TRUE CONVERSION

These words out of the Holy Scriptures imply two things: there was a time in the life of the youngest son that he did not know himself and a time that he did know (or came) to himself. This teaches us that true conversion is first of all a personal matter and not a general redemption, and secondly, that conversion is a matter of experience, known and felt by the person who is the subject of this supernatural change.

By nature we are “dead in trespasses and sins.” Eph. 2:1, Romans 5:12 and the 3rd Lord’s Day, question 8: “Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good and inclined to all evil? Answer: Indeed we are, except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.” Our greatest misery is that we do not know our misery. Considering these sad facts, we find our natural state exemplified in the prodigal son before he “came to himself.” He lived a wicked life of inward rebellion at first, but as one sin craves for another sin and another sin, so it was in the life of the youngest son and so it is in our own life. There is no satisfaction in the service of sin because first we are a servant of sin, afterwards a slave of sin, and finally a victim of sin at the hour of our death (James 1:15) unless the Lord makes us “to come to ourself” before we die. Let us now look at the youngest son for a moment and compare our own condition with his first life. He shared in all the privileges of his father. He received food and drink, his clothing, his protection, his instructions and above all his father’s love. We read of a father’s love in Psalm 103:13: “Like a father pitieth his children.” It was because of the love of the father to his son that he received all these temporal gifts, contrary to his sinful life. We can observe his sinful life by examining the son’s request: “Father give me the portion that falleth unto me.” He was dissatisfied in his father’s house, he wanted to get from under the fatherly discipline, warnings, corrections and fatherly love; yea, he wished that his father was dead. He wanted to be “free.” He desired to serve the world and the lust thereof to its full extent. Is this not a clear picture of our own condition by nature?

An inheritance is due to a person after the death of the testator (Hebrews 9:16). This young man could not wait any longer and the craving to indulge himself into sin became so strong that he dared to ask his father for his inheritance. This inheritance was not due to him and he did not even know if he would ever receive it, for the father was free to give it or to withhold it from him. Oh, in what a sad condition was this youngest son. He was sinning against all the goodness, mercies, benefits and especially the love of his father. He had sinned away all right to any of his father’s blessings and goods by asking for a premature and unlawful inheritance. He stepped on the heart of his father, despising his love and tender mercies, for the purpose of plunging himself into sin, 2 Peter 2:22. Is this not a true picture of our natural state and condition, my friend? The Lord has created us perfect in all knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and adorned us with His image as a masterpiece of His creation for the purpose “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” (Westminster Catechism question 1). By reason of our actual and original sins and our deep fall in our covenant head Adam, we have bereaved ourselves and our posterity from all these graces as we read in Romans 1:28–32: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” etc. We have pledged our allegiance to the devil and consequently we do his will.

The father gave a portion of his goods to his son, who then leaves the home of his parents to live a life of worldly pleasures. He went into a far country wasting his father’s substance. Are we not doing the same thing? We have left the Lord intending never to return again to Him and have abused all the gifts and blessings we have received from Him and are using them for our own lust and pleasures. If the Lord would leave us over to ourselves, we would sin ourselves into eternal perdition.

God’s eternal good pleasure, however, is now to show forth in the prodigal son’s life. The Lord is going to mold this slave of sin into a vessel of mercy. He begins by breaking down this rebellious son in his way of sin. We read of him in God’s Word after that he had wasted all his substance with riotous living, “he began to be in want.” Numbers 14:34: “And ye shall know my breach of promise.” After all the money was spent and even the husk of the swine was not given to him for food, he was at the point of perishing from hunger and dying in an unreconciled state with his father. Now we read of this hell-deserving sinner that “he came to himself.” This is the beginning of the real conversion of man. The Lord breaks a sinner down and cuts off all possibilities to be converted in the eyes of a sinner. He realizes for himself that he is in an unconverted state before God. The law of God with all its demands are clearly placed before him in his heart and the great separation between God and his soul is mightily revealed unto him, which causes a great sorrow of heart. An offended God is standing above him, the holy law of God behind him demanding “pay me what thou owest,” a cursed world under him which will swallow him up and death before and in him. Oh, what an awakening in such a sinner’s heart! He condemns himself and justifies God. He starts to search God’s Word for relief, but all what applies to his condition are the threatenings and not the blessings as we read in Ezekiel 18:20: “The soul that sinneth, it must die,” and out of this broken heart a cry is pressed, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” This wayward son remembers the love of his father which he has despised, and now having an earnest desire to receive back that love, he is firmly resolved and declares, “I will arise and go to my father, etc.” Luke 15:18, 19. He is going to make an upright confession of his sins but he is also going to turn away from sin. These are true marks of conversion. Observe here the drawing love of the Father, the redeeming love of the Son and the applying love of the Holy Spirit.

One might say: “Lydia’s conversion was different.” We answer, basically it was not. She repented from her former life, for she received the Apostles in her house whom the world hated. She was regenerated because “The Lord opened her heart so that she gave heed what Paul told her.” She did not open her heart but it was God’s work, a supernatural work, a being born again. The ways to conversion do differ but in essence it is always “Ye must be born again and renewed by the Holy Spirit.”

Let these few remarks suffice for now. What happened when this lost son came home, the acceptance by his father, his confession of sin, the forgiveness of his sins and restoration in his father’s house are all the fruit of his true conversion. The grand question for you and me is: Is the beginning right? Did I convert myself or did the Lord convert me? If it is our own work it shall all perish at the hour of our death. If it is the Lord’s work, it shall be tried as by fire but the end shall be to the honor of a Triune God and the eternal salvation of an unworthy sinner. May the Lord give this true conversion where it is missing and may He establish this true conversion where He has wrought it. Elder J. DeBruine

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen