WHILE holding some gospel meetings in the little town of Port Antonio, on the north coast of the island of Jamaica, I was asked to call upon a gentleman who was thought to be interested in divine things.
Very politely he received me, and after a few minutes’ general conversation I introduced the topic that was uppermost in my mind, the salvation which God offers so freely to lost and perishing sinners. It soon appeared that the gentleman quite considered himself to be one of those who were on the road to heaven. He was a member of the parish church; he subscribed liberally for any good purpose; he did not swear; his life was a moral one; and it was not often that he neglected to say his prayers before retiring at night.
I listened to all that Mr.— said, and then replied, “With your permission, sir, I will ask you one plain, straight question.”
“By all means,” he said.
“Well, then, are you converted?” I continued: “All that you have told me as to your manner of life is very good, but something further is needed before you can call yourself a child of God. You need to be converted. Our Lord Himself declared: Except ye be converted... ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:33And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)).
He hesitated for a moment, and then replied: “Perhaps we should hardly agree as to what conversion is.”
The remembrance of this conversation, held more than eight years ago, suggests to my mind, the possibility of some of my readers being under some misapprehension as to what is meant by conversion. Of its necessity none can doubt, since the word of truth is so clear, and I think all will agree upon the importance of seeking to learn, from Scripture, what it really is.
Exactly one year subsequent to the date of the conversation mentioned above, the London papers contained a paragraph of news headed thus: —
“THE CONVERSION OF PRINCE BORIS
OF BULGARIA.”
Prince Boris, at that time, was just two years of age. His parents, Prince Ferdinand and Princess Marie Louise of Parma, were both Roman Catholics. It was naturally the desire of the Bulgarians that their ruling Prince should be a member of the same Church as that to which they themselves belonged. A law was consequently passed that any heir to Prince Ferdinand must be of the “Orthodox” or Greek religion.
Little Prince Boris was therefore formally transferred from the Roman Catholic to the Greek Church, and this transference, or change of religion, was announced throughout Europe as his conversion.
Now it cannot be too emphatically stated that mere change of religion, whether in the case of an infant like Prince Boris, or in the case of an adult, is not conversion. A man may give up Judaism for Christianity, or abandon the Koran for the Bible, without being really converted to God. No change from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism, or from heterodoxy to orthodoxy, is in itself conversion. Conversion, according to the Scriptures, is something far more vital and radical than a mere exchange of one religion for another, even if such exchange means the abandonment of a false religion for the profession of Christianity in its purest form.
With equal truth it may be said that conversion is not mere reformation, or turning over a new leaf, or making good resolutions for the future, even if such resolutions are faithfully kept. Nor is it a religious impulse, or impression, such as is often experienced at “revival meetings,” and which is generally more or less transitory in its effects. Conversion is a far deeper and more spiritual change than anything of this kind.
What, then, is conversion? The word signifies a turning, or a change, but it is a change that affects a man to the inmost fiber of his moral being, a change which is the result of his being born again, and of being operated upon by the Holy Spirit of God. Let us see how it is described in the Bible.
Turn first to 1 Peter 2:99But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9): “Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” That is a very vivid portrayal of conversion. An unconverted man, no matter how religious and moral he may be, is in darkness, and no change that does not involve his being brought out of that darkness into God’s marvelous light is conversion. Brought into the light, he sees himself in his true colors, a leprous and loathsome sinner; there, too, he experiences the grace of God in saving such as he. That is conversion.
Take verse 25 of the same chapter: “Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Conversion is here spoken of as the return of straying sheep, wanderers in the paths of sin, not merely to the right path, but to a Person, the Lord Jesus, the Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Unless one has come to Him and received Him as one’s own Saviour, one is not genuinely converted, whatever other change one may have undergone.
Then look at Eph. 2:1313But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13): “Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far of are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” This shows us that the means by which the momentous change is brought about is not resolves or vows, prayers or efforts, but Christ’s precious blood; and that the change is not merely a change of feeling or character, but an entire change of position, a change from distance to nearness. If one cannot thus speak of having been “made nigh by the blood of Christ,” it is in vain to think that one is converted.
Read yet one more passage, 1 Thess. 1:9, 109For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9‑10): “Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven.” This is conversion indeed, a definite turning to God from the things that once held sway over the soul. The one that has thus turned to God no longer dreads Him, or thinks of Him merely as a stern Judge. He possesses peace with God, can joy in Him, and call Him “Father.” He delights to serve Him; and his heart is set, not upon any object of earth, however bright or fair, but upon God’s Son, who is coming from heaven to claim him as His own.
With this description of genuine conversion before you, let me ask you the plain question, Reader, are you converted?
H. P. B.