TEXT: "_And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven._"--Matt. 18:3.
Jesus Christ was the world's greatest teacher and preacher. Multitudes
followed him because he taught them, not as the scribes, but as one
having authority. He came to them with the deepest truth of God, but
couched in such familiar expressions, and told in such a fascinating
way, that all men heard him and went their way rejoicing that so great
a teacher had come into the world as the messenger of God. He desired
to speak to them concerning the kingdom, and seeing on the distant
hillside a farmer sowing his seed, he gave them the parable of the
sower; and every farmer in his company began to understand his message.
He told them the story of a woman baking bread, and in the spreading of
the leaven every housekeeper had a vision of one of the deepest
principles of the coming kingdom. He gave them the account of the boy
who went away from his home, breaking his mother's heart, and,
according to tradition, putting her in her grave; causing his old
father to bow his head in shame again and again, and yet in spite of it
all, his father loving him; and every listener learned from the story a
lesson concerning the love of God which could have been given to him in
no other way. He was acknowledged as the world's greatest teacher and
preacher.
The text is introduced by the word "verily," and this is peculiar to
Jesus. The word calls especial attention to the coming message. It
was as if he had sounded a bell and said, "Stop and listen"; and
wherever the word "verily" occurs the Bible reader would do well to
give heed to the message of Jesus.
What hope is there for the moralist when Jesus said, "Except ye be
converted"? What hope can there be for the man who says God is so
merciful that he will not allow him finally to be lost when Jesus said
"Ye shall not enter into the kingdom, except ye be converted and become
as little children."
It will be necessary for us to read carefully verses eight and nine in
this eighteenth chapter of Matthew, if we would be impressed with the
importance of conversion. There are solemn words here. "Wherefore if
thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from
thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather
than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it
is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having
two eyes to be cast into hellfire."
I have been told that there are two ways of reading this text. The
first is as we have it in the King James version; the second would make
it read thus: "Verily, I say unto you, except ye convert yourselves and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven." Those who hold to this second reading say that there is a
difference between regeneration and conversion--that regeneration is
God's part of the contract, while conversion is ours; that conversion
is simply having the willing mind, while regeneration is God's
imparting to us his own life; and to convert one's self is simply to be
willing to be saved. And this is all-important, for even God himself
cannot save us against our wills. But I prefer to use, in my treatment
of the text, the generally accepted idea of conversion, and wish my
message to center around the following questions: What is conversion?
How may I be converted? Do I know when I was converted? How may I
know certainly?
I
What is conversion? I own a piece of property, and you desire to
purchase it. You pay me a price, and the property is transferred from
my ownership to yours. It is a converted piece of property. This is
just a hint as to what conversion is. We were sold under sin; and if
any should object to this expression, we have sold ourselves under sin.
Jesus came and in the shedding of his own blood paid the price of our
redemption. As a child of God, I am bought back from bondage to
freedom. To be converted is to be turned about. Going away from God,
I turn towards him. With my face set away from heaven, I deliberately
turn and accept Jesus, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the
life." To be converted is to cross the line which separates light from
darkness, and may be done as easily as if one drew a line in the path
before him and stepped over it. Both of these would be by the act of
one's will; only it is to be remembered that when by faith we accept
Jesus there is imparted to us a knowledge which comes from the Holy
Ghost alone; while we seem to be acting in our own strength, yet really
it is in the strength of God. Let it be remembered, however, that no
two people may have exactly the same experience. There is an
illustration of this in the healing of the blind men in the New
Testament. I can imagine them having a convention, and each giving his
testimony. One declares that the only way to receive your sight is to
have clay and spittle put upon your eyes and to wash in the pool of
Siloam. Another ridicules this experience and declares that only the
touch of the fingers of Jesus is necessary. Still another speaks and
emphatically declares that even the touch of Jesus is superfluous, for
at the command of Jesus he saw clearly. Another says that
instantaneous sight is impossible, and describes his own experience,
when he saw men like trees, walking. But when all have given their
testimony, they finally unite in declaring that whereas they once were
blind, now they can see; and after all this is the important matter. A
friend of mine described a number of people who came to view "The
Angelus" that celebrated masterpiece of Millet's. Some people admired
the perspective; others, the figure of the man; others, that of the
woman. One man simply stood aghast as he looked, and exclaimed, "What
a marvelous frame that picture has!" and no two people expressed the
same opinion concerning the masterpiece. How could we expect them to
have the same experience in coming to Christ?
It may be that some will say, "Why insist upon conversion when my life
is a moral one?" And my answer is that the difficulty with morality is
that it is worked out according to men's standard and falls far short
of God's.
In my first pastorate I had a blind man as one of my hearers. He used
to walk about the village where I preached, generally without a guide,
and apparently went as easily as a man with eyes. He had a little
stick in his hands, with which he touched the trees and the fences, and
seemed to know by the very sound where he was. One day at noon, when
he should be going home, I saw him walking rapidly away from his home.
I finally convinced him that he was going in the wrong direction, and
he asked me to set him straight, which I did. Going in the new
direction, he used his stick in the same fashion, used his legs in the
same mechanical way, but the difference between the man in the first
instance and the second was this--that in the first picture he was
going away from home, while in the second he was going homeward
rapidly. The trouble with man's morality is that it is self-centered
and not Christ centered if he is rejected.