Basic Bible Course 3

After the fall into sin, Adam and Eve feel very unhappy. They fear God and see death before their eyes. Fortunately, God does not leave them to their fate, but He seeks mankind and asks: "Where art thou?"

Adam must now come as he is. He must recognize that he has done wrong and that a return to God is necessary. He must admit to God that he has eaten from the fruit of the tree. A clear picture of conversion is represented here.

Here is an illustration from daily life:

People are bathing in the sea. They have left the beach behind them and are swimming cheerfully into the oncoming waves. In high spirits, they reach the vicinity of a dangerous current. The beachmaster calls them back with his megaphone; but they do not pay attention to him. But then they suddenly feel the pull, and the scene changes drastically. The carefree joy gives way to fear and regret because they have ventured so far out instead of listening to the beachmaster. They admit that he was right and they were wrong. Instead of continuing to turn their backs on the safe beach, they now look longingly, seeking salvation, towards it.

"Conversion", as it is often summarized, involves three steps:

• Repentance means accepting God's view, His judgment of our lives, namely that we are guilty. Repentance is literally translated as "change of mind", so to think about oneself as God does. This is not about penitential exercises or mortifications. The result is a "godly sorrow" that leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10).
• To condemn one's past life means to repent and then change direction by turning 180 degrees, that is, to turn back towards God. This is the conversion, or turning back to God.
• The first is thus the change of mind (repentance) and associated with it as the second, a conscious turning away from a wrong path towards God (conversion).
• Repentance and conversion necessarily also include confession before God. Only when one comes to God and confesses their sin, will God give the forgiveness of sins (1 John 1:9). In the case of some actions, it may also be necessary to make a confession to people.

Summary: Conversion involves repentance, a turning back to God, and a confession before God.

A better (because biblical) illustration of this can be found in Luke 15.

There is a son who demanded his inheritance from his father and then received it. It didn't take long for him to squander his inheritance, resulting in him feeding off pig swill during a subsequent famine.

• We later read how this son came around and wanted to confess to his father: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants".
• This is the change of mind in the son: the repentance. He now thought differently about his actions and his situation: "I have sinned" - "I am no longer worthy". He recognized his sinful, lost condition and that he needed a savior to get him out of there (to save him).
• He did this by setting out and going to his father. Here we have the active turning back of the son: the conversion.
• When he arrived at his father's, we read what he said to him: “And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (Luke 15:21) - this is the confession that he made before the father.

An example of conversion in the Old Testament is given to us by Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah.

In the New Testament, we read several times about conversions.

Match the reports to the Bible verses.

Why must man convert?

Conversion (or repentance) is spoken of in approximately 80 places in the Old Testament and around 70 in the New Testament. Here are some of them: