As promised in my last post, we will be investigating the Biblical data regarding how true conversion comes about.
The first thing we need to understand is the state of the unbelieving heart. If we start with a faulty premise, our methodologies will consequently be faulty at best, and heretical at worst. However, if we properly understand what the Bible teaches about the state of the unregenerate person's heart, we will hopefully evangelize them accordingly.
According to the Bible, the natural state of man's heart is not good. Despite the hopeful & good intentions of some well-meaning Christians, the Bible asserts that the natural heart is not even neutral. On the contrary, the Bible depicts the natural person's heart as a rank, sin-loving, God-hating idol factory. This is because all people, apart from a saving union "in Christ" are what theologians call "radically depraved."
When our first father, Adam, fell in the garden, the Bible teaches that a cataclysmic event happened, wherein not only he became a sinner, but that in some mysterious way his sin was passed down, or "imputed" to, all his descendants (and thus all mankind).
The apostle makes this clear in Romans 5:12 where we read: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." A couple verses later he reiterates this idea, telling us that Adam's "one trespass led to condemnation for all men" (5:18).
And so, despite what most people think, people sin because at the very root of things, they are by nature sinners. When I was a young punk, there was a movie that many people my age watched, called "Natural Born Killers." Well, the Bible says that all people, without exception, are "natural born sinners." It is not the other way around - i.e. that people are born neutral and become sinners when they sin. Anyone with children will not have to wait long to see Adam's nature in their little bundles of joy. The reason we don't have to teach our children how to be selfish or how to lie is because the Bible says that sin is bound up in their very nature.
Because all are by nature "in Adam", or as Paul says in Romans 3:9 "under sin", we have no trouble seeing how he can go on to write in the same chapter & thought:
"None is righteous, no, not one;
No one understands;
No one seeks after God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
No one does good,
Not even one" (3:10-12).
As unpalatable as this is to the heightened view we often have of our innate goodness, the Bible says that those who are in Adam are not by nature righteous, nor do they have the slightest inclination to seek after being reconciled to a right relationship with their Creator. Such thinking couldn't be further from the truth!
In Romans 6, Paul goes on to say that not only do those who are "in Adam" love to sin, they actually are slaves to it (vv.6, 16-18). They are what Paul implies, alive to sin but dead to God and His righteousness (vv.11, 20). For those not "in Christ", sin indeed has dominion over them: that is, sin is their cruel taskmaster. The reason why all "die" (5:17), regardless of whether they are under the law or not, is because "the wages of sin is death" (6:23). This is - by nature - the seemingly incurable state that the natural, unregenerate person is in.
If it couldn't get any worse, Paul ratchets his argument up even more. Not only are unregenerate unbelievers lovers of sin, they are simultaneously haters of God. In Romans 8, Paul continues his barrage against those who would minimize conversion to the raising of a hand or nodding a head. The only raising that will save, as we will see next week, is the sovereign, Holy Spirit-initiated work of regeneration, where a new heart with new affections is granted to the elect sinner upon reception of the gospel (Romans 10:17). But I'm getting ahead of myself. In Romans 8, Paul tells us:
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh...For to set the mind on the flesh is death...For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (vv.5-8).
It is important to note that when Paul says "in the flesh", he is not talking about having a human body of flesh. This terminology is opposite & in contradistinction to being "in the Spirit", which Paul repeatedly contrasts in order to show our supreme need of God the Holy Spirit to make us right with God by applying the redemptive work of God the Son to those who are "in Him" (cf. 8:1-4). To be in the flesh is to be "under sin." Those in the flesh are to be equated with the natural man, that is, those who are not "in Christ", or in our vernacular, unbelievers/non-Christians.
What Paul says of the unregenerate person is terrifyingly spectacular. Man by nature is not only a slave to sin; he loves the very sin he is enslaved to. Even more frightening, He hates & abhors God. In Paul's words, he is "hostile" towards God. This explains Paul's assertion in chapter 3 why no unregenerate person naturally seeks after God. Why the hostility you might ask? Because elsewhere the Bible says that God is light, and mankind by nature is darkness. Because man naturally loves his darkness, he hates God's pure, holy, and sin-exposing light (John 3:19-20). As John elucidates in his gospel narrative, man loves his sin so much that, if possible, he would kill God if He got in the way.
This is precisely what happened when God came down to earth as the God-man, Jesus Christ. Because He testified that even the most religious man's "good works" were evil (John 7:7), both Jew & Gentile alike plotted His horrific murder on the cross.
THIS is the portrait the Scriptures paint for us of those whom we are seeking to evangelize. A moralistic, gospel-less sermon sprinkled with funny jokes & anecdotes betrays this very theology, making salvation nothing more than a mere decision after an altar call is given. I have sat through many-a-sermon, where the gospel was not preached, or even alluded to, which was followed by a call to let Jesus into one's heart, which unfortunately was responded to by many, whom we then rejoiced in by the church following their tally of 'converts'.
The problem with this approach is that the natural heart of man hates God. For a man or woman "in sin" to give up their slavery will take nothing more than a sovereign miracle (i.e. regeneration) granted by God the Holy Spirit. Those who are dead in sin, under the sway of the world's alluring power, and slaves to Satan (Eph. 2:1-3) are thus unable to savingly respond to the call of the preacher. They may raise their hand, but it doesn't change the fact that they have not repented of the sin they still love, or believed in the Biblical Jesus who demands He be Lord of all.
The solution: a new heart, with new desires and affections is needed. A heart that actually loves Jesus for who He is & what He truly offers; a heart that loves righteousness and hates sin & wickedness; a heart that longs to be holy; a heart that seeks to glorify God instead of self. Ultimately men & women need a heart that will embrace the true gospel of Jesus Christ gladly, even at great cost to self. Only people who have been given a new heart with new affections for the beauty of Jesus will truly & gladly deny self, take up their cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34). Why? Because they have been given new eyes to see that Jesus is the true & supreme treasure worth giving up everything in this world for (Matthew 13:44). What is needed is not a flashy worship team, a cool pastor, or a state-of-the-art building. The only thing that is needed is this: a heart that no longer regards Jesus according to the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16), that is, a heart that no longer sees the cross as foolishness, but rather as the wisdom & power of God (1 Cor. 1:24).
The massive question then that needs to be answered is this: HOW does one receive a new heart, in order that they might truly & savingly respond to the gospel invitation that we are commanded to offer to all people?
As Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:30, "by His doing you [i.e. the "called" believers in Corinth] are in Christ Jesus" (NASB). This is what I will try to unpack in the next post. How are we by God's doing "in Christ"? I will argue, not only from the context of 1 Cor. 1-2, but also from many other of Paul's letters, as well as other Scriptural witness from the OT & NT, that it is by the sovereign initiative of God the Holy Spirit in regenerating sinners as the gospel is heralded, graciously giving them spiritual eyes, ears & hearts to savingly receive the true Jesus as their Lord & Savior.
May God use these Scriptural truths to influence how we go about into this world to fulfill His Great Commission to make disciples of all the nations. May He be pleased to use us to save many, many sinners to Himself. May we be those who pray without ceasing that God the Holy Spirit would accomplish His new covenant ministry until the gospel reaches the ends of the earth! May we be given hearts aflame for the evangelization of the world, ultimately to the glory of our great God & Savior Jesus Christ, who died for the world we are seeking to reach (John 3:16).
For the glory of Jesus, our great Redeemer, to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan
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