LD 33 - You Must Be Converted!

Most of us have a similar reaction to change. We don't like it. And we have our reasons. Change is uncomfortable. We favor familiar routines. We all eventually end up disliking new music in favor of what is older and better known to us. And in preferential matters reluctance to change is fine.

But we also resist spiritual change. We can grow comfortable avoiding what God requires and doing what he forbids. But we must be changed. To be saved we must "turn to God from [our] ungrateful and impenitent ways" (Q/A 87).

And conversion is more than a one-time event. Jesus told his disciples—those who were already following him, "unless you are converted … you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). Even if you are a believer you must "put off your old self" and "put on the new self" (Eph. 4:22, 24). Conversion—or spiritual transformation—begins with the radical change of the new birth. But it continues with the ongoing change of sanctification. Continued conversion is our grateful response to God's grace. And change is best for us; by it we resist sin and grow in joyful obedience.

The process of conversion has two parts: the dying-away of the old self and the rising-to-life of the new self.