There are some words we may permit to lose their significance and implications, but only to our great loss.
In a day of cynicism, disillusionment and existential jargon we do well to remember that truth, honesty, love, faith and faithfulness (to mention but a few) are words with deep abiding meaning.
In the realm of the Christian faith there are also words which still have deep relevance to man and his relationship with God.
We are perfectly aware of the fact that many of these words are no longer popular, having been supplanted by others intelligible only to some who devised them, and only too often devoid of any true spiritual significance.
One wonders why words like conversion, repentance, confession, salvation and faith (again to mention but a few) are no longer popular in certain theological circles. Can it be that their significance has been discarded for new concepts, the fruit of human imagination rather than of divine revelation?
One of the most articulate proponents of this new concept has said: “The Biblical revelation of God shows us a God who acts, who reveals himself in events, rather in the imparting of information about Himself. And so neoorthodoxy (rightly, I believe), has misgivings about ‘plenary verbal inspiration,’ since it always runs the danger of leading us to believe statements about God, rather than in God Himself.”
No one questions that the Bible reveals to us a God who acts. Nor does anyone question that, as the God of all history, God reveals himself in events. But we believe that God has also revealed himself in words and that these words have eternal implications for all men.
There are many interpretations of the phrase, “plenary verbal inspiration,” and those who use it should never do so carelessly. But, believing in the complete integrity and authority of the Bible we have frequently noticed that those who inveigh against the emphasis on words are those most prone to deny doctrines conveyed by words.
Some years ago Dr. Robert Dick Wilson, a man of unquestionable scholarship, affirmed with deep conviction that no new discoveries had invalidated one single doctrine of the Christian faith.
Only a few weeks ago Dr. William F. Albright, one of today’s outstanding scholars, said in speaking of recent discoveries: “Nothing has been found to disturb reasonable faith, and nothing discovered which can disprove a single theological doctrine.”
If doctrines are to have ultimate meaning they must, of course, be translated through faith into action. But this in no way invalidates the fact that truth is expressed in words—and it is to some of the words which have great relevance in the Christian faith that we now write.
Conversion speaks of a spiritual transformation. Not only is it a good word but it describes a transition our Lord declared to be a “must”: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).
Conversion is a good word because it speaks of passing from death to life, from self to Christ, from time to eternity. It is a good word because it means that the center of gravity of one’s life is changed, the objective for living transformed, the motive of thought and action to know and do God’s will.
Another good word, a part of the conversion experience, is repentance. Not much is said about repentance today but this silence does not mean this change of mind and heart is not a necessity—it just means that some men think they know a better way.
Repentance involves a recognition of sin for what it is and an admission that we too have sinned and come short of God’s glory. Repentance means that we come to grips with the enormity of sin, its offence to a holy God and that we are sorry for our sinful nature and acts.
An equally good word is confession, for confession of sin is an integral part of repentence and conversion.
Confession involves first of all a recognition and statement of our unworthiness before God. It means coming clean with the God we have offended. It means a recognition of our own helplessness to solve our problem.
Confession is also a positive affirmation of our faith in Christ as the Son of God, an acceptance of his as Saviour and a desire that he should become the Lord of our lives.
The Bible emphasizes the significance, the meaning and the importance of these and other words having to do with God’s saying grace in Christ:
Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch telling of the conversion of the Gentiles through the preaching of Christ.
David, in Psalm 57, tells of the chain reaction of conversion—repentance and confession followed by forgiveness, and by spiritual power to go out to others: “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (vs. 13).
Has not God indicated to us here the sequence of events? We become effective witnesses for our Lord only when we have experienced the conversion about which we preach to others.
In Luke 22:32 our Lord speaks to Peter of the conversion experience he was to have (involving a sense of sin, remorse, repentance and confession) after which he would become a spiritual power.
This same Peter, in Acts 3:19, preaching in the power of the Spirit, said to the people: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”
The Apostle James declares: “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
The Apostle Paul affirms: “… if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9, 10).
Repentance—the three words, repentance, confession and conversion, cannot be put into separate and unrelated categories—means a complete reversal of direction. In this, as in all phases of man’s conversion, the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit is essential. Where man’s free agency and God’s sovereign grace merge God alone knows. But man’s responsibility before God is a fact, as well as God’s offer of redemption in Christ.
It therefore becomes a matter of the utmost importance, that God requires of men repentance and confession and offers as their reward conversion—a new life in Christ.
Can we exchange these words of such vital import for something else, something which evades the truths they convey?
God forbid!
