UNDERSTANDING CONVERSION, PART 2: CALLED BY GOD

Romans 8:30

Last week we looked at how God chooses the people he wants for himself. Today we will see how God than calls those that he has chosen.

1. The gospel call
The gospel call consists of at least three things:
• Some Facts: All are sinners, spiritually dead and deserving hell, and saved only by God (Romans 3:23; 6:20-23).
• An Invitation: To Jesus and good things (Matthew 11:28-30).
• A Promise: of fullness of life now and of life eternal with God (John 3:16).

Tim Keller helpfully summarises the gospel like this: “Human beings are more broken and sinful than they could ever imagine, and more loved and cherished than they could ever dare hope.”


2. A call that produces a response
A human declaration of the gospel is not enough. If people are going to respond to the gospel call they need to hear the summons of the King! (1 Peter 2:9) This still requires a willing, voluntary response from the person, but it is God who makes this response possible (E.g., see the story of Lydia in Acts 16:13-14).

We must proclaim the gospel whether or not it is effective, but God will make it effective in those he calls.


When God calls, what happens…?

3. Being born again (Regeneration)
We must be born again because we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). Without new birth we will stay dead!

What is involved in being born again? We can see that it is totally a work of God. This work was promised in the Old Testament and fulfilled by Jesus (see Ezekiel 36:26-27 and John 1:12-13).

We can also see that we need to be born again before we can respond in faith – as we were dead in our sins we need God to make us alive before we are able to respond to him.

How then does regeneration happen? Clearly it is mysterious (Jesus said as much to Nicodemus, John 3:8), and it only happens once. It is God who makes us alive (Colossians 2:13)!

It is not, “if you believe in Christ as your saviour, then, after you believe, you will be born again.” Although – experientially – that is how it can appear, what the Bible describes is God making us alive so that we can then say that we believe.


4. Conversion (Faith and Repentance)
Having been called and born again, we must respond to God in faith and repentance.
Conversion equals turning. We turn from sin in repentance and turn to Christ in faith. Faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin – there cannot be genuine faith without genuine repentance.

If our faith and repentance are to be genuine three things need to be in operation together:
• Knowledge: There are things we need to understand about Jesus and his gospel, but knowledge alone is not enough to save us (see Romans 1:32 and James 2:19).
• Knowledge and agreement: We not only need to understand some things about God but also agree with them. However, even this isn’t sufficient to save us (see John 3:2)
• Knowledge, agreement and personal decision: As well as understanding some facts about the gospel and agreeing that they are true we need to make a personal decision to submit to them (John 3:16).

Conversion is more than simply some belief about Jesus. It means believing Jesus! It means that we put our trust in him.


5. How can we know we are genuinely converted?
Sometimes Christians worry about whether they are truly Christians. The Holy Spirit is given to give us assurance of our salvation (Ephesians 1:13), and the Bible also describes ways by which we can be assured that we have been called by God and genuinely responded to him in faith and repentance. These include:

• We will love God and his people (1 John 4:7)
• We will stop sinning and will overcome the world (1 John 5:3-4)
• We will produce fruit (Galatians 5:22-23)


Application Questions
• What do you think of Tim Keller’s statement that, “Human beings are more broken and sinful than they could ever imagine, and more loved and cherished than they could ever dare hope”?
• In what ways is an understanding of God’s call an encouragement to you to proclaim the gospel?
• How is believing Jesus different from belief about Jesus?
• When were you born again?
• What evidence is there in your life of your conversion to Jesus?


Recommended Reading
Future Grace, by John Piper. This is quite a big book, but it is the kind of thing you can dip in and out of with great profit and without feeling guilty if you don’t read it cover to cover! Piper here sets out a manifesto for a grace shaped life, which should be a life of purity, in response to the call of God.