not only said that “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom, but He went on to say that “Many will say to me on that day.” They had prophesied in His name, cast demons out in His name, and did many miracles in His name. Once again, Jesus the Lord of all said that “Many will say to me on that day.” Many who were very religious, then, will hear the words that bring utter despair to the soul: “Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” One can be sure that these people had some sort of experience that made them think that they were believers. We can be sure that these people had some kind of correct theology. Apparently many of these people preached in the name of the Lord (prophesy). Others were quite charismatic in that they cast out demons and performed many miracles. They not only did some miracles, but they did many miracles. We can see clearly from this text that many religious things, even miracles and casting out demons, are not sure signs of salvation.

What was it that these people did that was not consistent with salvation? They were lawbreakers that did not practice the law. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us this:

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Whatever we say about the Gospel or about the law in our day, it must keep in mind these words of Jesus. The Matthew 7 passage (listed above) speaks of Jesus as looking ahead and speaking of the last day. He did not say these words and expect them not to be true at a different point, but they were true then, they are true now, and they will be true on judgment day. While there are many groups and theologies that attempt to do away with the Law in our day, we must keep in mind the words of Jesus. It does not matter how religious a person is, nor the amount of religious activities a person does, a person that is a lawbreaker and does not truly do the will of God will enter into everlasting and eternal torment. It does not matter if a person is a preacher or not, preachers that practice lawlessness will have to depart from Christ. We are warned not to annul even the least of His commandments.

In the last newsletter I gave a quote from Arthur Pink who wrote in the 1930’s. Here is part of it again:

“Alas, alas, God’s ‘way of salvation’ is almost entirely unknown today, the nature of Christ’s salvation is almost universally misunderstood, and the terms of His salvation misrepresented on every hand. The ‘Gospel’ which is being proclaimed is, in nine cases of every ten, but a perversion of the Truth, and tens of thousands, assured that they are bound for Heaven, are now hastening to Hell, as fast as they can take them…all that is needed is to bring before a sinner a few verses of Scripture which describe his lost condition, one or two which contain the word ‘believer,’ and then a little persuasion for him to ‘accept Christ.’ And the awful thing is that so very, very few see anything wrong with this-blind to the fact that such a process proves it is only the devil’s drug to lull thousands into a false peace…But this we greatly fear unless God is pleased to grant a real revival, it will not be long ere ‘the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people’ (Isa. 60:2), for the light of the true gospel is rapidly disappearing. (Genuine Salvation, International Outreach, 1999).

Some might think Pink was an alarmist and certainly not to be listened to. But remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23. Then listen to His words in Mat 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” If we take this passage seriously, it will hit us like a ton of bricks. How many people are really even trying to enter heaven now? How many people will even try to be on a broad road? How few are those that even attempt to be on a road at all. So if just a few find the narrow gate and the narrow road that leads to life, how few are those in reality. We are living in a day where these words of Jesus are not taken very seriously at all. They seem to be dismissed rather easily and quickly.

There was a day when Pelagian teaching was universally said to be a broad road, but today it passes as just a difference of opinion. There was a day when people feared Arminian teaching as a broad road, but now we build bridges to it. There was a day when people feared dead Calvinism as a broad road, but now we think more teaching or more exciting music is what is needed. We have people wanting to change things because people are different now. When did it become the case that people are not born dead in sins and trespasses? When did it become the truth that people are not depraved sinners who do all out of self-love rather than love for God? When was it that God left the throne and left worship up to the whims of fallen and changing human beings? What we need is God Himself as He reveals Himself in Scripture. What we need is a recovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and true conversion so that the glory of God will shine with its beauty in the souls of those that have been truly converted.

It cannot be stressed any stronger than Jesus stressed it. Souls must be converted or they will perish in hell forever. A person may be charismatic and yet be utterly lost. A person may be Arminian and yet be utterly lost. A person may be a Calvinist and yet be utterly lost. A person may be a preacher for many years and yet be utterly lost. Jesus did not make any distinctions but simply and with power said that those that practice lawlessness are not converted people since they will be told to depart from Him. A converted person is one that loves and keeps the commands of God (John 14:21; I John 3:24). If a person does not love God and keep His commandments, that person is not a converted person. No matter what else a person is or what a person does, a person that does not keep the commandments of God out of love has not been converted from practicing lawlessness.

The quote from Arthur Pink (listed above) lists several practices of today that are in conflict with the teachings of Jesus (given above from Matthew). The Gospel presented so much today is a perversion of the truth and is at odds with the teachings of Jesus Himself. People are told, after they have been given a few verses on sin and on what faith is, to pray a prayer and no matter what they are saved forever. Jesus told us that no matter what a person did in religion that person would be lost if that person practiced lawlessness. Who are we to believe? We must believe what Jesus said. Could it be true that millions are being deluded with false gospels today? Could it be that we are in such darkness in our land that the true Gospel is very if not exceedingly rare? We must not forget the plain words of Jesus Christ as seen in the texts of Scripture above. A soul that practices lawlessness is a lost soul.

We must think soberly and prayerfully on Scripture. We take things as signs of salvation that Scripture denies are signs. We must begin to think of true salvation as souls that are converted by the living God from one type of creature to being a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is nothing that a prayer can effectually do. It is nothing that an act of the human will can carry out, but instead is only something that the power of the living God can do. It is God alone who can take one whose mind is “hostile toward God” and “does not subject itself to the law of God” (Rom 8:7) and make it a soul that loves God and keeps His commandments. There are many nice pastors and teachers in the modern day that masquerade as lovers of the Bible that hate the Law of God in reality. These are dangerous people in many ways, but one of those ways is that they do not understand conversion. God converts sinners to be like Him in loving His Law. No one can love God apart from loving the Greatest Commandment. No one can keep the Greatest Commandment apart from the Ten Commandments. No one is a converted soul unless that person loves the true God and desires to be like Him in true holiness. True salvation is to be a converted soul, not just one that is religious. Christ condemned sin in the flesh “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:4). Christ came to fulfill the Law. One of the ways He does that is through truly converted souls. If He is not fulfilling His Law in a soul, then He is not the life of that soul. If Christ is not the life of a soul, that soul is not converted. Christ will tell every person that practices lawlessness to “depart from Me.” But souls that He has converted love His Law as He loves His Law.

As we move through the teaching of Scripture on why souls need to be converted rather than just what is called to be “saved,” we need to keep Scripture at the center of our thinking. Most likely we have been influenced in some way by what goes under the guise of the Gospel. This may sound like an extremely negative approach, but it just might be that God has turned our nation over to a spiritual judgment that has left us in great darkness. It might be the case that the professing Church has been in spiritual darkness for a long time and we are in the depths of it at the moment. If that is correct, then we need to understand that much of our thinking is not in accordance with Scripture but in accordance with religion and religious traditions. It might be the case that there are vast numbers of people in the conservative parts of the professing churches that have prayed prayers and live moral lives, but have not been converted by God. It might be the case that there are many Reformed people that have minds that are converted to doctrines but do not have the life of Christ. It may be that there are nice and kind people that are religious and yet have not been truly converted. It might be that there are religious leaders and ministers that know a lot about the Bible but are unregenerate. Scripture speaks of this often: “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (II Tim 3:5). There are many that have the form or external of what appears as godliness, but they are without the true power of godliness because they have not been truly converted by God.

What we must see is that there is a real difference between the form of godliness and that which is real godliness. In the context of II Timothy 3:5 Scripture tells us one result of true godliness: “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (II Tim 3:12). Paul does not say that many or most people that desire to live godly will be persecuted, but “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Jesus said this: “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” (Mat 5:11). Jesus said that people are blessed when people are insulted and persecuted because of Him. He did not say that they may be persecuted, but that “when” they are which is at the least a strong implication that all will be persecuted if they are those that are blessed of Him. Perhaps we don’t understand the nature of true godliness.

It would seem, then, that we can make a deduction from the teachings of Jesus and Paul at this point. If our godliness is not the kind of godliness that results in insults and persecution for His name’s sake, it may be that our godliness is nothing more than a form of it. In America today we are so concerned to be gracious and nice that we are not teaching the offense of the cross. No one will ever be won to Christ because believers are gracious, but instead the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the offense of the cross must be preached. If we are more concerned about being gracious, non-offensive, and nice than we are about being like Jesus Christ, perhaps we have nothing more than a form of godliness. Preaching, teaching, and talking about the truth of Jesus Christ will bring out the opposition of the human heart to God. Jesus Christ was love incarnate and He was persecuted and hated. When we are like Jesus we will be persecuted and hated as well. Indeed we are told in our day to be like Christ and treat others graciously, but the truth of the matter is that if we were like Christ in reality we would be persecuted.

There is a true humility and then there is a form of humility that people wear on the outside. There is also a lowly feeling that people have that make them think that they are humble. There are forms of love that pass as true love and forms of repentance that pass as true repentance. There are many teachings on how to be like Christ that are but forms of being like Christ rather than true Christ-likeness. All of those are forms that sound good to hearts that want to be religious but not like the true Christ. We must remember that the fallen heart does not want the truth of God and comes up with all sorts of teachings about Christ rather than the truth of Christ. The religion of the natural man uses the Bible and has the appearance of biblical teachings, but instead they are but forms of religion and do not have the power. The power of godliness and being like the biblical Christ is one that will bring the sinful hearts of men to the top and it will be expressed. If our godliness is nothing more than being nice, good, and being “gracious” to human beings most likely we have a form of godliness and do not have the power.

We must be awakened to the biblical teaching on the utter need of conversion and true holiness or the Gospel will remain hidden from our eyes. In the 1930’s a man by the name of Arthur Pink issued this dire warning:

“Alas, alas, God’s ‘way of salvation’ is almost entirely unknown today, the nature of Christ’s salvation is almost universally misunderstood, and the terms of His salvation misrepresented on every hand. The ‘Gospel’ which is being proclaimed is, in nine cases of every ten, but a perversion of the Truth, and tens of thousands, assured that they are bound for Heaven, are now hastening to Hell, as fast as they can take them. Things are far, far worse in Christendom than even the ‘pessimist’ and the ‘alarmist’ suppose…it is now almost universally supposed that saving faith is nothing more than an act of the human will, which any man is capable of performing; all that is needed is to bring before a sinner a few verses of Scripture which describe his lost condition, one or two which contain the word ‘believer,’ and then a little persuasion for him to ‘accept Christ,’ and the thing is done. And the awful thing is that so very, very few see anything wrong with this-blind to the fact that such a proves is only the devil’s drug to lull thousands into a false peace…But this we greatly fear-unless God is pleased to grant a real revival, it will not be long ere ‘the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people’ (Isa. 60:2), for the light of the true gospel is rapidly disappearing. (Genuine Salvation, International Outreach, 1999).

Mr. Pink wrote this in the 1930’s. Surely we can see that things are worse instead of better. Pink points out that the nature of salvation in his day was almost entirely unknown. Instead of us thinking of the 40’s and 50’s as a great time for the Gospel, perhaps we need to think through this again in a different light. Perhaps those were days when public morality was respected a lot more, but that might have been nothing more than a form of godliness. Indeed we do not read of people being persecuted in those days, but the Bible promises persecution for all that wish to live godly in Christ Jesus regardless of the day they live in. He said that the nature of salvation was almost universally misunderstood. Was he right about that? If so, have things changed since then? It may be the case that things are worse now than then. He said that the “Gospel” which was being proclaimed was nothing but a perversion of the truth. What if he was right and we have continued that perversion and it is even more of a perversion now? He thought that at least part of the perversion was thinking that saving faith is nothing more than an act of the human will. Has that changed? No, it is the cry of virtually every evangelist today. While there may be some that say they deny that, does the way they evangelize reflect that?

Could it be that the vast majority of “Gospel” preaching and presentations of that same “Gospel” is nothing more than the devil’s drug to lull sinners to sleep in churches today? Pink certainly believed that darkness was covering the earth and that people were in gross darkness because the light of the true Gospel was rapidly disappearing. He wrote that over seventy years ago. If that darkness has continued to grow and the light of the true Gospel has continued to rapidly disappear, where are we in our day? I am sure there are many that think that because we have nice buildings and a lot of activity done that is attached to the name of Christ that things are okay. But we must remember what Christ told us: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS'” (Mat 7:21-23). It could be that our very religious practices, which would include our way of evangelism, will be declared by God on judgment day as the practice of lawlessness. It could be that many are crying “Lord, Lord” in the present day and yet will not enter the kingdom. We must face this as a reality.

Simply the fact that we do something called “evangelism” does not mean that we are teaching the biblical Gospel. The Pharisees went about “evangelizing” and all they did was to make others twice the son of hell as themselves (Mat 23:15). We are in a great darkness today and part of that darkness includes the message of the Gospel itself. We can preach justification by faith alone by itself with great biblical fidelity and simply miss the point of the whole Gospel. Souls must be wholly converted. The Gospel is the good news about how God converts sinners from being children of the devil to being His children. The Gospel is not the good news about how man can make a decision, pray a prayer, or make an act of his own will in his own power, but it is about the living God who changes the hearts of sinners Himself and makes them partakers of His holiness. That is an unknown Gospel today. When the Gospel is viewed in terms of souls being converted by God, then things change. When the Gospel is seen as that which God does and men now have the power of holiness rather than a form of it, this is a Gospel that truly changes. However, it does not make us just a little better and a little nicer; it makes us into new creatures in Christ Jesus. The converting power of God makes us truly like Jesus with the life of Jesus in us. That is such a conversion that we now truly love and seek true holiness and so the desire to be godly is now the life of Christ shining out through us. He was hated in the flesh and He will be hated in us as well. The true Gospel will bring persecution.

The last Newsletter ended with the thought that pride cannot deliver itself from pride and that it takes an outside power, that is, divine power to deliver a proud soul from itself. The proud soul does all that it does from its pride and so can never deliver itself from itself. All that the proud soul can do is from pride. It can do nothing but what is from pride. It loves itself and enjoys the feelings of its pride though it will try to hide itself behind other things out of that pride. Down deep we all know that obvious pride is wrong. The soul either lives by its pride and self-centeredness or by faith. This is why Christ the humble Lamb of God only lives in souls that are humble and the truly humble soul has faith in Christ rather than faith in itself by pride. God hates pride which is the stench of the devil and so opposes it at all points, but He dwells in the humble heart because the humble heart has been cleansed of its pride by the blood of Christ and the application of that by the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 16:5 tells us that “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; assuredly, he will not be unpunished.” Notice that this verse does not say that everyone who does not attend church and is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD. It also does not say that all the proud except those who have prayed a prayer and are active in church are an abomination to the LORD. It says that those who are proud in heart are an abomination to the LORD. It also does not say that those who have an outward humility have hidden their pride from God, but that those who are proud in heart are an abomination to the LORD. It matters not whether the person is a preacher or an outward saint to others; if that person is proud in heart that person is an abomination to the LORD. Unless a person is turned from pride by grace, that person is an abomination to the LORD. There are no exception clauses in this verse.

We must be saved and freed from our sin and not just saved from a future hell while in our sin. Romans 6:7 and its context points to this: “for he who has died is freed from sin.” If Christ does not save His people from their sin He leaves them to the cruel taskmaster of pride that leads to misery and death. Christ, as absolute Lord, does not totally take away sin from His people but He breaks the slavery to sin. His people are no longer under total slavery to sin, but now they are free to serve and love Christ. The heart of sin is pride and until a person has been saved from that pride as ruler that person is not saved from sin. A true humility is needful for there to be true faith which is a sign that Christ dwells in the soul. Faith receives Christ by grace alone. A true faith merits nothing at all, but instead requires us to be broken of pride since all faith does is receive grace. It is only the humble soul that has been broken of pride and emptied of self that will relinquish all hope in itself and receive grace apart from any works or merit. It is only the humble soul that will look to Christ alone and stop working for salvation.

The heart that has Christ lives by faith in Christ. The heart that has pride lives by its pride as Proverbs 21:4 tells us: “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.” The proud heart may be religious, but it trusts in itself to have faith. The light that the wicked follow is a proud heart, even if religious. The humble heart receives Christ and all that it has by receiving grace. The humble heart has nothing to be proud of but boasts in the cross alone. The truly humbled heart is emptied of self as the controlling power in the soul and now lives by the life of Christ in the soul. The proud heart is deceived about its pride. People go to church and hear that sin is bad, but they may never hear the real issue of the heart is pride. They may stop their outward sin and think they have repented, but if they have not repented of pride they are stopping outward sin because of their sin of pride. The very root of sin has not been cut off. When the heart has not been opened up and pride exposed, people will live in pride while it is hidden from them. They may even think that they are humble, but that is nothing but pride hiding itself under the mask of humility. They may become very religious, but that is to do nothing more than the Pharisees did. They may speak against the Pharisees while they have the very spirit of the Pharisees lurking in their hearts.

But, others may argue, we prayed a prayer, walked an aisle, made a decision, or something like that. Those souls may well argue that they go to a church where the preacher preaches the gospel and that one day they heard that message and turned from their wicked ways. Now, they would say, they are changed people that attend church on a regular basis and live moral lives. But have they ever been convicted of the sin of pride? Have they been broken from their self-sufficiency? If they have never seen their own hearts as full of pride and self-sufficiency, their prayers and their morality may come from pride. Indeed they may have repented from outward things, but they have not been delivered from the very root of sin which is pride and self-centeredness. That is the same mistake that the Pharisees made. We can become the nicest and most helpful people around and yet it is all from the heart of pride and self if we have not repented of our proud and self-centered hearts. We must be converted.

A person is not truly converted apart from being delivered from the ruling sin of pride, yet we hear little of this in our day. Jesus said very clearly and without equivocation: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). While there may be some differences about what that means, the context does not allow us a lot of latitude. In Matthew 18:1, which is the start of the context, the text tells us this: “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The answer of 18:3 is an answer to the pride of the disciples of 18:1. Then we have the words of verse 4: “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 18:4). Whatever else conversion is, the soul must be converted from its pride to humility. There is no conversion apart from the soul being turned from its pride to humility. Unless we are humbled, we are still in our pride.

The teaching of Scripture on the conversion of the soul must be restored in our day. When the churches are being filled with proud people that have prayed prayers or walked aisles out of pride, that pride will not be repented of but instead will have found even more ways to hide itself from the eyes of people. We must always remember that the heart is deceitful above all else (Jeremiah 17:9) and is constantly deceiving. The proud heart does not want to admit that it is prideful. A proud heart knows that pride is wrong and does not want to admit to itself that it is proud and even more does not want to have others know that it is proud. It is possible, however, for some to admit that they are proud in order to get others to think that they are humble. How utterly deceitful the heart is.

People cannot cast out pride by their pride because all of their actions would be from pride. Pride cannot always be seen by a self-centered and proud attitude by others. Sometimes pride hides itself under the mask of an outward humility. Pride lives by the strength of self and its own sufficiency and can live by an outward deference to others and be very helpful to strangers. Pride is at home in church buildings and will do any and all religious actions that the Bible demands except repent of pride and be humbled. Without humility, however, a person will not have true love (I Cor 13:1-8) and so pride spoils all that a religious person can do. Without humility there is no true faith and so a person does not have Christ. This means that the person lives by faith, but by a faith in self. It is true that a person that is full of pride and self may live by what is called faith in Christ, but the reality of the matter is that the person trusts in self and perhaps even in its own faith which comes from self rather than Christ. Pride is an insidious beast that can turn the most beautiful creature God created into the devil. Pride is so awful that it can turn an angel into a demon. Pride is so wicked it can take two human beings made in the image of God and make them into fallen creatures with the image of the devil in them. Pride is so deceitful that it makes all the religious actions of a human being into things that are done for self and pride rather than out of love for God. One drop of pride ruins all that the soul can do. Pride is fueled by self-love rather than the love of God.

The devil (the father of pride) promotes the religion of pride and self-love because He loves Himself. All whose love comes from self are his children. To put it differently, the only true source of love is God Himself as triune. All that goes by love in the world is not love at all but is generated from the self. This love that is generated from the self as the center of all things has its father as the devil who does not want God to be loved and adored. The devil delights (if he had anything but utter misery) in religion that is focused on self because it does not come from God but is from him and his worldly schemes. The devil does not care if people take up with conservative religion, Reformed theology, and evangelize in the name of self-love and man-centeredness because that is doing his work for him. He is not concerned with the externals of religion but is involved in making sure that human beings love self. He is not just involved in satanic rituals, but instead is very involved in “Christian” rituals as well.

Surely it is clear that if souls are governed by pride, self-love, and are deceitful to self beyond all other things, then for true conversion to take place a soul must be broken from its pride, self-love, and self-sufficiency by a power outside of itself and become a humble soul. The only acceptable sacrifice to God is “a broken and a contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17). We must begin to think in terms of what the Bible teaches about conversion or we will go astray in evangelism, assurance, sanctification, and church membership. If we do not take Matthew 18:1-4 and Psalm 51:17 seriously, we will not do more than the Pharisees (Mat 5:17-20) but will instead be just like them. We will live by our pride, self-love, and self-sufficiency while we go on in our religious and possibly conservative ways. Let us close with two penetrating quotes from Jesus who told us about conversion: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Why is it that a prayer or a moral change is not enough to save a person? Why is it that the soul must be really and truly converted in order to have eternal life now and then after physical death? It is indeed far easier to tell a person to pray a prayer, walk an aisle, sign a card or do something that has the appearance of a commitment or decision. But we must always remember that Jesus never taught us that a person is saved by a prayer, a commitment, or a decision. He taught that sinners were saved through faith and faith alone. One is not saved because they come up with faith, but because they have Christ who is united to the soul. It would appear that there are numerous people in the professing Church today that have jumped through a low or high hoop in some way and think they are saved because that is what they have been told to do.

Jesus taught that a soul must be converted or it would perish. He did not say that a soul must say a prayer or walk an aisle; He said that souls must be truly converted or that they would perish. Jesus did not say that a person could be a good person and do good things to be saved; He said that a soul must be converted. Jesus did not say that a person could make a moral transformation and attend church a good percentage of the time to be saved; He said that the soul must be converted in order for the person to be truly saved. Why is this being stressed over and over again? It is because we have heard the opposite of this so often and rarely if ever hear what Jesus really said. Souls must truly be converted from being the children of the devil to being a child of the living God. Souls must be taken from the bondage and dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Beloved. Souls must be turned from those that love sin to those that love holiness. Nothing less than the hand of an Almighty God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit can change a sinner to a saint (holy one, set apart by God for God).

The soul of the unbeliever is a soul that is full of pride. Proverbs 21:4 tells us that “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.” Proverbs 16:5 says that “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.” In multiple places in Scripture, and in various ways, we are told that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; I Peter 5:5). God loves the humble and yet we are told that the proud will be brought down. God will not dwell in the proud soul regardless of what kind of decisions that soul has made and no matter how much intellectual belief that soul has. God is opposed to the proud and certainly will not give Himself to that proud soul.

Isaiah 66:2 tells us with certainty the kind of soul that God looks upon with favor: “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” The Jewish people wanted to build God a temple so that He could live in and rest. But God told them that the whole earth was nothing but a foot stool. Where was the house they could build Him? Then He tells them what does please Him. It is the humble, the contrite, and the one that trembles at His Word. The humble one is the humility of the creature. The contrite one is the humility of the sinner. The one that trembles at His word is the humility of the saved sinner. In other words, God is opposed to the proud in any and all stages. God will never look upon the proud with any pleasure at all no matter what they do. The verses from Isaiah below show His opposition to pride at all points.

Isaiah 2:11 The proud look of man will be abased And the loftiness of man will be humbled, And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. 12 For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased.

Isaiah 2:17 The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

Isaiah 3:16 Moreover, the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud And walk with heads held high and seductive eyes, And go along with mincing steps And tinkle the bangles on their feet, 17 Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, And the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”

Isaiah 5:15 So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased, The eyes of the proud also will be abased.

Isaiah 13:11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

Isaiah 25:11 And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim, But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.

Isaiah 57:15 tells us the only kind of soul that God will dwell in. “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”” We might look at Isaiah 57:15 in a few ways, but one obvious way is that God will only dwell with the humble and He will not dwell with the proud. He dwells with the humble and the contrite in order to revive them or to give them life. As we have seen in the verses in Isaiah above, God is opposed to the proud in all ways. But how He looks with favor on the humble and indeed dwells with them. God did not just dwell in a temple because people did the things He said, but He dwelt among a people that were humble. Perhaps there were only a few, but Moses was the most humble on earth.

The great mystery of the Old and the New Testament is given to us in Colossians 1:26-27: “the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” In our day we speak as if the great mystery was of salvation by faith, but that is not correct. Abraham was justified by faith apart from works as well. The Old Testament believers did walk by faith and trusted in Christ as they looked ahead (Hebrews 11:23-27). He looked ahead to Christ. Christ said that He came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17-20) and so the Law pointed to Him. But the great mystery that was revealed through Paul and has been forgotten in the modern day is that Jesus Christ now lives in His people. The very temple of God now is in His people. He lives in them by faith. The reason for faith is this is how Christ dwells in His people.

We can then go to Habakkuk 2:4 which tells us very plainly that one that is proud cannot have true faith: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.” The righteous that lives by faith is opposite of the proud one whose soul is not right within him. What we must see is that faith and pride are opposites. The soul that is proud will not have faith. The one that has faith is the one that is humble. Psalm 25:9 tells us that God “leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.” The proud do not want justice, they want self asserted and defended. The proud do not truly want the ways of God, they only want themselves. Clearly, then, only the humble truly want true justice and to be taught the way of God. The believer walks by faith and not by sight while the proud walk by the sight of their pride. Pride and faith are opposites so the humble soul looks to God through and by Christ alone. One cannot follow Christ and pride at the same time.

What must happen to a proud soul in order for it to be saved? Psalm 34:18 gives the obvious answer: “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Isaiah, the book of the verses above that show how God opposes the proud, says this in 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” This is the verse Jesus declared about Himself in Luke 4:18. Jesus was not here to save the proud in their pride, but to save people from their pride. There is no faith where pride reigns so the faith of the proud is from pride. God will not save people in their pride and He does not hear the prayer of the proud. Proverbs 15:8: “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.” Do we really think that God will save a proud sinner because s/he says a prayer when even their prayers are an abomination to God? But, one says, God saves because of faith. Yet we have seen how faith cannot be in the soul of a proud person. Matthew 18:3 tells us that unless we are converted and become as a little child we will not enter the kingdom. We do not become true believers just because we believe the facts of a few verses of Scripture, but only by Christ alone who dwells with those who are humbled and broken. One is not saved by humility, but one will not have faith in Christ apart from humility either. A prayer that comes from a proud heart is a proud prayer and is verbalized pride. A faith that comes from a proud heart is pride expressed as faith in self rather than faith in Christ. We must be broken from our pride or we will never have true faith and so will never have Christ dwelling in us. A converted soul is one that has been broken from pride as that which rules it and now has Christ as its very life. We know that Scripture teaches us repeatedly to repent and to turn. We must repent of our pride to repent at all. Can pride move itself to repent of pride? Only divine power can do this.

We have seen how the soul must be regenerated and how Christ Himself is the life of the soul that has eternal life. There is no eternal life apart from Christ and it is Christ Himself who dwells in the soul and is the life of the soul which is eternal life. Jesus said this: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus is not just the path to God, but He is the truth about God and the life of God. “Whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:15). “He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life” (John 6:40). One has to be in Christ and Christ has to be in that person to have life.

It is utterly vital to note that only the soul that truly believes has life. It is true that Scripture says that the soul that confesses Christ with the mouth will be saved. However, there is more to that verse. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). It says that one must confess Jesus as Lord and believe in the heart. It is not just that all that stand up and confess Christ by the mouth are saved, but only those that confess Him as Lord and believe in the heart that God raised Him from the dead that will be saved. Paul also said that “having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I BELIEVED, THEREFORE I SPOKE,” we also believe, therefore we also speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13). A confession must be from a heart that believes and not just be the words of the mouth.

Here we arrive at a sensitive but vital issue. We are told in most circles today that a person should pray the sinner’s prayer or pray to receive Christ. The Bible is full of the prayers of sinners, but it only has one sinner’s prayer in this sense and it is different than what we hear of today. “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'” (Luke 18:13). Scripture tells us over and over that the soul that believes will be saved. We never see anyone praying to receive Christ or of anyone repeating after another person a prayer that will save them. The sinner is justified by faith alone and not by a prayer. Sinners are justified by grace alone which is received by faith alone and not by an act of prayer. Sinners are justified by Christ alone and not by an act of prayer. Salvation is “by faith, in order that it may be accordance with grace” (Rom 4:16). Faith does not earn anything but receives grace.

Salvation comes to a converted soul and faith comes from a converted soul rather than a soul praying a prayer in order to be saved. The soul must be changed from one that has an unbelieving mind, heart, affections, and will to a believing mind, heart, affections, and will. The whole person is saved. A prayer will not change a heart because no work will change a heart. The soul must be truly converted or truly changed from one thing to another by the hand of God. The changing of the soul is not in the hands of the sinner, but rather in the hands of God who will only change that soul by grace. A prayer to be true prayer must come from faith or a believing heart. The work of prayer is for the believer to commune with God and plead with God based on the promises of God in Christ. The unbeliever has nothing to pray but to ask God for grace. A prayer does not force God to save sinners and it cannot move God to save apart from His grace. As we saw in the first newsletter on conversion, John 1:12-13 gives us the reason why sinners are born of God. They are not born of God by the hand of God for any reason found in them nor by an act of any human will. They are not born of God because of who their parents are. They are not born of God because of the act or will of any human flesh. They are only born of God because of the will of God.

What we must see is that when we tell people to pray to receive Christ we are giving them something to do other than to believe in grace and Christ alone. When we tell people to pray to receive Christ we are not telling them that God must convert them and give them new hearts. Instead they will look to something they are doing rather than to something that God must do and will only do based on grace rather than on a work or religious action that a person does. Salvation by grace is the teaching of Scripture and God will only save to the glory of His grace. When we have people pray to receive Christ, we are giving them something to do other than look to grace alone by faith alone. The soul must be converted or changed by God in order to truly pray rather than to pray and think that in that prayer the soul is converted. Scripture tells us that “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Proverbs 15:8). It also tells us that “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa 64:6). The soul must learn that it must lean on nothing else and that includes all that it can do in order to look to grace alone. God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace and nothing else.

One might argue that the prayer to receive Christ comes from a believing soul. The answer to that is that if a soul truly believes then that soul has already received Christ. The verses given in the very first of this newsletter shows that faith or belief in Christ and eternal life are inseparable. If there is faith in the soul then Christ has been received and there is no need to pray to savingly receive Him. But if there is no faith in the soul then giving the person a prayer to pray is giving them something to do other than to look to Christ alone. God does not give something called salvation to people because they pray, but because of His character. That is the nature of grace. The soul must be changed by God in order to believe and in order to truly pray. The conversion of the soul is when God makes the soul into a new creature. It is not just giving the soul a pass from hell in the future. The conversion of the soul is a dramatic and great change and it must happen in this life by grace or it will not happen at all.

In the Gospel of John we are told over and over again that people must believe in order to be saved. But over and over again in John we are told that people believe and yet later we see that they were not converted. In fact, most of the people that believed in some way in the pages of the Gospel of John were not converted.

John 2:23 – Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

Jesus was doing miracles and people saw that. They believed in some sense, that is, they believed something about Jesus because He was doing miracles. But the text goes on to say that Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them. In other words, Jesus did not believe or trust in their belief. They had some form of external belief, but they were not born from above and so did not have a true faith that comes from a converted heart. This is seen when Nicodemus came to Jesus and said that he saw the signs and he believed that God was with Jesus. But Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born from above to enter the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus believed in Jesus or he would not have went to him in some degree of honesty. But even though Nicodemus believed, he was not a converted man. Many people today would have Nicodemus repeat a prayer or sign a card. After all, he was seeking in some way. Not only that, but we have a biblical warrant for saying that he believed. But if we keep reading we can also see that we have a strong biblical warrant for saying that he was unconverted as well. So we can make the deduction that Nicodemus believed in Jesus in some way and yet was not converted.

In John 6:1-13 we have Jesus feeding thousands of people (five thousand men and who knows how many women and children) from five barley loaves and two fish. Verse 14 tells us this: “Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”” The people believed that Jesus was the Prophet. They believed enough that they wanted to make Him king. But as Jesus taught them it became obvious that they were not converted people. They believed something about Jesus because they saw the miracles and wanted the free food. But as the teaching of Jesus continued on in the chapter, it becomes obvious that these people were not truly converted and did not truly believe. In verse 66, after some hard teaching, the text tells us that “as a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”

If we followed the methods of the modern day we would simply have the people pray the sinner’s prayer or to pray to receive Christ. But instead the method of Jesus was to teach the people that believed in some way and it demonstrated that they were not truly converted. The method of today is really something like salvation by prayer alone. Sure more is involved in that, but that is what it boils down to. What we must see from the teachings of Jesus is that the souls of human beings must be truly converted from one thing to another in order to be delivered from hell and the power and love of sin. Sinners are not just saved from a future hell; they are fitted for a future heaven. Sinners are not just saved from the dread of hell now; they are given the hope of heaven now. Sinners are not just declared saved from hell; they are saved from the guilt, power, and love of sin. Sinners are not just saved sinners; they are transformed and made new creatures and saints in Christ Jesus. If we preach just to get people to believe something and to pray a prayer, we are not telling them the Gospel. The good news is that God changes the hearts of sinners and makes them His temple to dwell in now and forever. This is all done by grace alone.

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.

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.