6.04. Conversion

Conversion

Conversion is that action of man which results from regeneration.¹[Note: 1. WS: Jeremy Taylor’s elaborate and eloquent treatise Unum necessarium; or, Doctrine and Practice of Repentance is somewhat vitiated by a legalizing element and tendency.] As the etymology implies, it is turning toward (converto) a certain point and away from a certain point. Conversion consists of two acts: faith and repentance. Faith is turning to Christ as the ground of justification and away from self as the ground. Repentance is turning to God as the chief end of existence and away from the creature as the chief end. Faith and repentance are converting acts; the first having principal reference to justification, the second to sanctification; the first to the guilt of sin, the second to its corruption.

Westminster Confession 14.2 defines faith in Jesus Christ as “a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him for salvation.” There is a difference between belief (assensus) and faith (fiducia). The first is assent to testimony; the last is assent to testimony and also trust in the person who gives the testimony: “Justifying faith not only assents to the truth of the promise, but receives and rests upon Christ for pardon” (Westminster Larger Catechism 72). There may be belief without faith. A man may credit the statements made by Jesus Christ and yet not rest in him for salvation. Faith is a “saving grace,” but belief is not. All who are not skeptics believe the testimony of Christ and his apostles, but not all who are not skeptics have faith. Faith is accompanied with love; belief is not: “The devils believe and tremble.” The natural man believes that God is merciful, but does not trust in his mercy. This distinction is marked in the New Testament, by the use of the prepositions connected with the verb or noun. Pisteuō²[Note: 2. πιστεύω = to believe] when used in reference to Christ is accompanied with en,³[Note: 3. ἐν = in]eis,⁴[Note: 4. εἰς = unto] and epi⁵[Note: 5. ἐπί = upon] because the object is to denote rest and reliance upon his person. Paul said to the jailer, “Believe on (pisteuson epi)⁶[Note: 6. πίστευσόν ἐπί] the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” He did not bid him merely to believe that the statements which he had heard from Paul respecting Christ were correct. He bade him do much more than this, namely, receive and rest on Christ himself as a living and personal Redeemer. Had he asked only for the assent of the mind to testimony, he would have said: “Believe the Lord Jesus Christ.” (See supplement 6.4.1.) The same use of the prepositions is sometimes associated with the term gospel because of its connection with Christ: “Repent and believe (pisteuete en)⁷[Note: 7. πιστεύετε ἐν] the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Even when there is no preposition, pisteuō⁸[Note: 8. πιστεύω = to believe] sometimes denotes trust: “Christ did not commit himself (ouk episteuen heauton)”⁹[Note: 9. οὐκ ἐπίστευεν ἑαυτόν] (John 2:24); “who will commit (tis pisteusei)¹⁰[Note: 0 10. τίς πιστεύσει] to your trust the true riches?” (Luke 16:11); “unto them were committed (episteuthēsan)¹¹[Note: 1 11. ἐπιστεύθησαν] the oracles” (Romans 3:2); “the gospel of circumcision was committed to me” (Galatians 2:7); “I know whom I have believed (hō pepisteuka)”¹²[Note: 2 12. ᾧ πεπίστευκα] or trusted in (2 Timothy 1:12). An instance of mere belief in testimony is found in Mark 11:31 : “Why did you not believe him (diati ouk episteusate autō)?”¹³[Note:3 13. διάτι οὐκ ἐπιστεύσατε αὐτῳ]

This fiducial or confiding nature of faith is taught in the phrases looking to Christ, receiving Christ, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood. The definition which makes faith merely belief in testimony converts Christ into a witness only. He is this, but much more: a prince and savior; a prophet, priest, and king; a person not to be believed merely, but to be believed in and on.

Faith is an effect of which regeneration is the cause. This is taught in the following: “Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1); “unto you it is given, in behalf of Christ, to believe on him” (Php 1:29); “we pray that God would fulfill [in you] all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power” (2 Thessalonians 1:11); “that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:5); “no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him; no man can come unto me, except it were given him of my Father” (John 6:44; John 6:65); “by him, do you believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (1 Peter 1:21). The order and connection between regeneration and faith is taught by our Lord. After announcing the doctrine of regeneration to Nicodemus in John 3:3 (“except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”), he then in 3:14-18 proceeds to speak of his own atonement for sin and of man’s trust in it: “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That great change which Christ denominates being “born again” manifests itself first of all in an act of reliance upon Christ’s blood of atonement. Saving faith in the person and work of the Redeemer follows regeneration and always presupposes it. The following particulars are to be noted.

Evangelical faith is an act of man. The active nature of faith in Christ is indicated in the scriptural phraseology, which describes it as “coming to Christ” (Matthew 11:28), “looking to Christ” (John 1:29), “receiving Christ” (3:11), and “following Christ” (8:12). The object of the Epistle of James is to teach that faith is an active principle. “Dead faith” the epistle defines to be “faith without works,” that is, pretended faith that does not work. The hypocrite merely “says” that he has faith (James 2:14).

Evangelical faith is an act of both the understanding and the will. It is complex, involving a spiritual perception of Christ and an affectionate love of him. (a) That faith is an intelligent act is proved by the following: “They shall be all taught by God. Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes unto me” (John 6:44-45; 2 Corinthians 3:14; 2 Corinthians 4:4); God gives “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ” (Ephesians 1:17-18); “you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20). (b) That faith is an affectionate and voluntary act is proved by the following: “Faith works by love” (Galatians 5:6); “peace be to the brethren, and love, with faith from God the Father” (Ephesians 6:23; Ephesians 3:17; Ephesians 4:16; Ephesians 5:2; Colossians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 1 Timothy 1:14); “hold fast the form of sound words, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13).

Evangelical faith is the particular act that unites the soul to Christ. For this reason, it stands first in the order of the acts that result from regeneration: “The Holy Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling” (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 30). Penitence for sin, love of holiness, hope, long-suffering, patience, temperance, etc., are none of them acts by which Christ’s atonement for sin is laid hold of and made personal. Trusting faith is the special exercise of the soul by which this is done, and hence faith is the first thing commanded: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:13); “this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).¹⁴[Note: 4 14. WS: The priority in the order of faith to all other acts is illustrated by the following anecdote: “In a beautiful New England village a boy lay very sick, drawing near to death and very sad. His heart longed for the treasure which was worth more to him now than all the gold of the western mines. One day I sat down by him, took his hand, and looking in his troubled face asked him what made him so sad. ‘Uncle,’ said he, ‘I want to love God. Won’t you tell me how to love God?’ I cannot describe the piteous tones in which he said these words and the look of anxiety which he gave me. I said to him: ‘My boy, you must trust God first, and then you will love him without trying to at all.’ With a surprised look he exclaimed, ‘What did you say?’ I repeated the exact words again, and I shall never forget how his large, hazel eyes opened on me, and his cheek flushed as he slowly said, ‘Well, I never knew that before. I always thought that I must love God first before I had any right to trust him.’ ‘No, my dear boy,’ I answered, ‘God wants us to trust him; that is what Jesus always asks us to do first of all, and he knows that as soon as we trust him we shall begin to love him. This is the way to love God, put your trust in him first of all.’ Then I spoke to him of the Lord Jesus and how God sent him that we might believe in him and how, all through his life, he tried to win the trust of men; how grieved he was when men would not believe in him, and everyone who believed came to love without trying at all. He drank in all the truth and simply saying, ‘I will trust Jesus now,’ without an effort put his young soul in Christ’s hands that very hour; and so he came into the peace of God which passes understanding and lived in it calmly and sweetly to the end.”]

The union with Christ by faith is not natural and substantial, like that between Adam and his posterity. Nor is it moral or social, like that between individuals in a corporation or state. Its characteristics are the following. (a) It is a spiritual union because of its author, the Holy Spirit: “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17); “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” (12:13); “hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us” (1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:13). (b) It is a vital union because it involves a divine and spiritual life derived from Christ: “Because I live, you shall live also” (John 14:19); “he that believes in me though he were dead, yet shall he live” (11:25); “I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). (c) It is an eternal union: “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28); “who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35-39; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). (d) It is a mystical, that is, mysterious union: The elect are “mystically joined to Christ” (Westminster Larger Catechism 67); “this is a great mystery; I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32). The spiritual union between Christ and his people is individual, not specific. It does not rest upon unity of race and nature. It results from regeneration, not from creation. Consequently, it is not universal, but particular.¹⁵[Note: 5 15. WS: For twelve points of difference between union with Adam and union with Christ, see Shedd onRomans 5:19.] Upon this spiritual and mystical union rests the federal and legal union between Christ and his people. Because they are spiritually, vitally, eternally, and mystically one with him, his merit is imputable to them, and their demerit is imputable to him. The imputation of Christ’s righteousness supposes a union with him. It could not be imputed to an unbeliever, because he is not united to Christ by faith.

Saving faith terminates on Christ as its object and upon Christ in all three of his offices: prophet, priest, and king. Since, however, guilt is a prominent fact in man’s condition, the priestly office is prominent in relation to faith as described in Scripture. Under the levitical economy, faith was indispensable. The typical sacrifice must be offered trusting in the promise of God concerning the Messiah. Merely to bring and slay a lamb, as an opus operatum,¹⁶[Note: 6 16. a work worked (see opus operatum in glossary 1)] was not sufficient. There must be filial reverence for the divine command and confidence in the divine promise of mercy through the coming Redeemer. The second effect of regeneration is repentance. The word metanoia¹⁷[Note: 7 17. μετάνοια = change of mind] denotes a change of the mind (nous).¹⁸[Note: 8 18. νοῦς] But “mind” is employed in the sense of disposition, will, or inclination, as in Romans 7:25 : “With the mind (noi),¹⁹[Note: 9 19. νοΐ] I myself serve the law of God.” It is an instance in which nous²⁰[Note: 0 20. νοῦς] is put for kardia²¹[Note:1 21. καρδία = heart] (see pp. 516-17). The word metamelōai²²[Note: 2 22. μεταμέλομαι = to repent, change one’s mind] is sometimes employed to denote the genuine sorrow that accompanies repentance: “Afterward he repented and went” (Matthew 21:29); “though I made you sorry, I do not repent though I did repent” (2 Corinthians 7:8); “and you, when you had seen it, repented not afterward that you might believe him” (Matthew 21:32); “the Lord swore and will not repent” (Hebrews 7:21). In Matthew 27:3 it denotes the impenitent remorse of Judas. But metanoia²³[Note: 3 23. μετάνοια = repentance] not metameleia²⁴[Note: 4 24. μεταμέλεια = regret, repentance] is the technical term in the New Testament for repentance. The difference between penitence and remorse is described in 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. Penitence is “godly sorrow” and is one of the elements in repentance. The definition of repentance in Westminster Confession 15.2 comprises the following particulars: (a) “a sense not only of the danger, but of the odiousness of sin”; (b) “the apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ”; (c) “grief for and turning from sin”;²⁵[Note: 5 25. WS: Sorrow for sin must be carefully distinguished from shame on account of it. The impenitent experience shame for sin, and they “awake to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). A person may feel degraded by his vices and ashamed of them without any sincere grief for them as committed against God. Such feeling as this is selfish, while godly sorrow is disinterested. A man may be vexed and angry with himself and despise himself without any humble prostration of soul before God and confession of guilt. A sense of the meanness and disgrace of sin is not the sense of its odiousness and ill desert.] (d) “the purpose and endeavor to walk in God’s commandments”: “Then shall you remember your own evil ways and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities” (Ezekiel 36:31); “against you, you only, have I sinned; that you might be justified when you speak and clear when you judge” (Psalms 51:4); “that you sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you, yea what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal” (2 Corinthians 7:11; Ezekiel 18:30-31; Joel 2:12-13; Amos 5:15; Psalms 119:128); “I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: You have chastised me as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn unto me, and I shall be turned; for you are the Lord my God” (Jeremiah 31:18-19).

Though faith and repentance are inseparable and simultaneous, yet in the order of nature, faith precedes repentance: “They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son” (Zechariah 12:10); “a great number believed and turned unto the Lord” (Acts 11:22). This order is evinced by the following particulars:

1. Faith is the means, and repentance is the end. Faith leads to repentance, not repentance to faith. The Scriptures present God’s mercy in redemption as the motive to repentance: “Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am married unto you” (Jeremiah 3:14); “turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful” (Joel 2:13).

2. Repentance involves turning to God; but there can be no turning but through Christ: “No man comes unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6); “I am the door” (10:9).

3. If repentance precedes faith, then it stands between the sinner and Christ. The sinner cannot go to Christ “just as he is,” but must first make certain that he has repented.

4. If repentance precedes faith, then none but the penitent man is invited to believe in Christ. This contradicts Romans 5:6 : “Christ died for the ungodly.” Impenitent sinners are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to the remission of their sins.

5. The doctrine that repentance precedes faith tends to make repentance legal, that is, a reason why Christ should accept the sinner.

6. God out of Christ and irrespective of faith in Christ is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). It is impossible to have godly sorrow with this view of God. Only remorse and terror are possible. In such passages as Mark 1:15 (“repent and believe the gospel”) and Acts 20:21 (“testifying repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”) the end is mentioned first and the means last. In a proposition, a term may have a position verbally which it has not logically. In Jeremiah 31:34 sanctification is mentioned before pardon: “They shall all know me, for I will forgive their iniquity.”²⁶[Note: 6 26. WS: “Melanchthon taught that repentance was the effect of the law and anterior to faith and used forms of expression which were thought to imply that good works or sanctification, although not the ground of justification, were nevertheless a causa sine qua non [a cause without which not] of our acceptance with God. To this Luther objected, as true sanctification is the consequence and in no sense the condition of the sinner’s justification. We are not justified because we are holy; but being justified, we are made holy” (Hodge, Theology 3.238).]

S U P P L E M E N T

6.4.1 (see p. 787). The fundamental position of faith as the effect and evidence of regeneration, as the act that unites the soul with Christ, as the instrumental cause of justification, and as the antecedent of repentance is indicated by our Lord’s words to Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). That the rock spoken of was the faith, not the person of Peter, was a common explanation of the fathers. Owen (Person of Christ, preface) cites the following: “Origen (tractate in Matthew 16:1-28) expressly denies the words to be spoken of Peter: ‘If you shall think that the whole church was built on Peter alone, what shall we say of John and each of the apostles? Shall we dare to say that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Peter alone? Hilary (Concerning the Trinity 2) says: ‘This is the only immovable foundation; this is the rock of faith confessed by Peter, You are the Son of the living God.’ And Epiphanius (Heresies 39) declares, ‘Upon this rock of assured faith (epi tē petra tautē tēs asphalous pisteōs)²⁷[Note: 7 27. ἐπὶ τῇ πέτρα ταύτῃ τῆς ἀσφαλοῦς πίστεως] I will build my church.’ One or two more out of Augustine shall close these testimonies (Sermon concerning the Words of the Lord 13): ‘Upon this rock which you have confessed, upon this rock which you have known, saying, You are Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my church, that is, on me myself, the Son of the living God, I will build my church. I will build you upon myself, and not myself on you.’ And he more fully declares his mind in tractate 124 on John: ‘The church in this world is shaken with divers temptations, as with floods and tempests, yet falls not because it is built on the rock (petra) from which Peter took his name. For the rock is not called petra from Peter, but Peter is so called from petra the rock; as Christ is not so called from Christian, but Christian from Christ. Therefore, said the Lord, Upon this rock will I build my church; because Peter had said, You are Christ, the Son of the living God. Upon this rock which you have confessed will I build my church. For Christ himself was the rock on which foundation Peter himself was built. For other foundation can no man lay, save that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.’ ”

Peter’s confession of faith in Christ is the model for all believers and is represented by Christ as the “rock” upon which his church is built (Matthew 16:18). Peter himself so understood the declaration of his Lord. He says, “It is contained in Scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and the stone which the builders disallowed is made the head of the corner” (1 Peter 2:6-7). Leighton thus expounds this passage: “Jesus Christ is the alone rock upon which his church is built, not Peter (if we will believe Peter himself, who here teaches us that Christ is the chief cornerstone of his church), much less his pretended successors.” Nothing can be more incredible than the Romish invention that Christ is a cornerstone that rests upon the person of one of his disciples as the ledge (petra)²⁸[Note: 8 28. πέτρα] or lower foundation.