p. 70 | CONVERSION by William Covert

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 4, 1893

CONVERSION.

By William Covert

BY ELDER WILLIAM COVERT.

THE sad result that has come to man through transgression, is such that unless there is accomplished for him an entire change of nature, he can never meet the purpose for which his creation was intended. Although the Lord made man upright, and sent him forth in life in a state of innocence, he did not long retain that happy condition. By yielding to temptation his nature was soon found to be "only evil continually," and his purposes and desires were so wholly perverted that not a man in the world possessed moral strength of himself to obey the law of God, even if he had desired so to do.

The evil one gained such complete control of man's fleshly nature that he was thereby incapacitated to obey God's law, which was in its nature spiritual. The exercising of the mind through the carnal senses so strengthened these tendencies, directing them in evil, that the apostle wrote, "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:7.

As the carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God, it is useless to expect anything

good to come from it, and he that is laboring to so model the unregenerate mind as to cause it to yield the fruits of righteousness, will meet with constant disappointment.

The mind which is of itself enmity against God, cannot possibly be made to love God; therefore Satan has made it to be the embodiment of all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, having filled it up with envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, causing it to hate God, boast of its own achievements, invent evil things, lose the knowledge of that which is for the best good of man, and to live without mercy, love, or natural affection. Rom. 1:28-31.

Although God's word teaches that these evils are all generated and fostered in the fleshly mind, yet the heart that gives them the free use of its soil, will be most likely to disown their presence; because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and yet ignorant of its own desperate condition. See Jer. 17: 9.

Not only does sin leave the sinner in ignorance as to his own condition, but it renders his nature incapable of being taught or of exercising judgment in divine things. The apostle says that because men did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they were given over to a mind that was void of judgment, that they might do those things that are not convenient. Rom. 1:28.

They became useless for good through their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. With only a foolish, darkened mind, and that tending downward, Satan's victory seemed complete over them. Rom. 1:21; Eph. 4:17.

The great danger therefore to the sinner lies in the fact that his sensibilities are deadened by his own transgressions till he cannot see that he is in the very jaws of death, and being devoured by the gnawings of that which he calls pleasure. In this insensible condition sin is committed with all greediness. Yet even in this dead state, let not one sinner think that his case is beyond reach. It is his privilege still to choose the service of God, and believe his promises. When this is done he is in a condition to hope for all that is good. The Lord calls upon the sinner, saying, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

The thoughts of the unrighteous man, which he is here advised to forsake, are the products of the carnal mind. As that mind cannot be subject to the law of God, the only way of relief is to forsake it, that it may perish. Having forsaken his own mind, the Lord comes in with thoughts as much higher than those which have been refused, as heaven is higher than the earth. Isa. 55:6-9.

A constant choosing of the Lord will work an entire change of the whole being. The Lord's thoughts in the mind bring in wisdom where once there was foolishness, and righteousness where sin had previously been enthroned.

This change is what is commonly called conversion. The Saviour said, "Except ye be converted [Revised Version, "except ye turn"], and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:3. To start in life anew as a little child would require of an adult to be utterly emptied

of himself, and to count all that he has ever claimed to know as nothing, and worthless.

The kind of reckoning for the sinner to make of what he may have thought he had been in the past, is well expressed in the following statement: "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Phil. 3:7, 8. It is to let go all hold of your own works, your own wisdom, your own way, and learn that all of this is only counted against you. All is but sin which is intervening between yourself and the kingdom of God. Do not permit it to remain in the way, but forsake it immediately and forever, together with all that ever grew out of it.

The heart of the sinner has become so hardened by transgression that it stoutly resists the influence of the Spirit of God. For this reason, the Lord has found that in this there must be wrought a complete reconstruction; therefore he says, "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them an heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them." Eze. 11:19, 20.

Another has said, "They made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets." Zech. 7:12.

Thus the natural heart was not only void of righteousness but it was utterly opposed to it. With such a heart as this view presents, there can be no obedience to God hoped for. Neither can a heart of a nature so unimpressible be made to live and feel. It must therefore be removed and a new heart placed within, which will take on life and tenderness, a heart that can be moved and controlled by the Spirit of God. David asked for the kind of heart that every sinner needs, when in his prayer he said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. 51:10.

Such a prayer as the Psalmist here offered, proved that he was taught what had to be done for him before he could be a happy, free man. His request was that he might be purged of sin, and made clean through and through. When this was accomplished in him, he said that he should be whiter than snow. Snow is the whitest substance known in the material world, but the heart, purged and cleansed from sin by the Spirit of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, is whiter than snow.

But the change necessary to bring about this glorious condition cannot be accomplished until there is an unconditional surrender of self, a consecration so complete that the Lord is permitted to take the full possession of the whole being, and do with the life in every purpose just what he pleases. Sinner, are you willing to let him do this?

(Concluded next week.)