The Necessity of a Thorough Work of Conviction

If a man be not thoroughly convinced of sin, and his heart truly broken, whatever his profession of godliness may be, yet he will be sure to miscarry. Every work of conviction is not a thorough work; there are convictions that are not only natural and rational, but also not from the powerful work of the Spirit of God.

Rational conviction is that which proceeds from the working of a natural conscience, charging guilt from the light of nature by the help of those common principles of reason that are in all men. This is the conviction you read of in Romans 2:14-15. It is said that the Gentiles, who had not the law, yet had their consciences bearing witness and accusing or excusing one another. Though they had not the light of Scripture, yet they had convictions from the light of nature. Now, by the help of the Gospel light, these convictions may be much improved, and yet the heart not renewed.

But then there is a spiritual conviction, and this is that work of the Spirit of God upon the sinner’s heart by the Word, whereby the guilt and filth of sin is fully discovered, and the woe and misery of a natural state distinctly set home upon the conscience, to the dread and terror of the sinner whilst he abides in that state and condition. And this is the conviction that is a sound and thorough work....

Labor then after a thorough work of conviction; every conviction will not do it. The almost Christian has his convictions as well as the true Christian, or else he had never gone so far; but they are not sound and right convictions, or else he had gone farther. God will have the soul truly sensible of the bitterness of sin before it shall taste the sweetness of mercy. The plough of conviction must go deep and make deep furrows in the heart before God will sow the precious seed of grace and comfort there, that so it may have depth of earth to grow in. This is the constant method of God; first to show man his sin, then his Savior; first his danger, then his Redeemer; first his wound, then his cure; first his own vileness, then Christ’s righteousness. We must be brought to cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” to mourn for Him whom we have pierced, and then He sets open for us “a fountain” to wash in for sin, and for uncleanness. That is a notable place: “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27-28). The sinner must see the unprofitableness of his unrighteousness, before he profit by Christ’s righteousness. The Israelites are first stung with the fiery serpents, and then the brazen serpent is set up. Ephraim is first thoroughly convinced, and then God’s bowels of mercy work toward him. Thus it was with Paul, Manasseh, the jailor, etc. This is the unchangeable method of God in working grace, to begin with conviction of sin.

Oh, therefore labor for thorough conviction. There are three things we should especially be convinced of:

First, be convinced of the evil of sin, the filthy and heinous nature of it. This is the greatest evil in the world; it wrongs God, it wounds Christ, and it grieves the Holy Spirit. It ruins a precious soul; all other evils are not to be named with this. My brethren, though to do sin is the worst work, yet to see sin is the best sight, for sin discovered in its vileness makes Christ to be desired in His fullness. Above all, labor to be convinced of the mischief of an unsound heart. What an abhorring it is to God; what certain ruin it brings upon the soul. Oh, think often upon the hypocrite’s hell.

Secondly, be convinced of the misery and desperate danger of a natural condition. Until we see the plague of our hearts and the misery of our state by nature, we shall never be brought off ourselves to seek help in another.

Thirdly, be convinced of the utter insufficiency and inability of any thing below Christ Jesus to minister relief to thy soul in this case. All things beside Jesus Christ are “physicians of no value”: duties, performances, prayers, tears, self-righteousness avail nothing in this case. They make us like the troops of Tema, to return “ashamed at our disappointment” from such “failing brooks.”

Alas! it is an infinite righteousness that must satisfy for us, for it is an infinite God that is offended by us. If ever thy sin be pardoned, it is infinite mercy that must pardon it; if ever thou be reconciled to God, it is infinite merit must do it; if ever thy heart be changed and thy state renewed, it is infinite power must effect it; and if ever thy soul escape hell and be saved at last, it is infinite grace must save it.

In these three things right and sound conviction lieth. Wherever the Spirit of God works these thorough convictions, it is in order to a true and sound conversion, for by this means the soul is brought under a right qualification for the receiving of Christ.

Matthew Mead, an English minister, was born in 1629. He was an Independent who was ejected for nonconformity. He moved to Holland in 1662, where he became acquainted with the Duke of Orange and was greatly favored by him and the States of Holland. Afterwards he returned to England and pastored one of the largest congregations in London. His soul-searching work,The Almost Christian Discovered, from which this excerpt was taken, was first published in 1684 and has been republished many times since. He died in 1699.

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