Soteriology (Doctrine of Salvation): Conversion (Faith and Repentance)
1. What Scripture Means by “Conversion”: Turning to God
Biblically, conversion is a turning—or returning—to God. The Old Testament verb šûḇ (“turn/return”) and its New Testament counterpart epistrephō carry the ordinary idea of turning back or turning around, then apply it to our relation to God (Deut 30:2; Acts 26:20). In theological use, conversion names that decisive turn whereby a sinner, through faith in Jesus Christ, enters the kingdom blessings of forgiveness and life (Matt 18:3; Acts 3:19). The New Testament treats it not as a mood or a phase but as an action and a stance—turning from darkness to light, from idols to serve the living God (Acts 26:18; 1 Thess 1:9).
2. Old Testament Patterns: Covenant Return and Whole-Heartedness
The Old Testament most often speaks of national turning—Israel returning to Yahweh after covenant disloyalty (Josh 24; 2 Kgs 23; 2 Chr 29; 34). The logic is covenantal: lapses incur discipline, but the covenant endures, and God promises restoration when the people return to him (Zech 1:3; Deut 30:2–10). Yet conversion is never merely outward reform. True return includes humility, heart-change, and renewed knowledge of God and his ways (Deut 4:29–31; Jer 24:7). Even Nineveh’s repentance shows that the call to turn to the Lord extends beyond Israel (Jonah 3).
3. New Testament Focus: Conversion as Entry into the Kingdom
In the New Testament, conversion language typically describes the once-for-all turning whereby Jews and Gentiles enter the eschatological blessings Christ brings (Matt 18:3; Acts 3:19; 26:18). It is consistently linked with repentance and faith—two inseparable responses that together express the sinner’s turn to God (Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21). The New Testament does not major on the psychology of the moment—dramatic (Paul, Cornelius, the jailer) or quiet (Lydia, the Ethiopian); it majors on the theology: conversion binds the sinner to Christ and his saving benefits.
4. Faith and Repentance: Two Sides of One Turning
Repentance is a change of mind and heart Godward—a renunciation of sin and self-rule with a turning to the Lord. Faith is belief of God’s word and trust in his Son—reliance on Christ crucified and risen as Savior and Lord. These are not sequential rungs but two sides of one motion: turning from and turning to. Scripture regularly pairs them as the moral demand of the gospel: “repent and believe” (Mark 1:15), “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Conversion, then, covers both: the whole-person turn that receives Christ and his promises.
5. Union with Christ: Death to Sin, Newness of Life
Conversion is not mere decisionism; it is entry into union with Christ. Baptism signifies what conversion secures: united to Christ in his death and resurrection, the believer is freed from sin’s penalty and dominion and raised to walk in new life by the Spirit (Rom 6:1–11; Col 2:12; 3:1–4). This union gives conversion its objective footing. Forgiveness is granted; righteousness is counted; the Spirit indwells; a new walk begins. The turn to God is thus both crisis and commencement—decisive entry and ongoing life in Christ.
6. God’s Work and Our Turning: Regeneration and the Call
Scripture is plain: conversion is truly our act—we repent and we believe—yet more fundamentally it is God’s work in us. Left to ourselves we are dead in sins, blind to the gospel’s light, and unable to submit to God (Eph 2:1; 1 Cor 2:14; Rom 8:7). The Father draws (John 6:44); the Lord opens the heart (Acts 16:14); God shines into darkness (2 Cor 4:6); the Spirit gives understanding and new birth (John 3:5–8; 1 John 5:20). The gospel call comes through preaching as Christ’s own voice, and the Spirit’s effectual call cures our impotence and secures our response. Thus, while the AV’s “be converted” is a poor translation, the theology underneath is sound: God turns us, and we turn.
7. Variety in Narrative, Unity in Theology
The New Testament records a range of conversion narratives. Paul’s confrontation on the Damascus road is dramatic; Lydia’s conversion is quiet; the Philippian jailer’s is urgent; Cornelius’s household turns as the Spirit falls. These differences are historically important, but the authors do not invite us to idolize one pattern. In every case the same realities hold: the word is proclaimed, Christ is trusted, repentance is evident, and the Spirit brings the hearers from darkness to light. Conversion is dynamic—an action done and a path begun—not a template of emotions to replicate.
8. The Converted Life: Daily Repentance, Faith Working Through Love
Though conversion is unrepeatable—one passes from death to life once—the life that flows from it is marked by ongoing repentance and faith. Believers continue to put off the old and put on the new (Col 3:1–17), to confess sin and receive cleansing (1 John 1:9), to walk by the Spirit and bear his fruit (Gal 5:16–24). Conversion plants us in a community that hears the word, shares the Supper, prays, and bears witness (Acts 2:42–47). The same grace that turned us once sustains us daily until the day when faith becomes sight and repentance gives way to perfect holiness.
9. Pastoral Bearings: Preach, Press, and Promise
Pastorally, conversion shapes preaching: announce God’s saving plan in Christ; announce God’s promise to all who believe; press hearers to come to Christ now. We do not sort the elect; we herald to all and urge every person to turn. We speak plainly of sin and of the Savior; we promise rest to the weary and forgiveness to the penitent; we call for baptism and incorporation into Christ’s body. Because Christ speaks in his gospel and the Spirit works by his word, we preach with urgency and hope. Because conversion is God’s work through the word, we pray as we preach and trust God to give the increase.
10. Hope Forward: The Fruit and Goal of the Turn
Conversion bears fruit in holiness now and orients us to the future. The turn to God is entrance into the age to come; the Spirit’s presence is the pledge of our inheritance. The One who began the good work will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. The church lives between the already and the not yet by the same stance with which she began: repentant faith in the crucified and risen Lord, until the day when all who have turned to God will be raised imperishable and see his face.
Bible verses about Conversion (Faith and Repentance)
Mark 1:15 – “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Acts 20:21 – “Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Acts 3:19 – “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.”
Acts 26:18 – “To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.”
1 Thessalonians 1:9 – “You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”
John 3:3 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Ephesians 2:4–5 – “But God, being rich in mercy… even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Acts 16:14 – “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”
2 Corinthians 4:6 – “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.”
Romans 6:4 – “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that… we too might walk in newness of life.”
