Systematic Theology -- Salvation

Conversion – Faith and Repentance

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 12

Dictation Name: 12 Conversion—Faith and Repentance

Year: 1970’s

{?} session, we shall be dealing with the doctrine of Conversion. Conversion, or to break it up in its two components, Faith and Repentance, Berkhof has pointed out that both the Old and the New Testaments, the words that they use for conversion indicate not only an intense and a deep feeling, but a change of life and direction. This is the meaning of conversion.

Now, regeneration, as we have seen, refers to God’s re-creating act in the life of man, by which he makes man a new creation. Conversion refers to man’s experience of that act, his resulting activity and his changed life. Man is active in his conversion experience. He is totally passive in his regeneration. The mistake made by many people is that they confuse regeneration and conversion and reduce them to one, and when they do, they end up as Arminians. In fact, we can say that Arminianism stems from the confusion of these two things when we’re dealing with the doctrinal aspect of it. At heart, of course, it involves a form of humanism, but practically speaking, it stems from a confusion of regeneration and conversion. Regeneration, our new creation, is totally God’s act and we are passive in it. Conversion is our experience of God’s act, our resulting activity and our changed life. IN that, we have a part.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 9, section 4, says of conversion, “When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He freeth him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, or only, will that which is good, but does also will that which is evil.” In other words, by man’s regeneration and conversion, we now are freed from sin and death, but not in this life is there a perfection in that freedom. We grow in grace, but we are not, in this life yet, fully able to obey God, wholly and perfectly, without sin.

As we look at the doctrines relating to our new creation, atonement and justification deal with the juridical, the legal, aspect, whereby God pronounces us, because of Christ’s atoning work, to be just, or righteous, in his sight, not because we are righteous, but because legally now, our sins are blotted out by Christ’s work. Atonement and justification have nothing to do with us, nor anything in us. They refer to legal acts on God’s part. Regeneration, on the other hand, is an act of God whereby the justified man is also made a new creation, so that, with his regeneration, man not only has a new legal status before God, but also a new life, a new moral nature. Now, in conversion, we experience God’s work of atonement, justification, effectual calling, and regeneration. This is our conversion.

We come to know those things; that conversion can come in a variety of ways. People who have been regenerated will suddenly realize that everything they once believed in as good humanists, or good Buddhists, or good Mohammedans, has no meaning, and they begin to look around and the come to Christ. In other cases, I know one man who, like that, in a situation where his life was threatened, turned and prayed to God. At that moment, he knew himself to be a Christian.

Now, conversion is analyzed commonly by Reformed theologians into two basic aspects: faith and repentance. First of all, to deal with faith. Faith is never easy believism. James tells us that faith without works is dead. Paul makes this same point over and over again, as in Romans 3 and 4, and Hebrews 11. One scholar, Whitehouse, has said, “Obedience, conformity to what God prescribes, is the inevitable concomitant of believing.” Thus, faith cannot be opposed to works, unless works are a product of self-righteousness, rather than regeneration. Works can never justify a man. Rather, they are the fruits of justification, and of regeneration. The life of faith is marked by the fruits of faith. Our Lord makes this point very strongly a number of times, as in Matthew 17:16-20, John 15:1-6, and 16 and 17 of the same chapter. Again, faith and sight cannot be contrasted. Some people speak of blind faith. The faith that the Bible talks about is never blind.

To give one example, in Hebrews 11:13, we read, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” What this tells us is that faith is far-seeing in a way that the natural man is not, that faith can look down the centuries into eternity and see the meaning of events, so that instead of contrasting faith and sight, we have to say that faith has a supernatural sight. The Bible never offers us blind faith, but declares that because faith is the gift of God, it has a truer vision and it sees far beyond the moment. Faith is also spoken of in scripture repeatedly as a confident trust and reliance on God. Our whole life in faith is placed on the line, on the ice. You perhaps remember a year or so again, I spoke about the meaning of faith as being ready to trust your life to the every word of God, and I used the illustration of the time on the Indian reservation when, in very early October we were going up the mountains, and we had a stream to cross. It was very early for the ice to be thick normally. The old Indian said, “When you have the kind of weather we had last night, that ice will be thick enough to take us and the team of horses and the sled.” Now, I could have said, “I believe you, but I’m taking no chances.” That would not have been faith, but when I walked out on that ice, that was faith, you see. Faith involves a trust in the every word of God. “The just shall live by his faith,” Habakkuk says, and Paul also. Faith is faithfulness to God and his word. It is taking God at his word. It is obedience.

We are told in Genesis 15:6, that Abraham believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. The word that is used there for “believe” in the Hebrew is the same word that we have today, as “amen.” Abraham said “Amen” to God, so that this is faith. We say “Amen” to the every word of God with our whole being.

Now, the second aspect of conversion is repentance. Just as faith has been reduced to easy-believism, which it is not, so repentance has been reduced to saying, “I’m sorry,” and doing some crying, and going forward at a meeting, or signing a decision card, and other trivial things, but the word for repentance in scripture means literally “turning around,” a change of direction so that when we repent, we change our direction totally. We were going this way and we turn around and go that way, because now we have a different focus, a different goal, a totally different direction. Thus, it means far more than saying we are sorry. It means living a totally different life.

The Westminster Larger Catechism stresses this aspect of conversion, and says in number 76, “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, and upon the apprehension of God's mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, he so grieves for and hates his sins, as that he turns from them all to God, purposing and endeavoring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience.” Now, the Catechism here stresses the fact that both the Spirit and the Word are active in repentance, and that the result of repentance is obedience to God. The cheap doctrine of repentance that is so prevalent today is evil, and it is not Christian. So often, I have encountered cases where a man commits adultery, and he says, “I’m sorry,” to his wife. “Why don’t you forgive me, you’re a Christian. You’re supposed to,” as though just saying “I’m sorry,” which means, “I’m sorry you found out and caught me, and are raising the roof about it,” as though that constitutes repentance. No, repentance is not saying we are sorry. It is changing the direction of our lives.

Thus, faith leans on or trusts in the Lord and his every word. Repentance means a change of direction and works, and of godly obedience to the Lord and his every word. In regeneration, we are, as I said earlier, totally passive. In conversion, we play a part as do other people, so that you and I can have a part in the conversion of people, as well as in our own conversion. Never in our regeneration, nor the regeneration of any man. Regeneration precedes conversion. No conversion is possible unless beforehand there is regeneration. While God is the author of conversion, it involves also human activity and human response. A man may know, or may not know, the day of his conversion. Some people can date it. Others say, “Well, it was a gradual thing. It took a week, or a month, or about three months, and I went through a great deal of storm or stress. Suddenly my life fell apart, and I couldn’t put it together again until I turned to Jesus Christ.” It is possible to know the day of our conversion, or to know approximately when it happened, but we cannot know the day nor the hour of our regeneration. That was in God’s hands and {?}, but we cannot escape knowing that we have been regenerated. We cannot escape knowing, no more than we can escape knowing that we were born on such and such a day of our natural mother, can we escape knowing that we have been born again, that we are a new creation in Jesus Christ. It is knowing that we are alive in Christ.

Someone once said the converted man is the only normal man. Well, in a sense that is partially true. Adam was a normal man. Sin was an abnormality in God’s creation. Regeneration is the beginning of the restoration of man to normality. Conversion is a stage in that restoration to normality. It is the man in the new creation with the resurrection body who shall again be normal and fully healthy.

Thus, conversion is a key doctrine in our faith. Let me repeat, it is important not to confuse regeneration and conversion. Reformed scholars have stressed this fact over and over again. In the modern church, too often, it has been overlooked. Too commonly, people think of regeneration and conversion as the same thing. The result, doctrinally, is a very, very dangerous confusion between God’s work and man’s work. Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience] Do you see sanctification as being very close to conversion?

[Rushdoony] It resembles conversion in that we have a part in it, but it follows after conversion and having been brought under the grace of God, and the knowledge of his grace, we begin to grow in that grace. So, it’s the process now that follows. Yes?

[Audience] About conversion, going back to the beginning of this talk. You mentioned that in the experience, one of the things of justification {?} that were involved {?}

[Rushdoony] Atonement and justification are legal acts in the court of God. We have nothing to do with them, we don’t feel them. Then, whom God has made atonement for through Jesus Christ, and justified legally, now he regenerates. We have an experience then, which is conversion, and the parts of conversion being faith and repentance, and in our conversion, we come to know and experience the meaning of atonement, justification, and regeneration. We are passive in atonement, in justification, and regeneration, active in part in conversion.

Any other questions? Well, if not, let’s bow our heads in prayer as we conclude.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee that thou who didst work so great a miracle in bringing Jesus Christ into this world, hast worked a miracle in our lives and come therein, and has made us a new creation. Make us ever joyful in thy so-great salvation, joyful in thy work in us, so that we may know that because we are members of Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors, that we are heirs of all things, and that in Jesus Christ, we shall prevail. Bless us ever in thy service. In Jesus name. Amen.

End of tape