Becoming New

When someone becomes a Christian, it isn’t that he or she is simply a little better off than before. It isn’t that he or she has improved life a little bit or has added a little something extra that was not there before. Rather, when someone becomes a Christian, there is a radical change that takes place.

Becoming a Christian changes a person completely. This is what the Bible describes as conversion. Jesus described it as being born again. The Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

What really happens when a true conversion takes place? One turns from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God (see Acts 27:18). That is not hyperbole; that is speaking literally. In fact, when we put our trust in Christ, we have no idea how significant it really is. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks after I gave my life to the Lord that I even began to realize the significance of what I had done. And I have only come to realize, years later, all that transpired for me on the day that I said yes to Jesus Christ.

However, we need to recognize that not everyone’s conversion will be identical. Some people are more emotional. Some are more intellectual. Some can express themselves more easily. Some are more on the reserved side. Some experience God in a way they can feel profoundly, but not everyone does.

But that is not what conversion is necessarily about. It is about the change that will result. And time will tell whether a conversion is real.