How to Become a New
Man
Some time ago during a question-and-answer session at Harvard Divinity School, a student stood up and asked me: "Can you tell me in plain and clear language what I must do to be saved?"
Over and over again I am asked that question at colleges and universities where I often lecture. Can the alcoholic, the thief, the murderer, the sex pervert be changed radically and made a new man? At a West Coast university a professor of science came to see me in my room at the Student Union, and he said: "You are going to be amazed at the ultimate question I am here to ask you." Then he told me a long story of his own inward struggle in moral, spiritual, and intellectual issues. "More and more," he said, "I have come to realize that my problem with Christianity is really not intellectual at all. It is moral. I have not been willing to meet the moral requirements of Christianity." And he added: "Here is my question: What can I do to receive Jesus Christ?"
When the governor of one of our states entertained us in his home, he asked to talk to me privately. We went into a back room, where he locked the door. I could see that he was struggling with his emotions, but finally he said to me: "I am at the end of my rope. I need God. Can you tell me how to find God?"
On another occasion when I visited a group of men on death row in a prison, a strong and intelligent-looking man listened to what I had to say. Then I asked the men if they would be willing to kneel down while I prayed. Just before
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we knelt there, the man said: "Can you explain once again what I must do to be forgiven of my sins? I want to know that I am going to heaven."
These are precisely the same questions asked of Jesus Christ nearly two thousand years ago. These are the same questions asked of the Apostles as they proclaimed the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire. The questions indicate that man's inward spiritual longings have changed very little.
The rich young ruler came running to kneel before Christ, and asked Him: "Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17). After Peter preached his great sermon at Pentecost, the Bible says that the people were "pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter . . . "What shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). The African nobleman riding in his chariot across the desert talked with Philip the evangelist. Suddenly the nobleman stopped his chariot and said: "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" (Acts 8:36). At midnight the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30).
Twentieth-century man asks the same question that man has always asked. It is old, but it is ever new. It is just as relevant today as in the past.
Just what must one do to be reconciled to God? What does the Bible mean by such words as conversion, repentance, and faith? These are all salvation words, but so little understood.
Jesus made everything so simple and we have made it so complicated. He spoke to the people in short sentences and every-day words, illustrating His messages with never-to-be-forgotten stories. He presented the message of God in such simplicity that many could not understand what He said.
In the book of Acts the Philippian jailer asked the Apostle Paul: "What must I do to be saved?" Paul gave him a very simple answer: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (Acts 16:30-31).
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This is so simple that millions stumble over it. The one and only choice by which you can be converted is your choice to believe on the Lord Jesus as your own personal Lord and Saviour. You don't have to straighten out your life first. You don't have to make things right at home or in your business first. You don't have to try to give up some habit that is keeping you from God. You have tried all that and failed many times. In our crusades when I give the invitation to receive Christ, we sing the hymn entitled "Just As I Am," and you come to Christ just as you are. The blind man came as he was. The leper came as he was. Mary Magdalene with seven devils came as she was. The thief on the cross came as he was. You can come to Christ just as you are.
Conversion
The word "conversion" means simply "turning." From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God pleads with man to turn to Him (Proverbs 1:23; Isaiah 31:6; 59:20; Ezek. 14:6; 18:32; 33:9; Joel 2:12; Matthew 18:3; Acts 3:19; Hebrews 6:1). However, it is impossible for man to turn to God to repent, or even to believe, without God's help! All you can do is call upon God to "turn" you. Many times in the Bible it is recorded that men did that very thing (Psalm 85:4; Song of Solomon 1:4; Jeremiah 31:18; Lam. 5:21). When a man calls upon God, he is given true repentance and faith. That is why the Apostle Paul could say: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). The Bible never asks man to justify himself, to regenerate himself, to convert himself, or to save himself. God alone can do these things.
There are at least two elements in conversion — repentance and faith. Jesus said: "Unless you repent, you shall . . . perish" (Luke 13:3).
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Repentance carries with it a recognition of sin involving personal guilt and defilement before God. It does not mean a cringing self-contempt. It is a simple recognition of what we are. We see ourselves as God sees us, and we say "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Job said, "I have heard of you by hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6).
Repentance
Repentance means also a change of feeling. This means a genuine sorrow for sin committed against God (Psalm 51). As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7:9-10: "Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed unto repentance . . . for godly sorrow works repentance to salvation."
Repentance means also a change of purpose and carries with it the idea of an inward turning from sin by the exercise of the will. However, all you have to do is to be willing. God will help you.
In the Middle Ages the master of an estate in England lay dying. He called to him a servant, whom he know to be a devout Christian, and he said: "Jim, I am dying. I am not sure that I am going to Heaven. Can you tell me what I must do?"
The wise old servant knew the pride of his master, and he said: "Sir, if you want to be saved, you will have to go to the pigpen, get on your knees in the mud, and say, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' "
The master said: "I could not possibly do that. What would the neighbors and servants think?"
A week passed and he called his servant back and said: "Jim, what did you say I had to do to be saved?" The old
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servant replied: "Sir, you will have to go to the pigpen." The master said: "I have been thinking it over, Jim, and I am ready to go."
The servant then said: "Master, you don't really have to go to the pigpen. You just have to be willing."
We have to be willing. Many persons have strange ideas about repentance. Some think of the old mourners' bench, and it might not be such a bad idea to get back to the mourners' bench. A Beverly Hills, California, psychologist said recently: "What many people need is an experience at an old Methodist mourners bench." Repentance can be one of the most glorious experiences you will ever have.
Repentance is the launching pad where the soul is sent on its eternal orbit with God at the center of the arc. When our hearts are bowed as low as they can get and we truly acknowledge and forsake our sins, then God takes over and like the second stage of a rocket, He lifts us toward His Kingdom. The way up is down. Man got into difficulty when he lifted his will against God's. He gets out of trouble when he bows to the divine superiority, when he repents and says humbly: "God be merciful to be a sinner." Man's extremity then becomes God's opportunity.
The psychiatrist realizes that there are curative powers in confession. "Relax and tell me all about yourself," he says to his patient. The psychology of this method is to have the patient tell so much about himself that he finally unravels the strands that bind him. There is no doubt much value in getting things off your chest, in revealing your innermost thoughts to some neutral person. But Biblical repentance goes much deeper than this. Granted that the psychiatrist's technique can discover the psychological difficulty within the personality, but where do they go from there? It is not enough to locate the flaw in the subconscious. Sin is a disease of the soul, and Christ is the only Physician who can provide
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the cure. There are difficulties, burdens, and guilts beyond the ability of the psychiatrist or any other physician. Repentance becomes the key and forgiveness the gateway to the Kingdom of God.
Faith
The second element in conversion is faith. In order to be converted, you must make a choice. The Scripture says: "He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). Now, who is it that is not condemned? It is he that believes. And who is condemned already? It is he that does not believe. Then what must you do in order to be "not condemned"? The answer is simple. You must believe.
Now, of course, we must understand what this word "believe" implies. It means "commit" and "surrender." The Bible teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God. The Bible says: "Whoever comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is the rewarder of those who dilligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). Believing is your response to God's offer of mercy, love, and forgiveness. God took the initiative. Salvation is all of God. When Christ bowed His head on the cross and said, "It is finished," He meant just that (John 19:30). God's plan for our reconciliation and redemption was completed in His Son. However, man must respond by receiving and trusting.
Faith is described in the Bible as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is not just hanging on. It is laying hold of Christ, for Christ is the object of our faith. It is not simply a subjective feeling, but an objective act.
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The two words "belief" and "faith" are translated from the same Greek word in the New Testament, and it is a word that is never used in the New Testament in the plural. Christian faith does not mean believing in a number of things; it means a single, individual disposition of mind and heart toward Jesus Christ.
The most obvious thing about saving faith is that it believes something. It does not believe everything or just anything. It is belief in a person, and that person is Christ. Neither is faith antagonistic to reason or knowledge. Faith is not anti-intellectual. It is an act of man that reaches beyond the limits of our five senses. It is the recognition that God is greater than man. It is the recognition that God has provided a way of reconciliation that we could not provide through self-effort.
The psychiatrist tells us that before he can be of any help to his patient, the patient must come to him sincerely, asking for help and yielding to his guidance. The patient cannot be coerced or forced. Spiritually this is just as true with faith.
Commitment
Faith is also commitment. Leighton Ford has said: "Belief is not faith without evidence but commitment without reservation." Belief involves the intellect. Desire involves the emotions. Commitment involves the will. Thus the whole man is involved in an act of proper faith. Faith is actually what we know, how we feel, and what we do about Jesus Christ. Thus faith becomes action, and the action is faith as commitment.
Dr. Ernest White points out that the first movement to be discerned in the process of conversion is conviction. This is done by the Holy Spirit. This will probably constitute a
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period of conflict, the type of conflict to depend largely upon the environment and temperament of the individual. Not all pass through the same kind of experience in the process of conversion. Some persons, with what the psychologists describe as a pronounced superego or hypersensitive conscience, suffer extended periods of self-accusation and self-condemnation.
John Bunyan was such an individual who passed through many weeks when he heard condemning voices. During this period of fear and depression, he had an intense longing to be accepted of Christ and to find peace and forgiveness. St. Augustine had a similar experience during his long period of conviction of sin.
On the other hand, there are those who have a much quieter conversion when they accept some statement of Scripture or receive and apply to themselves some sermon without any great stress or conflict. Conversion is no less real to these quiet people than to the more volatile ones.
In the sixteenth chapter of Acts there is the account of the conversion of two persons. One was Lydia, a business-woman of the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God and who went for prayer to the riverside where she heard Paul preach. She opened her heart, believed, and was converted without struggle or conflict. The other was the Philippian jailer whom we have already mentioned. He was thrown into panic when an earthquake put some of his prisoners into a position to escape. He rushed into the jail, drew out his sword to kill himself, when he heard the Apostle Paul's reassuring words. He called for a light and sprang in trembling to fall down before Paul and Silas. He asked: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" He heard from Paul the Gospel with the instruction to believe and he rejoiced, believing in God. Here was drama, excitement, and crisis.
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Emotion
With some persons there may be in conversion an emotional crisis, the symptoms of which are similar to those of mental conflict. There may be deep feeling and outbursts of tears and anxiety. There may be none of these things. There are those who experience little, if any, emotion. They accept salvation without any particular crisis of mind or emotion. They may not, in fact, specify any definite time when they first entered into their knowledge of Christ. My wife is one of the finest Christians I have ever known, but she cannot pinpoint the moment of her conversion. Yet she is sure of her conversion because she knows Christ personally in the reality of daily life and service, and she has the joy of the Lord.
When Jesus described the new birth to intellectual, dignified Nicodemus, He said: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). Jesus said it was like the movement of the wind, which sometimes is as imperceptible as a zephyr and at other times as revolutionary as a cyclone. Conversion is like that, too — sometimes quiet and tender, sometimes uprooting and rearranging the life under great emotional manifestation.
An Act of the Will
There is also volitional resolution. The will is necessarily involved in conversion. People can pass through mental conflicts and emotional crises without being converted. Not
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until they exercise the prerogative of a free moral agent and will to be converted are they actually converted. This act of will is an act of acceptance and commitment. They willingly accept God's mercy and receive God's Son and then commit themselves to do God's will. In every true conversion the will of man comes into line with the will of God. Almost the last word of the Bible is this invitation: "And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). It is up to you. You must will to be saved. It is God's will, but it must become your will, too.
Every week I receive scores of letters from those who say they have doubts and uncertainties concerning the Christian life. They wonder if they are Christians. They are not sure they have been converted. They think perhaps they have, but they have little of the joy of the Christian faith. Particularly is this true of those who did not have a crisis experience at the time of their conversion. At the turn of the century, Professor Edwin Starbuck, a leader in the field of psychology, observed that Christian workers generally were recruited from the ranks of those who had had a vital, dramatic conversion. In other words, they had a clear concept of what it means to be converted. They had experienced it.
Much of the philosophy of modern religious education has been based on the idea that a person can become a Christian by a process of education. Therefore, we have herded into the church tens of thousands of people who have never had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Great numbers of so-called Christians have missed this "encounter experience" with Christ, having had in its place only religious training.
Rarely do we conduct a crusade without having some seminary students or even pastors make a profession of conversion. In one recent crusade sixteen clergymen came forward to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour. Many of these men had been trained theologically, but some of them had never
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had a genuine encounter with the person of Christ. To one of the most religious men of His day, Jesus said: "You must be born again" (John 3:3). Nicodemus could not substitute his profound knowledge of religion for the spiritual rebirth, and neither can we.
I have read a book on water skiing, and it did not take long for me to learn that I could never learn to water ski by reading a book — I would have to experience it. I have read a number of books on golf, but none of them seems to improve my game. I must get out on the golf course and play. You may study theology and religion, but there comes a time when you must experience Christ for yourself.
The ugly larva in its cocoon spends months in almost unnoticeable growth and change; but no matter how great that growth may be, there comes a moment when it passes through a crisis and emerges a butterfly. The weeks of silent growth are important, but they cannot take the place of that experience when the old and the ugly are left behind and the new and the beautiful come into being.
It is true that there are multitudes of Christians whose life and faith testify that consciously or unconsciously they have been converted to Christ. They may not know the exact hour. It is my opinion, however, that this may be the exception rather than the rule. Whether they can remember the time or not, there was a moment when they crossed over the line from death to life. You cannot tell the exact moment when night becomes day, but you know when it is daylight.
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse once said: "It is not presumption for me to say that I am just as sure that I shall be in Heaven as I am sure Jesus Christ will be there. If any percentage of my doings had a part in it, then it would be presumption; but when I say that my doings, the 2 percent or the 50 percent or the 80 percent . . . are all set aside, and God's 100 percent of righteousness is my salvation, then
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surely boasting is excluded." As Paul wrote: "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith" (Romans 3:27).
Assurance
There are three ways that I may know that I have eternal life: objectively, because God's Word says it; subjectively, because of the witness of the Spirit within; and experimentally, because little by little as time goes on I can see the experimental working of God in my life. It is a slower process than I would like, but it is a process. Therefore I can say: "I know."
How to Receive Christ
The question that comes to many minds is this: Just what must I do actually to receive Christ? I wish it were possible for me to wrap it up in a neat little formula and hand it to you, but that is impossible. As I have already suggested, each person's experience is different from all others. Just as there are no two snowflakes alike, there are no two experiences with Christ exactly the same. However, there are certain guidelines in the Bible that will help to guide you to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Therefore, let me summarize what you must do.
First, you must recognize that God loved you so much that He gave His Son to die on the cross. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "The Son of God . . . loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
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Second, you must repent of your sins. Jesus said: "Except you repent, you will perish" (Luke 13:3). He said: "Repent . . . and believe" (Mark 1:15). As John Stott, pastor of All Souls Church in London, wrote: "The faith which receives Christ must be accompanied by the repentance which rejects sin." Repentance does not mean simply that you are to be sorry for the past. To be sorry is not enough; you must repent. This means that you must turn your back on sins.
Third, you must receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. "But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). This means that you accept God's offer of love, mercy, and forgiveness. This means that you accept Jesus Christ as your only Lord and your only Saviour. This means that you cease struggling and trying to save yourself. You trust Him completely, without reservation, as your Lord and Savior.
Fourth, you must confess Christ publicly. Jesus said: "Whoever confesses me before men, him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32). This confession carries with it the idea of a life so lived in front of your fellowmen that they will see a difference. It means also that you acknowledge with your mouth the Lord Jesus. "If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10: 9). It is extremely important that when you receive Christ you tell someone else about it just as soon as possible. This gives you strength and courage to witness.
It is important that you make your decision and your commitment to Christ now. "Now is the accepted time ... now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). If you are willing to repent of your sins and to receive Jesus Christ as your
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Saviour, you can do it now. At this moment you can either bow your head or get on your knees and say this little prayer that I have used with thousands of people on every continent:
O God, I acknowledge that I have sinned against You. I am sorry for my sins. I am willing to turn from my sins. I openly receive and acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I confess Him as Lord. From this moment on I want to live for Him and serve Him. In Jesus' name, Amen.
If you are willing to make this decision, if you have to the best of your knowledge received Jesus Christ, God's Son, as your own Saviour, then according to the preceding statements of Scripture, you have become a child of God in whom Jesus Christ dwells. Altogether too many people make the mistake of measuring the certainty of their salvation by their feelings. Don't make this serious mistake. Believe God. Take Him at His word.
