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Add to FavoritesFollowers of Christ know it is only through conversion that a person can be identified as a Christian. Jesus said so Himself, "Assuredly, I say unto you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Not that we must be children to be converted but we must come to God empty-handed with all the trust and simplicity of a child. But many prefer to come to God their own way, with props. It's too humiliating to approach God just the way we are, broken and sinful. Instead we decorate ourselves with our good name, our traditions or our long list of good works.
But Isaiah 66 shows us what God is looking for. "But on this one I will look: on him who is [spiritually] poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word." God doesn't want us to come to Him with things. He just wants us to come. The same chapter also says, "Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist," says the Lord. It's prideful and arrogant to believe we could impress God with things because He is the source of all things.
The word conversion means change. "Repent" comes from the Greek word "metanoeo" meaning to change one's mind or to convert. The word metamorphosis is a good example, a caterpillar changing into a beautiful butterfly.
Jesus also said, "...but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." This is an imperative statement which solicits action or response from the recipients of the message. Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle in a dramatic conversion portrayed in Acts 9. He was changed miraculously and instantaneously from someone who hated and persecuted Christians into a willing servant of Jesus Christ. Once weak and frightened, the disciples were transformed into bold and joyful followers of Christ and fishers of men.
People who convert to Christ have a trust in Him which can't be shaken. They know in their hearts they will be raised from the dead someday, just like Jesus. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
Conversion brings not only change to a person but blessings as well. At the miraculous moment of conversion Christians are filled and permanently sealed with the Indwelling Holy Spirit which was not present before conversion. Christians are bestowed with spiritual gifts in order to bless others and bring glory to God.
Some professing Christians claim Christianity without personal conversion. They may be unfamiliar with the words of the Bible or may believe other things constitute a Christian. But the authority of the scriptures is always the final word. It's not what someone says that makes it true, it's what the scriptures say. According to scripture Jesus says, "You must be born again."
Learn more about this author, Maureen Totterer.
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No
"Do you know Jesus?"
Do those words even have meaning any more?
In the last few years, we've seen videos of a particular Christian speaker, as he wanders through the crowd, picking people at random, and convincing them that they're terrible people. He then proceeds to lead them through something that we've come to call The Sinner's Prayer. At some point in the past hundred years, someone took a handful of verses out of Romans, boiled them down into a formulation, and made this the official threshold for Christianity. The problem is that becoming a follower of Christ means more than admitting defeat and repeating a few words that agree with the bible. The bible refers to those that followed Jesus as, logically, followers. Author and speaker, Steve DeNeff, addresses this phenomenon in his book, More Than Forgiveness (2002).
Tragically, the "convert" in a case like that would become the evangelist's story to tell and someone else's problem to disciple.
The problem stems from the idea, dating back to the Calvinists of the late 1500's, that salvation is simply a matter of God flipping a switch from "unsaved" to "saved," or writing a name in the Book of Life. But being born again is more than that. It means to align one's self with Christ. In some cases, this alignment requires a conversion, but more and more, in the Western world, children are raised with Christianity as their default setting. If you've been in church for any length of time, you'll have heard someone use the phrase, "It seems like I was born saved." The feeling that prompts that expression is exactly what I am talking about. While it certainly is an individual's responsibility to choose right from wrong, many in our day an age never need to "convert." They may need to grow in their faith or in their relationship with Jesus, as we all must, but for those, their lives and their theology have never been misaligned.
The Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, is a great convert of the church. The phrase "Damascus Road experience" comes from his movement from zealous Pharisaism, to Christianity, on the road to Damascus. Another convert that comes to mind is the thief on the cross, later named Dismas, by the Catholic Church. Neither of these men underwent what we would call The Sinner's Prayer (never mind that it was formulated off an epistle that wasn't yet in existence), but both men found something to love, even if only for a few remaining hours, in Christ.
I liken the change from anything else into Christianity, not as a conversion, but as allegiance. Many children in our country, or any country, are born citizens. It may be years before they understand what that means. It may be years before they ever say The Pledge of Allegiance. But they are Americans nonetheless. This analogy may be more apt that we know, as Jesus often referred to following Him as being in the Kingdom of God, which sounds very much like a political analogy.
It is entirely possible to covert to Christianity, and if you're unfamiliar with what it believes, probably necessary. But it is not, as a rule, required, especially for those that find themselves already aligned with the Man to whose religion they would otherwise be converting.
Learn more about this author, Jeremy Mcnabb.
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