Conversion: What it is and How to Recognize it

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Food For Your Soul

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“You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” (1 Thess. 1: 9)

The word conversion is very much used in everyday conversations, and its ordinary meaning helps us understand its biblical meaning. A contractor will speak of converting a garage into a bedroom. A building formerly used as a movie theater has been converted into a church. American dollars can be converted into Canadian dollars, etc. The dominant idea in all those cases is that of a change or a transformation. Conversion is a change, but what kind of change?

Not a change of religion. Some people think that, when it comes to salvation, it’s just a matter of being in the right religion or the right church, so that to be converted to a particular religion means automatically being saved. There is, I must admit, a meaning of the word conversion that is a change of religion. For example, it will be said of a catholic who has become a protestant that he or she has been converted to Protestantism.
Not a moral or behavioral reform. Great changes can sometimes occur in people’s lives, but that doesn’t mean these people have experienced conversion. For example, a drug addict has succeeded in breaking with drug, a drunkard has decided to stop drinking for good, a smoker has renounced smoking, etc. Those things are difficult, but not impossible. With the sheer power of the will and an efficient counseling one can eventually have the upper hand of some habits, some vices, some addictions. But all that is not conversion; it is but moral reforms. Good though they may be in themselves, these changes are of no value for the salvation of the soul, and have no consequence for eternity.

So, what is conversion in the true meaning of the word in the Bible?

I. CONVERSION ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE

The Greek word in the Bible for to convert means to turn to, to turn back (we would say today: to make a U-turn.) It conveys the idea of a change of direction. An unconverted person walks in an opposite direction to God. Ephesians 2: 2 says, “You once walked according to the course of this world.” Conversion is a change of course. You turn your back on this world and on Satan, “the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,” and you turn to God. That explains why the Bible often says “conversion to God” or “to the Lord” (cf. Acts 9: 35; 11:21; 1 Thess. 1: 9).

Thus, true conversion is not only a change of course, of direction, but also a change of master – from Satan to God. We have an interesting passage that spells that out the most clearly possible.

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6: 16-18)

Two bondages, two masters: bondage to sin under the iron rule of Satan, bondage to righteousness under the staff of God. So, conversion is a change of master. There’s a Haitian saying that goes like this: “Change master, change trade.” The Bible underscores the change of trade with two words: once and now: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” (Eph. 5: 8.)

That brings us to our second point.

II. HOW TO RECOGNIZE TRUE CONVERSION?

There are at least three signs by which you can recognize true, authentic, conversion: a change of life, a change of scale of values, and a change of appetite (or desire).

1) Change of life. We see such a change in the life of the apostle Paul. He describes himself before his conversion as a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man. (1 Tim. 1: 13). The grace of God transformed this violent man into one who was meek and gentle. He wrote to the Christians in Philippi: “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” (Phil. 4:5)

2) Change of scale of values. A scale of values is the way we arrange things that are of interest to us from the most important to the least.

Zacchaeus experienced that kind of change in his life. Before he met the Lord, money was the top priority for this man. He lived just for that. But, as soon as he found in Jesus something far better than money, the latter stopped being his obsession. Look at his attitude toward money in Luke 19: 8: “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ ”
The apostle Paul also experienced a change of scale of values in his life, following his conversion to Christ. Let him describe that change himself.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 7…Whatever was to my profit I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3: 7-8)

What a reversal of the scale of values in this man’s life! In this case the saying applies: “He burns what he used to worship, and he worships what he used to burn.”

3) A Change of appetite (or desire) is the third sign by which true conversion can be recognized. Before your conversion (if you ever experienced it), you had appetite for things of the world and none for spiritual things. But conversion changes your appetite. Things you disliked, you have now come to like. The word of God is one of these things. You once had no interest in it, but now, you desire to read it, meditate it and hear it preached or explained. The apostle Peter exhorts believers to desire the word of God. “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:2) This new desire for pure spiritual milk – i.e. the word of God – is a proof of the new nature that has been implanted in you when “you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

My question to you: Do you see in your life the signs of a true conversion? In 1 Corinthians 13: 5, Paul invites everyone to a self-examination: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.” That’s the greatest favor you can do yourself. Failure to do it can result in a great delusion, and the awakening will be utterly shocking on the day of reckoning. To many self-deluded persons, Jesus will say someday, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Mat. 7:23). It is urgent that you examine yourself to see if your conversion is true, authentic, the kind that leads to salvation.

Hubermann Larose
Associate Pastor

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