Friday, September 28, 2007

Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion pt. 3

The third sign that Masters considers is that of fellowsip, something that I personally have taken for granted as perhaps a byproduct of conversion rather than a sign of it. But I am persuaded that it must be a sign, in the sense that it shows our faith in a very practical way.

3) The family bond
i In Acts 2:42 we can see that following their conversion the believers immediately drew towards one another for fellowship, creating a kinship as we see in 1 John 3:14.
ii Fellowship should be a compulsion for a believer and we should be drawn into the spiritual family of a local church.
iii If an individual shows no signs of a need for fellowship, or want to talk of the things of God it is unlikely that they are saved.
iv A believer also sees a gap emerge between themselves and non chrisitan friends, not that they love them any less but that true godly fellowship is missing.

It seems true that real faith should create a need for godly fellwoship, and that as believers we should be drawn to one another. Therefore it seems reasonable that any evidence for or against this should be considered a sign of faith.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion pt. 2

Today I read the second 'sign' and it certainly helped me in my broad considerations of the subject. Incidently I am also studying John Stott's 'The Cross of Christ' and chapter four helped nit together many of the ideas concerning our state of sinfulness that I mentioned yesterday.

2) Understanding Scripture
i Masters states that a new believer should have a mind that understands and loves God's Word and honour its authority in our lives.
ii Unbelievers find scripture obscure and complicated- therefore a believer must be the opposite.
iii The Holy Spirit alone can unlock Scripture in our hearts, even though we may not understand everything we should have hearts that yearn to learn from Scripture.
iv God's Word should be the authority in our lives, in all aspects. A true convert will wish to obey Scripture on all points.
v We should have a steadfast attitude to Scripture- not someting we turn to in troubled times but at all times.

Again, I believe that these are helpful pointers- Scripture is God's direct revelation to us and a true believer should hold it as the authority on all matters. If we question the authority of God through Scripture are we truely saved?

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion

Over the next week, or possibly ten days, I intend to write a brief summary of a very helpful booklet entitled 'Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion' by Peter Masters. In the Christian walk we are often arrested by doubts over assurance and I find it helpful to consider our conversions and test them according to scripture. If anybody has any contrary opinions or helpful additions, I would be grateful to hear.

1) Conviction of sin
This section can be broken down into seven helpful points, which are as follows:
i The clear mark of grace is the conviction of sin which leads to true repentance (Acts 2:37-38) a knowledge of the burden of sin will drive us to repent.
ii We shall see that we have 'a broken and contrite heart' (Psalm 51:17) there should not be a passing acknowledgment of sin- but a devastating realisation.
iii Conviction of sin is painful, if it is not it is likely to be superficial.
iv Christ must be acknowledged as our Saviour before anything else- friend, helper, supporter.
v We must be keen to see such a conviction in ourselves, we must have shown a deep and earnest desire to receive new life.
vi Our attitudes to sin and Christ must change, we must lose our love of sin and grow in our love of Christ.
vii We must yield wholly to Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.

I think these are good principles in expecting a conviction of sin. If we do not realise our sinfulness, why would we want a Saviour? We should continually grieve our sinful attitude to God and glorify in his grace in sending his son as our dear redeemer!