Subject: CONVERSION MEANS CHANGE.
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14-2l.
Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
We enter this world with a selfish nature. The mind of man apart from the transforming power of God's grace is a carnal mind, which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The process whereby the natural man enters the Christian life and finds salvation is known as conversion. Both in the Old Testament and in the New, the act of a person turning from the pathway of sin unto God is known as conversion. When we talk about a person being converted, therefore, we are using good Biblical language to describe the fact that he has turned unto the Lord and found salvation.
Conversion is Biblical. It is real. And Jesus tells us that it is necessary if a person is to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Whether a person has been converted or not is therefore no light matter. Upon the fact of his conversion and his continuance in the state of salvation he entered thereby depends the eternal destiny of his immortal soul.
This morning we want to think together for awhile about the central fact, the basic meaning, of conversion. When we talk about a person being converted, just what is the main thing we are talking about? Do we mean simply that someone has put his faith in Christ and become a Christian believer? Do we mean simply that someone has confessed Jesus as his personal Saviour, and taken his stand on the side of Christ, wishing to be looked upon as a Christian by other people? Do we mean that someone who has never joined the church has asked to have his or her name placed on the church roll? Just what is the main thing about conversion anyway? What does the word actually mean?
The word "conversion", whether you use it in a worldly sense or whether you use it in a religious sense, refers basically to a change. It has many different shades of meaning, depending upon how it is used, but involved in all of them is the fact of a change. When the word "conversion" is used in the Scriptures, it refers to an actual change in the life of the individual involved. While the salvation of a person is brought about by grace through faith in Christ, yet we are to understand that real Christian faith results in a change in the person's life, so that it can be said without any hesitation that no matter what a person says he believes and no matter what sort of a confession or profession a person may make, unless his life has actually been changed, he still has not been converted. No person is truly converted in the Biblical sense unless a change has actually taken place in his life.
When Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica on one of their missionary journeys, they were referred to as "these that have turned the world upside down." The conversion of people to the Christian faith certainly did bring about a lot of changes back then.
In our Scripture lesson this morning, we have the plain statement from the Apostle Paul that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Think for a moment about what a change conversion brought about in the lives of a few of those referred to in the New Testament.
There was Zacchaeus, for example, who was chief among the publicans and who was rich. Before his conversion he apparently was dishonest in his business and one would imagine that he did little to help his fellow man. But when he was converted, immediately he became an honest man and said that he would restore fourfold if he had taken anything from any man by false accusation, and that he would give half of his goods to the poor.
There was the demoniac of Gadara who, before his conversion, was filled with unclean spirits, wild, unable to be bound by man, living in the tombs, night and day crying and cutting himself with stones. After his conversion, he sat at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and Jesus sent him back home to be a witness for Him. Changed from a wild man to a disciple of Christ. Changed from one who dwelt in the mountains and among the tombs to one who went among the multitudes witnessing for Christ. Changed from one who was not fit to be in the company of other people to one whose life was a blessing to his fellow men.
There was the woman of Samaria whom Jesus talked to at the well, a woman with a bad reputation, who was changed to an evangelist of truth.
There was Saul, the bloodthirsty persecutor of the Christians, who was changed into Paul, the beloved apostle, the tenderhearted brother in Christ.
There was the cold-hearted Philippian jailor who was changed into the sympathetic friend who washed the stripes of Paul and Silas, and brought food unto them.
The basic meaning of the word "to convert" is "to change." A study of the New Testament will reveal that those who were converted were changed men and women. Many of the changes which were made in their lives are listed for us in one place after another in the Scriptures. And if there did not seem to be sufficient change in their lives and in their way of living when they professed faith in Christ, they were taken to task for it, and a question mark was placed upon their spiritual condition.
For example, some of the Corinthian Christians were not living the kind of lives Christians ought to live. The apostle Paul took them to task for it, reminding them that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Then he mentions a number of different types of sinners, commenting that they shall not inherit the kingdom of God, and says, "And such were some of you." At one time they themselves had been doing those wicked things he mentioned. But conversion was supposed to have changed that, and Paul reminds them that they "are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."
The converted person is a changed person. And the person whose life has not been changed is not converted, no matter what kind of profession of faith he or she may make, no matter how regular he or she may be in church attendance, or any thing of that nature.
The story of the conversion of John Wesley is familiar to most of us. Do you remember what was being read when Wesley's heart was strangely warmed and he felt that he did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and received the assurance that Christ had taken away his sins and saved him from the law of sin and death? It was Martin Luther's Preface to the Epistle To The Romans. But do you remember what was being described when Wesley's heart was strangely warmed? It was the change which God works through faith in Christ in the heart. Wesley's own heart was warmed as he read about the change which God works in the heart of those who believe. Martin Luther had come to realize the fact that when a person is converted, there is a change.
That experience changed the life of Wesley. And those who united themselves to the Methodist societies in the early days were supposed to be changed men and women, too. If their lives did not show that a change had taken place, then they might find themselves classified as not worthy of membership and expelled. There were a number in the Methodist society at Newcastle, for example, whose lives cast a question mark on their conversion. John Wesley investigated the society there, and wrote in his Journal under the date of March 12, 1743, the number of those who were expelled and the reasons.
Conversion means change. And if there is no change in a person's heart and life, then he hasn't been converted. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." If the old things aren't passed away, if the old sinful nature remains and the old sinful habits continue, if one's life has not been changed, then one has not been converted in the Biblical sense no matter how religious he may seem to be.
A person cannot turn from the way of the world to the way of Christ without being changed. A person cannot leave the wide and broad way and enter the strait and narrow way without being changed. A person cannot change from a lost condition to a saved condition without being changed. A person cannot repent of his sins and accept the Lord Jesus Christ and become a Christian without being changed. In fact, the change in a person's heart and life is the thing that reveals whether or not his conversion is genuine.
I remember on one occasion going with a pastor to visit in a home where the mother made no profession of being a Christian and was bringing her boy up along the same general line to a large degree. We talked for awhile and then brought up the matter of her spiritual condition. As best I remember, she acknowledged without hestitation that she was not a Christian. Then we opened the Testament and from God's Word laid out as plainly as we knew how the plan of salvation. She made what seemed to me at the time one of the clearest professions of faith that I remember having heard, and after prayer, we left, with the anticipation of seeing her in the church and of seeing her home transformed. But she didn't come to church, and months later when I saw the pastor and asked about her, his reply was to the effect that so far as he could tell, there had been no change in her life.
Well, the word conversion means change, and while I am not her judge, I can say on the foundation of God's word that if her profession of faith did not lead to a change in her life, then she wasn't converted.
On another occasion I talked with an elderly man. He, too, announced his intention to trust the Lord and seek to live for him. Some couple or so years later I was in his community and stopped by his house for a visit. He was not at home, but his wife was. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned her husband's experience and asked her if it had made any difference in the way he was living. When she answered plainly and without hesitation that it had made a real difference in his life and way of living, it brought joy to me for I felt that here was something real.
Now I believe in people making professions of faith in Christ. Jesus tells us that we are to confess Him before men, and that if we are ashamed to confess Him before men, if we are ashamed of Him and of His words in this adulterous and sinful generation, He will be ashamed of us when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. Dr. T. Dewitt Talmage put it pretty well when he said that "as long as you are ashamed to come in the door, and in the sight of the whole world, gazing at you and scoffing at you, if need be, you will never find the peace and pardon of the Gospel - that there is no such thing as 'hide and seek' in religion." This thing of a public confession of Christ before men is Biblical and proper.
But, beloved, what good is all of the professing and confessing in the whole world if it is not genuine and if it does not lead to a changed life? If we do not live such lives after we profess faith in Christ as will demonstrate the fact that God has wrought a work of grace in our souls and changed us, then what good is it? For the fact is that the Gospel accepted turns lives upside down and when a person is indeed in Christ Jesus, he is indeed a new creature, with old things passed away. There is no getting around the fact that when a person becomes a Christian, his life is going to be changed.
Dwight L. Moody as a young man had the goal in life of becoming a successful businessman and of making $100,000. When he was converted, he still wanted to become a successful businessman, but when he walked along with the Lord, the Lord changed his plans and he became a preacher and an evangelist.
Wilfred Grenfell was planning to be a doctor when he went to hear Dwight L. Moody preach in a tent meeting in England. He continued to be a doctor after he had determined in his heart to live a Christian life, but his plans were changed to such an extent that he found himself serving the Eskimos of Newfoundland and Labrador, in the cold bleak regions near the Arctic circle.
Dr. Paul S. Rees was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, sometime ago and saw a lady whom a Salvation-Army major introduced to him. She was in Yorkshire, England, when Billy Graham held one of his meetings in England and was converted near the end of the London Crusade in 1954. Had her conversion changed her life any? She was a member of a titled family. Her father is addressed as "Sir" and her mother as "Lady." God said, "To the mission field." Her parents were very much disturbed about it. After training with the Salvation Army, she was sent to what is known as one of the toughest towns of Brazil, and has been there now for around two years. Her life was certainly changed when Christ came in.
And, beloved, you can pick out any person whom you desire who has been truly converted, and a proper examination will reveal that that person's life was changed when he or she was converted. For conversion means change, and if there is no change, there is no conversion.
I can look back into my own life and see some of the changes that have taken place as the result of my accepting Christ and surrendering to His will. Had I not accepted Christ, I would not be standing before you now. Had my old plans for my life been carried out, I don't suppose I would ever have seen the most of you nor even known of a place called Mazeppa. Had God not worked a work of grace in my own heart and life, I don't suppose I would care much about the church nor know much of the Bible, nor be supporting the work of the Lord around the world, nor have my affections set upon things above. When I try to think of how my life has been changed because Jesus came in, I can say in truth that He turned my life right-side up or upside-down or however you want to call it. He has changed my heart and changed my life and changed my attitudes and changed the place I live and changed the food I eat and changed the clothes I wear and changed my goals in life and changed the folks I associate with and changed the books I read and changed the way I spend my money and changed the way I spend my time and changed the car I drive and changed my outlook for the future and done so much changing that I honestly don't believe that there is anything about my life that has not been affected in some way by what the Lord did when I put my faith in Him and accepted Him as my Saviour and Lord.
Were the service opened right now for testimonies as to what changes Jesus has made in your hearts and lives when you were converted, every Christian here could testify to some specific ways in which your lives have been changed, I am confident.
One of the things I think God is trying to drive home to our hearts this morning is this: that we can't be Christians and go on in the same old pathways, in the same old habits, in the same old selfish way of living, that we had before we put our faith in Christ! that genuine conversion means that our lives are going to be changed tremendously, and that if they haven't been, then we need to take stock and see how we stand with the Lord. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
There may be some things around a person that remain the same when he is converted. The Lord doesn't tell everyone who is converted to change houses and to change jobs and to change clothes and to change his food and to change a lot of that sort of thing. But the converted person's heart is different. His attitudes towards a lot of things are different. His goals are different.
The natural man is selfish; the converted person is unselfish.
The natural man loves the things of this world usually supremely; the converted person loves the Lord and the things of the spiritual kingdom.
The natural man wants to run his own life; the converted man lets the Lord guide him.
The natural man's goals are usually selfish and worldly; the converted man's goal is to please the Lord.
In fact, there is so much difference between the natural man and the one who is in Christ Jesus that the Apostle Paul is simply describing it properly when he says that if "any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Conversion means change, beloved. If we are going to be Christians, it is not just a little matter of lip-service to the Lord or a little religious ritual or church-going. It is a matter of a changed life - a life which comes from God and which is implanted in the heart of those who truly put their faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. The way of Jesus is as different from the way of the carnal man as the Lord is different from a worldly person. The way of Jesus is as much higher than the way of this world as Heaven is higher than earth. And it is not simply our lips that Jesus wants: it is our very hearts and lives. When Jesus comes in, things are different.
So I ask you, have you been converted? Has your life been changed through the faith which trusts and surrenders all to Jesus? Are you a new creature in Christ Jesus this morning? I hope that you are. It is wonderful so to be. But if He has not yet changed your heart and life and goals and affections and destiny, are you willing to let Him do so this morning? He said, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me...him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." If you aren't a Christian, your life needs changing. You need changing. Will you let Jesus do it - today? - right now? Let us pray...