Biblical Understanding of Conversion

What Is A Healthy Church - Chapter 8

Sunday, February 3, 2008

"What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:9-20, ESV)

1.What does repentance and faith look like? A biblical response to this would be that “we turn to God ___________ our sin, and we receive Christ, and we rely on Him alone as the all sufficient Savior.” (Pg 86)

2.The New Testament is filled with pictures of sinners leaving their __________, receiving Christ, and relying upon Him. (Pg 86)

3.Think of Levi the tax collector leaving his trade to follow Christ, or the woman at the well. Or the Roman centurion. Or Peter, James, and John. Or Saul, the persecutor of Christians, turned Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. The list is long. Each of them __________, trusts and ______________. That’s conversion. (Pg 86)

4.Conversion is not walking an isle, reciting a creed, saying a prayer, joining a church, reaching a certain age, attending a class, or passing through some other rite of adulthood. It’s not a journey, everyone strewn along the path at different points. Rather, ___________ is turning with our whole lives from self-justification to Christ’s justification, from self rule to God’s rule, from idol worship to God worship. (Pg 86)

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV)

5.The reason we turn is because we are “deeply convinced of our guilt, danger and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ.” This is a work of the Holy Spirit as He brings conviction into our lives. (Pg 86)

"When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”" (Acts 11:18, ESV)

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God," (Ephesians 2:8, ESV)

6.Scripture teaches that we must have our ____________ replaced, our minds transformed, our spirits given life. And we can’t do any of this. The change every human needs is so radical so much at our very root, that only God can do it. (Pg 87)

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27, ESV)

7.He created us the first time. So He must make us new creations. He was responsible for our natural birth. So He must give us new birth. We need ______________ to convert us. (Pg 87)

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." (John 3:36, ESV)

8.When a church misunderstands the Bible’s teaching on conversion, it may well become full with people who made sincere pronouncements at one time but who have not experienced the radical change the Bible presents as conversion. (Pg 87)

9.We discussing conversion with lost people let us ask them three questions about themselves: (1) Is change needed? (2) Is change really possible? (3) What changes are needed for you?