Christian conversion involves winning people from treasuring anything above Christ to full devotion to Christ. Christian conversion involves turning the heart toward the true God away from wrong ideas about God and wrong affections for what is not God. Christian conversion involves being born from above, where we are born of the Spirit. God is the decisive, ultimate cause of conversion. Nevertheless, we are His agents, and He calls us to join Him in this goal. He does not need us to join Him but He wants us to, so our joy may be complete as we glory in Him alone.
“No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65)
We are instruments in bringing people to Christ (Revelation 22:17)
God opens the eyes of the spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:6)
Jesus sends Paul to open their eyes (Acts 26:17-18)
God is decisive in changing people’s affections (Jeremiah 24:7)
Paul says his aim is to win people (1 Corinthians 9:22)
God is the One who brings us back to Himself (Jeremiah 31:18; Isaiah 57:18)
Bible speaks of using us to bringing people back from sin and death (James 5:20)
God is decisive in turning the human heart to Himself (2 Thessalonians 3:5)
John the Baptist was commissioned to turn the hearts of Israel to God (Luke 1:16-17)
The Spirit of God is the sovereign cause of the new birth, blowing where He wills (John 3:8)
Peter explains that this happens through the preaching of the Word (1 Peter 1:23-25)
