SALT LAKE CITY – Does God choose us or do we choose Him? This was the question considered by about 120 Southern Baptists and others from around the state of Utah at an event last month.
Sponsored by the Salt Lake School of Theology and hosted by Risen Life Church, the three-session course Aug. 22 featured guest speaker Michael Lawrence, author of several theological titles – including “Conversion: How God Creates a People” – and pastor of Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Ore.
“The act of becoming a Christian is called conversion,” Lawrence began, “but how does someone actually convert? Regeneration precedes conversion, and regeneration is God’s work, not ours.”
He pulled no punches as he talked.
“According to the Bible, we cannot change ourselves, but we must change, and so it’s really good news that God has devoted Himself to making that change happen. We need to be made new, not nice.”
Lawrence referenced John 3, where Nicodemus wants to be made “nice,” and Jesus knows the Pharisee needs to be made “new.”
“If the point is to be a better person than I was yesterday, why do I need religion?” Lawrence asked rhetorically.
After a 7-minute break, Lawrence began the second session.
“Christian conversion is fundamentally and first God’s work. But how do we know that God has regenerated someone? The Bible is clear that conversion is our work too.
“We must respond and become Christians. And the way we do that is to repent and believe.”
When people turn believing into a personal decision, it is nothing more than a religious lifestyle choice, Lawrence continued. True repentance comes from God piercing our hearts with an awareness of the result of our sin: Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross.
“When we separate repentance from conversion, it’s like we’re giving people a vaccine against the Gospel,” Lawrence said.
“What does this sort of person look like? Someone who wants to go to heaven but has no time for Christians or the local church here on earth. Someone who likes Jesus, but didn’t sign up for the rest: obedience, holiness, discipleship, self-sacrifice.”
A regenerate heart has belief that shows itself in a changed life, Lawrence said, referring to James 2:14-17.
“A faith without works, a faith without a changed life, is a dead faith, no faith at all,” he said. “Decisions can be harvested, manipulated, easily collected, insincerely made. But not disciples.”
Lawrence spoke on 1 Peter 2:9-12 for the evening’s final session, reminding his listeners that God regenerates people so they may declare His praises.
To borrow an illustration from Jonathan Edwards, the speaker said, if salvation is honey, God doesn’t want people who know that honey is sweet. God wants people who have tasted the sweetness.
If our churches aren’t filled with believers, then God is robbed of the praise He desires and deserves, Lawrence said.
“The presence of sin remains, and we are the walking wounded,” he said. “We need each other’s help, which means we need churches filled with people who are in the battle with us.”
Notice verse 12, Lawrence continued. Peter doesn’t want us to battle against sin and live godly lives just for our own sake. He wants us to do so for the world.
“But how will the world see us and believe God if when they look at us we look just like them? If the world looks at the church and just sees a religious version of itself, they can have no confidence that there is a God who can give them hope for something different. …
“Our genuinely converted lives, our authentically Christian community, our dependence upon grace rather than technique, we are God’s apologetic to unbelief.”
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