I See Dead People

I’ve thought quite a bit over the last few months about what an extensive and dramatic change is made when a person comes to Christ. It’s really quite shocking to see what the Bible actually says about conversion when contrasted to what many “Christians” in our culture say it is (often by mishandling Scripture).

Sometimes the problem is not that what people say about conversion is untrue, it just that it is incomplete. For instance, one often hears that when Christ comes into our lives, our lives get “on track” and life’s greatest questions are answered. We hear that Jesus has a wonderful purpose for our lives and that by believing in him we can start fulfilling it. Our lives can go from meaningless to meaningful. And somehow at conversion, we change from bad people to good people.

Some of these comments have roots in the truth, but none of them encompass what conversion really is. The Bible says that conversion is not some kind of self-improvement method. Believing the gospel is not primarily an event in which one gains meaningful knowledge. And is certainly not an event in which a bad person becomes good. The Bible says that at conversion we go from dead to alive.

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