Ordo Salutis: Conversion
Ordo Salutis: Conversion
If you have been following along lately, by now you get the gist of this series. If not, I would refer you to the first article in the series and encourage you to read them in succession. It is not entirely necessary but should prove quite helpful if this is all new to you. We also have released videos on each of these topics that can be found here.
What is Conversion?
Conversion is the process in which a sinner turns from sin to God in repentance and faith, as a result of regeneration. Put even more simply, conversion is “the turning of a sinner to God.”[1]
Picking up on the flow of this series, while regeneration is referring to a change of state (death to life) and is—as Joe put it in aur last article— “entirely an act of God,” conversion is the accompanying, dynamic outworking of that change from the human perspective. Regeneration is an inside-out work done by God; conversion is a description of the inside-out work as it plays out in the actual life change of the believer. If that is still clear as mud to you, allow me to illustrate.
I used to work in the propone industry, doing both installation and appliance repair. In the appliance repair side of things, what most people don’t realize is that the default setting on any gas range or appliance is almost always for natural gas. If you did not have natural gas available in your area but you did have access to propane, you would need to reconfigure certain parts of the appliance to make this work. These parts came in what was called a “conversion kit” which was often supplied with the appliance. Conversion was the process of moving the appliance from one setting to another by the change of those necessary parts and settings.
All analogies fail at some point, but I think you can see the similarities here. In regeneration, God gives us a new heart. The old heart was incapable of serving him and loving him, or even responding in faith and repentance, by its very own depravity. Loving and serving God required a change. However, regeneration itself is not a process. Regeneration is a divine act of God which is a part of the process of conversion. This process includes both repentance and faith, which result from regeneration.
What does the Bible say about Conversion?
Like many other words in the English language, there is not a one-to-one equivalent with the Greek. However, the word “conversion” is often used to translate a Greek word which means to “turn; turn to” or “return” but could also include a change of mind or change of beliefs. We see this Greek word used in a very literal sense, like returning or turning to go to a certain place (Lk 2:39; Mk 5:30). We see it referring to more definitive change in passages such as Acts 11:21 where “the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord” (cf. Lk 1:16; Mk 4:12; John 12:40; Acts 3:19, 26:18). Then we see it translated by the word of the day—conversion—in places such as Acts 15:3.
In this way, conversion is related to repentance, which is also a word that means to change one’s mind but carries with it the idea of remorse. In the case of conversion, there is a bigger idea being communicated. “True conversion is a religious-ethical matter that involves the whole person in a turn from sin and to God.”[2]
Conclusion
If this is all old information to you, I would encourage you to dig deeper and to pass this on to someone who is farther back in the race of the faith. Don’t be content with the knowledge you have acquired for yourself and take seriously Jesus’ command to make disciples.
If all of this is new to you, I am glad you are reading this article! If nothing else, I hope it has sparked some curiosity in you. Perhaps you are a new believer or a recent convert? You may be wondering if your change was dramatic enough. Maybe you are not sure you have ever experienced that. If you are trusting in Christ, be encouraged by these words:
Conversion as a lifelong turning to God takes form in different people in a variety of ways. It is a mistake to prescribe only one normative pattern. Some may experience a serious religious crisis; others find themselves more gradually and quietly growing in grace and knowledge. Some from earliest moments of self-consciousness know that they are a child of God; others go through deathbed conversions. It is a mistake to force people into a single mode or to hurry the work of the Spirit in a person’s life. The Bible only requires that sorrow for sin be genuine and that a person wholeheartedly seek God’s favor. One does not need to know the exact hour of one’s conversion; one must seek genuine amendment of life.[3]
Or maybe you are not there yet. If that is the case, I want to be clear here. This is not just the musing of Christians who are rejoicing in their own wisdom. No, we are sinners with equal standing apart from what Christ has done. And apart from Christ, we are all standing on a kingdom of sand that will not endure the waves of God’s judgement. It doesn’t have to be so!
Christ has come to seek and to save the lost and the broken, the wind-driven and storm-tossed, the weary and heavy burdened, the poor and the needy souls that are under God’s just judgment for sin. He calls all who have ears to hear to respond by looking to him, trusting in him, resting in him. It is a call to conversion through repentance and faith, confession, and commitment, and it is a divine act of God’s grace through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And it is all of grace.
[1] Thomas J. Shepherd, The Westminster Bible Dictionary (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1880), 139.
[2] Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 97.
[3] Bavinck, Bolt, and Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics, 97.
