Theological Term of the Week: Conversion

conversion

“[T]hat act of God whereby He causes the regenerated sinner, in his conscious life, to turn to [God] in repentance and faith.” Also, on the other side, “the resulting conscious act of the regenerated sinner whereby he, through the grace of God, turns to God in repentance and faith.”1 

• From scripture: 

  For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…. (1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV) 

• Some characteristics of conversion from Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 484-5: 

  1. Conversion belongs to the re-creative rather than to the judicial acts of God. It does not alter the state but the condition of man. At the same time it is closely connected with the divine operations in the judicial sphere. In conversion man becomes conscious of the fact that he is worthy of condemnation and is also brought to a recognition of that fact. While this already presupposes faith, it also leads to a greater manifestation of faith in Jesus Christ, a confident trusting in Him for salvation. And this faith, in turn, by appropriating the righteousness of Jesus Christ, is instrumental in the sinner’s justification. In conversion man awakens to the joyous assurance that all his sins are pardoned on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ. 

   2. As the word metanoia clearly indicates, conversion takes place, not in the subconscious, but in the conscious life of the sinner. This does not mean that it is not rooted in the subconscious life. Being a direct effect of regeneration, it naturally includes a transition in the operations of the new life from the subconscious to the conscious life. In view of this it may be said that conversion begins below consciousness, but that, as a completed act, it certainly falls within the range of the conscious life. This brings out the close connection between regeneration and conversion. A conversion that is not rooted in regeneration is no true conversion. 

   3. Conversion marks the conscious beginning, not only of the putting away of the old man, a fleeing from sin, but also of the putting on of the new man, a striving for holiness of life. In regeneration the sinful principle of the old life is already replaced by the holy principle of the new life. But it is only in conversion that this transition penetrates into the conscious life, turning it into a new and Godward direction. The sinner consciously forsakes the old sinful life and turns to a life in communion with and devoted to God. This does not mean, however, that the struggle between the old and the new is at once ended; it will continue as long as man lives.

Learn more:

1. 9Marks: What is conversion?
2. Louis Berkhof: Conversion
3. Jared C. Wilson: The Beauty of Conversion
4. Tom Schreiner: Conversion in the New Testament

Related terms:

• effectual call
• regeneration
• repentance 

1Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 483.

Filed under Salvation

---

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

Sunday's Hymn: Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Saviour, makes me whole.

Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Hallelujah, what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in him;
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my strength, my vict’ry wins.

Jesus! what a help in sorrow!
While the billows o’er me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my comfort, helps my soul.

Jesus! what a guide and keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night o’ertakes me,
He, my pilot, hears my cry.

Jesus! I do now receive him,
More than all in him I find,
He hath granted me forgiveness,
I am his, and he is mine.

—J. Wil­bur Chap­man

Another hymn for this Sunday:

• Kindly Spring Again Is Here at The Happy Wonderer 

Theological Term of the Week: Augustinianism

Augustinianism

The doctrinal view that after the fall, all humankind is corrupted by original sin, and this corrupted nature controls the human will and inclines it toward evil so that no person has ever or will ever take the first step toward a right relationship with God.

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 6: 

  Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof. 

   1. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory. 

   2. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body. 

   3. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. 

   4. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

• From Total Depravity by Loraine Boettner: The Extent and Effects of Original Sin: 

  It is in this sense that man since the fall “is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.” He possesses a fixed bias of the will against God, and instinctively and willingly turns to evil. He is an alien by birth, and a sinner by choice. The inability under which he labors is not an inability to exercise volitions, but an inability to be willing to exercise holy volitions… .  In matters pertaining to his salvation, the unregenerate man is not at liberty to choose between good and evil, but only to choose between greater and lesser evil, which is not properly free will. The fact that fallen man still has ability to do certain acts morally good in themselves does not prove that he can do acts meriting salvation, for his motives may be wholly wrong.Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof. 

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Augustinianism
2. Got Questions: What is Augustinianism?
3. C. Michael Patton: What happened at the Fall? Pelagianism and Augustinianism
4. A. A. Hodge: A Comparison of Systems: Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism and Augustinianism

Related terms:

• Pelagianism
• Semi-Pelagianism

Filed under Salvation

---

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.