The Fruits of Bible Conversion
By Ellen G. White
IT is the work of conversion and sanctification to reconcile men to God by bringing them into accord with the principles of His law. In the beginning, man was created in the image of God. He was in perfect harmony with the nature and the law of God; the principles of righteousness were written upon his heart. But sin alienated him from his Maker. He no longer reflected the divine image. His heart was at war with the principles of God's law. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." But "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son," that man might be reconciled to God. Through the merits of Christ he can be restored to harmony with his Maker. His heart must be renewed by divine grace; he must have a new life from above. This change is the new birth, without which, says Jesus, "he can not see the kingdom of God." The first step in reconciliation to God, is conviction of sin. "Sin is the transgression of the law." "By the law is the knowledge of sin." In order to see his guilt, the sinner must test his character by God's great standard of righteousness. It is the mirror that shows the perfection of a righteous character, and enables him to discern the defects in his own. The law reveals to man his sins, but it provides no remedy. While it promises life to the obedient, it declares that death is the portion of the transgressor. The Gospel of Christ alone can free him from the condemnation or the defilement of sin. He must exercise repentance toward God, whose law has been transgressed, and faith in Christ, his atoning sacrifice. Thus he obtains "remission of sins that are past," and becomes a partaker of the divine nature. He is a child of God, having received the spirit of adoption, whereby he cries, "Abba, Father." True sanctification is a Bible doctrine. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonian church, declares, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." And he prays, "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly." The Bible clearly teaches what sanctification is, and how it is to be attained. The Saviour prayed for His disciples, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." And Paul teaches that believers are to be "sanctified by the Holy Ghost." What is the work of the Holy Spirit? Jesus told His disciples, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." And the psalmist says, "Thy law is the truth." By the Word and the Spirit of God are opened to men the great principles of righteousness embodied in His law. And since the law of God is "holy, and just, and good," a transcript of the divine perfection, it follows that a character formed by obedience to that law, will be holy. Christ is a perfect example of such a character. He says, "I have kept My Father's commandments," "I do always those things that please Him." The followers of Christ are to become like Him,—by the grace of God, to form characters in harmony with the principles of His holy law. This is Bible sanctification. This work can be accomplished through faith in Christ, by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. Paul admonishes believers, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, but he will maintain a constant warfare against it. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The Scriptures plainly show that the work of sanctification is progressive. When in conversion the sinner finds peace with God through the blood of the atonement, the Christian life has but just begun. Now he is to "go on unto perfection;" to grow up "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Says the apostle Paul, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And Peter sets before us the steps by which Bible sanctification is to be attained: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. . . . If ye do these things, ye shall never fall." The desire for an easy religion, that requires no striving, no self-denial, no divorce from the follies of the world, has made the doctrine of faith, and faith only, a popular doctrine; but what saith the Word of God? Says the apostle James: "What doth it profit, my brethren, tho a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? . . . Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? . . . Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." The testimony of the Word of God is against this ensnaring doctrine of faith without works. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is to be granted. It is presumption; for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scripture. The sanctification set forth in the Scriptures embraces the entire being,—spirit, soul, and body. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians, that their "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Again he writes to believers, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." In the time of ancient Israel, every offering brought as a sacrifice to God was carefully examined. If any defect was discovered in the animal presented, it was refused; for God had commanded that the offering be "without blemish." So Christians are bidden to present their bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." In order to do this, all their powers must be preserved in the best possible condition. Every practise that weakens physical or mental strength, unfits man for the service of his Creator. And will God be pleased with anything less than the best we can offer? Says Peter, "Abstain from fleshly lusts,4which war against the soul." Every sinful gratification tends to benumb the faculties, and deaden the mental and spiritual perceptions; and the Word or the Spirit of God can make but a feeble impression upon the heart. Paul writes to the Corinthians, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." And with the fruits of the Spirit,—"love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,"—he classes "temperance." To those who comply with the conditions, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean," God's promise is, "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." It is the privilege and the duty of every Christian to have a rich and abundant experience in the things of God. "I am the light of the world," Jesus said; "he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Every step of faith and obedience brings the soul into closer connection with the Light of the World, in whom "there is no darkness at all." Such are the fruits of Bible conversion and sanctification; and it is because the great principles of righteousness set forth in the law of God are so indifferently regarded by the Christian world, that these fruits are so rarely witnessed. This is why there is manifest so little of that deep, abiding work of the Spirit of God which marked revivals in former years. Saith the Lord, "They have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. . . . But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."