Real Conversion

Last night at small groups a very common question was posed, "What if I walked away from the Lord for a while and then came back...does that mean I wasn't a Christian to start?" This is one of the biggest questions that surrounds the evangelical movement today; this whole idea of rededication. Our HS pastor Bobby Blakey has a great blog on this specific topic (http://www.compasschurch.org/blogs/pastorbobby/rededicating-your-life-to-christ/) and after last night I couldn't help but touch on the issue myself because it has burdened my own heart and through God's grace I have come to realize that, brace yourself, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REDEDICATION, it just isn't biblical!

It should be enough that that term "rededication" isn't even found in Scripture but I want to try and support it even more. Let's think about what happens during "conversion" and try to see if rededication makes sense logically. I think the best passage to go to is Ephesians 2:1-10:
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Lets break it down first as to what goes on in the conversion process...

Step One: You are dead in your transgressions and sins; You are living for yourself as you follow the ruler of the world (Satan) and your flesh and gratify the cravings of your sinful flesh. Wow that is pretty intense! So this person is dead and the "object of God's wrath". Now lets think about that logically for a minute, is it possible to be kind of dead, or sort of dead, or alive and then dead and alive and then dead? No, I'm pretty sure once you die physically you are dead. So the first thing we must understand biblically AND agree with is that pre conversion you are dead.

Step Two: Then what? Well because of God's great love for us, because of his mercy and grace, he has saved those whom He calls. Okay so something happens to make you go from being dead in sin to alive in Christ? This is typically called your "conversion point". So you weren't breathing, you wren't moving, nothign and then all of the sudden you came to life; that is radical! So how did you come to life? Well God in His love drew you to Himself and convicted you of sin and enabled you to repent (aka...turn away from your sin towards Him) and believe (aka actively trust in) in the Gospel message (Christ died for your sins and rose 3 days later, the penalty for sin was paid in full). Alright so the logical conclusion from this is that there is going to be a HUGE change in the person, I mean come'on if someone was dead and now they are alive I think you are going to notice!

Step Three: Lastly the rest of their life (whether that be one hour or one hundred years) is marked by "good works" which we were made to do. What are these good works also known as? Fruit; things like serving, fruits of the Spirit, spreading the Gospel, denying your flesh, giving up sin and putting on righteousness etc. Do these good works save? NO of course not, that already happened but they do do something very crucial, Paul said in Acts 26:20 that, "I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds"; in other words your fruit is going to be the living proof of the inward conversion.

Alright so now that we have that understood back to this whole idea of rededication. Christians always ask if it is possible to have a "period" a "season" in their life in which they "fell away". That is a tough question because each person and case is a little different, but I will do my best to try and clarify this biblically. Do Christians sin? Yes, until we meet the King we will sin. Do Christians struggle with sin? Yes, nonChristians don't because they constantly give in, the Christian battles. Do Christians have "seaons" of their life in which they are LIVING IN SIN? No! That is not biblical, no where in Scripture do we read of someone who lived in sin for some period of time. Now we do read of many who sinned, for example David, the man after God's own heart who committed adultery and murder, or Peter who denied Christ three times; these men sinned, but was it a lifestyle of that? Were their lives characterized by that sin? Absolutely not. In fact both were almost immediately repentent, turning from that sin and turning to God for forgiveness and restoration.

If you are alive how can you be dead again? You can't! There is no way that you can be a carnal Christian, you can't really be saved and yet live in sin; God promises us that we no longer walk in sin (Romans 6) but we walk in holiness as we have the ability to say no to sin and to say yes to righteousness.

So what does it mean to be "living in sin" or have a life characterized by sin? Well first, you are as the passage above says, satisfying the cravings of the flesh continually; that goes for anything from lust to lying, from coveting to selfishness; your entire life is consummed with sin and there is no active repentance in your life. Secondly your life looks just like a nonbeliever, there is nothing that sets you apart from even the "best" non-Christian. And lastly you are not pursuing the Lord at all, there is no personal fellowship in the form of prayer or reading the Word, no serving, no fruits, you are a dead tree so to speak.

I could go on with examples but I will leave it at that. Ultimately there is only one moment in time in which you are converted, it is instant and it changes your life! Not only that but once you are saved you are always saved; John 36:37 says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." That is such a precious promise and a precious Truth that I forever hold onto. I love that once we are His we are forever! I know that even on this earth I will still sin I have the ability through His strength to fight that battle daily and to become more like Him, I have the promise that I will be rescued from temptation and He will discipline and chasten me even when I try to run away so to speak, how sweet is the Father to us.

John 12:46 says, "“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”" Once you are in the light you are ALWAYS in the light, find hope and peace in that!!