To "convert" is, to turn or change. With reference to one who is not a child of God, or is an erring child of God, the word "conversion" is used in the New Testament to describe the change from condemnation to justification. So Jesus said, "Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).

Conversion Accounts

People who are interested in things spiritual are generally interested in conversion. It is not difficult, in some circles, to find someone willing to recount the story of his conversion, or, as he might phrase it, to tell "how I got saved". A significant portion of these accounts involve describing how bad they were, before conversion: depicting just how immoral, just how drunkenly depraved, just how dishonest, the person might have been. A direct, miraculous, and therefore irresistible intervention of the Holy Spirit is usually also a part of such "conversion" stories.

There are also conversion stories in the New Testament. There is a vast and obvious difference between the accounts of conversion men recite today, and the accounts of conversion given in the book of Acts; so, in which should your confidence be placed? Which accounts should you seek to learn and to imitate?

The accounts in the New Testament are worthy of immeasurably more confidence. They are the record of people being convicted of sin and directed in their behavior by men who received their instruction from the Holy Spirit. The record itself is the work of a man inspired, controlled, by the Holy Spirit; so that we have, as it were, a double assurance of accuracy, and of Divine approval. How far superior is a record such as the New Testament, to the recollections of one who may, by his own admission, have been emerging from a drunken stupor, or trembling under the control of a craving for some narcotic, or in some similar circumstance, when his purported "conversion" took place.

Therefore in several lessons we will consider the various stories of conversion saved for us by God in the book of Acts. We will seek to see and understand the process of conversion, according to the New Testament; and we will when it is appropriate point out some things that are NOT involved in or necessary to conversion.

Conversion, On The Day Of Pentecost

The first such record is found in the second chapter of Acts. It tells of the conversion of three thousand people on the day of Pentecost, which is the birthday of the church of Christ. In fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel 2:28-32 we read in Acts 2:4 that "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance". Beginning with verse fourteen of Acts 2 we have Luke’s record of the sermon preached by the apostle Peter, as the Holy Spirit gave him words. The sermon is climaxed by Peter with an assertion and a charge: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus who ye crucified" (verse 36). Ponder for a moment, the impact that such a charge must have had on the hearers; put yourself in the place of one of those present, try to sense that horrified realization, "I have murdered the Son of God!". Such meditation makes their question in verse 37 the more significant: "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?" Peter had preached the gospel, and they had heard. Romans 10:17 reveals that "belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ". The people in Peter's audience, having heard that which produces belief, were "pricked in the heart", which tells us that they believed, because "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" Romans 10:10. So, these people heard the gospel, and they believed it. Having believed, they wanted to know, "What shall we do?" The apostle Peter did not believe that salvation is by faith alone, else he must have answered "you can do nothing - only believe!" The answer which Peter did give destroys that human notion that salvation is by faith only; "And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Salvation is by faith; but it is not by faith alone, for "faith apart from works is barren ... is dead", James 2:20, 26.

What did the instruction given by Peter on the day of Pentecost involve? First, these people (who have heard the gospel and have believed in Christ) must repent. Repenting, according to Matthew 21:28, 29, is an act of the will, a change of mind. The people on Pentecost then were charged with the necessity of changing their mind about the way they had lived: they must repent. Then, these believing penitents must manifest the submission of their will to the Will of God by being baptized, according to the authority of Christ. This act of faith was to be done unto, or in order to obtain, the remission of sins. “Remission” means dismissal, or release: their faithful obedience to the instruction given them by the apostle Peter would affect their release from the consequences of sins. In summation, then, three steps were involved in the conversion of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost: First, they heard the truth, the gospel; then, having believed the facts of which it is composed, they repented of their sins and were baptized in order to receive the remission of those sins. Acts 2:41 states, “They then that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls”.

Emphatically, this is a conversion story stamped with the approval of God. Thus there can be no question but that these people were truly forgiven, that they were released from the penalty for sins. They acted in response to the revealed will of God. In Acts 10:34 we read, "Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons"; it necessarily follows that, if you or any accountable being in this dispensation does what they did, for the same reasons, you too will obtain remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and membership in the church of Christ: for God is no respecter of persons.

Baptists, and perhaps others, believe and teach that baptism is what they call a "Christian duty"; that is, that one is saved and THEN is baptized for some reason other than the obtaining of salvation. They tell us that baptism is not essential to salvation, but it IS essential to obedience. This is foolishness: that which is essential to obedience is essential to salvation, and Hebrews 5:9 makes it plain: "and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation". Baptism is not a "Christian duty"; it is rather an act of obedience imposed by God on those who would become Christians. It not only stands between the alien and membership in the church of the New Testament, it also stands between the alien and remission of sins, Peter saying in Acts 2:38 "be baptized ... unto the remission of your sins".

"UNTO" For, Or Because Of?

Some insist that the word which is translated "unto" in Acts 2:38 should be translated "because of", so that baptism would then be "because of" the remission of sins: be baptized because your sins have already been forgiven. There are several ways of exposing this error: first, it contradicts the plain teaching of other passages, such as Mark 16:16, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Jesus); or 1 Peter 3:21, "Which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ". These passages clearly teach the necessity of baptism before salvation is obtained.

Then, in Matthew 26:28 Jesus said, "this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many unto remission of sins". Acts 2:38 says, be baptized unto the remission of your sins; Matthew 26:28 says that blood of Christ is poured out unto the remission of sins. In both verses the same preposition is used, and translated "unto". If it means "because of" in Acts 2:38, by what rule of Bible study or syntax does it not mean "because of" in Matthew 26:28? If it means that one is baptized because his sins are forgiven, in Acts, why does it not mean that the blood of Christ was shed because sins had already been remitted, in Matthew? Of course, such a teaching would make the death of Christ unnecessary, and those arguing against the necessity of baptism are not willing to take such a position with reference to the blood of Christ: so an inconsistent, unscholarly and especially unscriptural assertion is made on Acts 2:38, to the effect that there the preposition means, "because of", rather than "unto". This preposition is used literally hundreds of times in the New Testament, and in every instance it obviously looks forward, to that which is not yet obtained; except, we are told, in this and five or six other instances, where it is asserted that the direction is reversed. Such an assertion grows out of the necessity of defending and upholding a human doctrine, not out of love for the truth.

Look again at the statement under consideration: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins". The fallacy of trying to make baptism in this verse be "because of" the remission of sins is more vividly seen when we recognize that it must also make repentance be "because of" the remission of sins. The statement reads, "Repent ye, AND be baptized", and the conjunction used there, "a-n-d", makes both repentance and baptism share the same relation to the remission of sins: if one is to be accomplished because sins have already been forgiven, then both are! If one is to be accomplished in order to obtain the remission of sins, then both are! Consider just how absurd it is, to think that God has forgiven the sins of a man who has not even changed his mind about committing them: has not repented!! Repentance is obviously essential to the forgiveness of sins; and so is baptism.

Conclusion

Review, briefly, the happenings on the birthday of the church of Christ, nearly two thousand years ago. Jesus had mentioned the prophecy, "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem", in Luke 24:47. We see the fulfillment of this prophecy in the preaching of the twelve, with particular attention given to the sermon of Peter on the day of Pentecost, in Jerusalem. Peter was preaching as the Spirit gave him utterance, and he did not compromise truth for fear of hurting their feelings or being offensive. For instance, concerning the death of Christ he said, Acts 2:23, "him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay". Further, he did not offer some kind of carnal appeal to bring the people to Christ. Rather, to all who were accountable he preached the gospel of Christ, and those who have confidence in the sufficiency of the gospel of Christ pursue the same course today. When churches of Christ seek to draw people of any age to the church by appeals to the flesh, the "conversions" or "responses" which result will be to the food, fun, and frolic offered as bait; and not to the message of heaven. This is a changing world; but man's needs do not change, insofar as his soul is concerned; and God's answer to those needs does not change: the gospel of Christ is still the power of God, and it is not less powerful than it was two thousand years ago.