Soteriology
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Jesus is on record as having declared, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). The early preaching of Christ’s apostles also sounded the note of conversion. Their message was, “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
When Paul and Barnabas gave testimony about the salvation of Gentile believers, Acts 15:3 says they described “the conversion of the Gentiles and they cause great joy to all the brethren.” So Scripture teaches us to think of salvation as conversion.
We speak of persons who believe the gospel as Christian converts and speak of missionaries as those who are seeking to make converts to Christianity. The idea in the term “conversion” is that of “turning.” As applied to salvation the term refers to turning unto the Lord from moral evil or religious idolatry.
The sacred testimony to the conversion of the early Thessalonian Christians is given in terms of their turning: “How you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9).
Incidentally we might glean from that testimony the importance of its sequencing, in that they “turned to God from idols,” not that they turned from idols to God. When they turned to God, they found strength and resolve to turn from idols. The forsaking of idolatry resulted from the positive choice to turn to God. They did not first turn from idols in order to qualify themselves as worthy to turn to God. Rather, the power of a new devotion made it possible to put away their old ways.
These two ideas about conversion are so closely joined that we might conclude they happen simultaneously. One cannot genuinely happen without the other. Repentance and faith combine to constitute a genuine saving response to the gospel.
The apostle Paul described his preaching of the gospel in Ephesus with similar meaning, saying, “I kept back nothing that was helpful but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20–21).
So we understand Christian conversion to involve both “turning to” and “turning from.” We might give the short definition of conversion as a personal decision to respond to the gospel by turning in sincere repentance from sin and unbelief and placing one’s personal trust in Christ for salvation.
Example of repentance
The ideas of repentance and faith are so closely intertwined that we find biblical passages that speak of salvation by mentioning faith alone, as well as passages that mention repentance alone, for example, in Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
An example of repentance came from the lips of Christ Himself when He commissioned His followers with these words: “Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:46–47). Some have coined such phrases as “penitent faith” and “believing repentance.” The biblical assumption is that true repentance involves trust in Christ and true faith in Him involves repentance. It’s the combination of the two that equals Christian conversion.
Editor’s Note — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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