Can I be (re)converted?

I put these two questions together because their answers are the same: faith in Christ, not in self. It is Christ’s job to convert me. It is my job to choose to let Him. All I can do is say, Yes, or, No, to God right now. I cannot change my past or lock in my future. All I can do is choose Him in the present.

I am not sure who has the hardest time with this issue. The about-to-be new convert is wrestling with something new, of course. The convert is wrestling with past failures that makes him/her feel like an unworthy, impossible hypocrite. They doubt if they ever were converted.

Again, the question, nor the answer, is not in the past. Maybe you were never converted. Maybe you were converted, then failed, or even maybe you forsook Christ altogether. Either way, the solution is now the same—commit and believe. Blessed are the meek precedes blessed are the hungry. The order is the same for everybody no matter your past.

“A just man falls seven times, and rises up again.” (Proverbs 24:16)

Compare this text to what Jesus told Peter.

“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

Proverbs is really saying, A just (committed, dedicated, consecrated, determined) man falls seventy times seven times and rises up again. To those who stumble, this feels like an outrageous abuse of grace. Yes. Been there, done that. Felt like giving up many times.

But consider the alternative. Jesus has already died for you. He has already paid the price for your seventy times seven sins. Will you now leave Him empty handed? Will you now rob Him of the soul for which He paid the price? Will you now withdraw the friendship that He seeks with you?

Life is not a ceremony where we parade perfectly from beginning to end. Life is a battle and you are a soldier in the Lord’s army. You have been shot. You have shot others. You have shot yourself. Your General is your Doctor. Lie still in His presence and let Him heal you. Now get up and march forward, or crawl, hobble, or limp. Whatever, the General is leading you forward. Follow!!!

Faith and Acceptance

This passage is from Ellen White’s Steps to Christ, the chapter called “Faith and Acceptance."

“As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look upon it with abhorrence. You feel that sin has separated you from God, that you are in bondage to the power of evil. The more you struggle to escape, the more you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your heart is unclean. You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and sin. You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him—what can you do to obtain it?

“It is peace that you need—Heaven’s forgiveness and peace and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift, ”without money and without price.“ Isaiah 55:1. It is yours if you will but reach out your hand and grasp it. The Lord says, ”Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.“ Isaiah 1:18. ”A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." Ezekiel 36:26.

“You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised. This is the lesson which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us, we must believe we do receive, and it is ours. Jesus healed the people of their diseases when they had faith in His power; He helped them in the things which they could see, thus inspiring them with confidence in Him concerning things which they could not see—leading them to believe in His power to forgive sins. This He plainly stated in the healing of the man sick with palsy: ”That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.“ Matthew 9:6. So also John the evangelist says, speaking of the miracles of Christ, ”These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name." John 20:31.

“From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him, ”Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.“ The sick man might have said, ”Lord, if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy word.“ But, no, he believed Christ’s word, believed that he was made whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk, and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave the power. He was made whole.

“In like manner you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise,—believe that you are forgiven and cleansed,—God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it.

“Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, ”I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised.""

The Christian’s Privilege

This passage is from Ellen White’s Sanctified Life, the chapter called “The Christian’s Privilege."

“Many who are sincerely seeking for holiness of heart and purity of life seem perplexed and discouraged. They are constantly looking to themselves, and lamenting their lack of faith; and because they have no faith, they feel that they cannot claim the blessing of God. These persons mistake feeling for faith. They look above the simplicity of true faith, and thus bring great darkness upon their souls. They should turn the mind from self, to dwell upon the mercy and goodness of God and to recount His promises, and then simply believe that He will fulfill His word. We are not to trust in our faith, but in the promises of God. When we repent of our past transgressions of His law, and resolve to render obedience in the future, we should believe that God for Christ’s sake accepts us, and forgives our sins.

“Darkness and discouragement will sometimes come upon the soul and threaten to overwhelm us, but we should not cast away our confidence. We must keep the eye fixed on Jesus, feeling or no feeling. We should seek to faithfully perform every known duty, and then calmly rest in the promises of God.

“At times a deep sense of our unworthiness will send a thrill of terror through the soul, but this is no evidence that God has changed toward us, or we toward God. No effort should be made to rein the mind up to a certain intensity of emotion. We may not feel today the peace and joy which we felt yesterday; but we should by faith grasp the hand of Christ, and trust Him as fully in the darkness as in the light.

“Satan may whisper, ”You are too great a sinner for Christ to save.“ While you acknowledge that you are indeed sinful and unworthy, you may meet the tempter with the cry, ”By virtue of the atonement, I claim Christ as my Saviour. I trust not to my own merits, but to the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanses me. This moment I hang my helpless soul on Christ.“ The Christian life must be a life of constant, living faith. An unyielding trust, a firm reliance upon Christ, will bring peace and assurance to the soul."

Quotes

“Consider what you owe to His immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once.” — Charles Spurgeon