Articles
Conversion Soul -Deep
One day I took a badly worn pair of dress shoes to a repair shop. The person behind the counter said they were too far gone to fix.
I then took them down the same street for a second opinion. The man at this shop took them in. He didn’t say anything about how bad they looked. He just fixed them.
What if I had picked up my shoes a few days later and found they had been given a beautiful shine and brand-new laces, but the heels were as worn as ever, and the soles were as shot as when I took them in?
People may quit smoking or doing drugs. They may lose weight and get in shape. They may improve their personality and learn how to get along with others. They may further their education and even get involved in volunteer work.
While all these changes are positive and desirable, what if the inner person is left untouched, and the individual is no closer to God than before? Cosmetic changes are not conversion.
The process we call conversion is such a radical change that the Bible compares it to both birth and death. Like death, it is the end of the old self; like birth, it is the beginning of the new (Romans 6:3 -7; Galatians 2:20; John 3:3 -5; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Conversion involves a decision to change our minds —that’s what repentance means. We decide we’ve been wrong and that we’ll go God’s way from now on.
Conversion also involves a tremendous change of status. When we believe, repent, confess our faith, and are baptized, no longer are we in bondage to Satan; now we have a new Master. No longer are we headed for eternal destruction; now we have life and hope.
The change is God’s doing, and yet if we are to experience it, we must cooperate. My shoes didn’t have any choice about whether they were to be repaired. But we do .
Have you ever known someone who was so deeply mired in self-destructive behavior that you thought, “He’s a goner”? Maybe he is, and maybe he isn’t. If someone is truly willing to cooperate with God, who's to say what God can’t do?
