Don’t Minimize Someone’s Conversion
From the outset, let me say that I have been as guilty as anyone for saying what I am going to write about. I used to say it quite regularly. After some time and thought, I would still say it, but I’d feel like I had to qualify it. Now, I do my best to avoid it.
And it’s because I spent some serious time thinking about Cornelius.
So, what is the saying? It is when we are talking about someone who has lived a pretty good life, but has never been baptized, and we say something like this: “He wouldn’t have to change much.”
Now, having been someone who used to say that quite often, I totally get it. Especially if we have known the person for some time, we are simply meaning that we see good qualities in that person. The individual probably does not have any overriding addictions to fight. He is a good husband. She is a loving mother. He reads his Bible.
He’s a good person. So he doesn’t have to change much.
Well….
Cornelius has a litany of great qualities listed about him in Acts 10. It is rare in Scripture to find such a glowing introduction to anyone. Scripture even goes so far as to say that this man “feared God with all his household” (10:2). That is a remarkable statement!
So, he didn’t have to change much, right?
In Acts 11, Peter is reporting about this to Christians in the region of Judea. Part of that report makes it clear that what Peter was to say to Cornelius was “a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household” (11:14). Wait…this wonderful man had to be saved? What does that imply? He was lost.
Was he good in many ways? Remarkably so! But did he have to change? Remarkably so!
He had to go from lost to saved. He had to go from outside of Christ to in Christ. He had to start following the way of Jesus.
I don’t doubt that Cornelius might have had fewer things to change than some others (Saul the persecutor, for example). But if we say, “He didn’t have to change much,” we are minimizing what it means to go from lost and on one’s way to hell to saved and on one’s way to heaven!
No matter what we might think of someone’s life before he or she becomes a Christian, that person is lost and headed for eternal destruction if he or she does not change course and obey Jesus. If and when that occurs, let’s not minimize their conversion. Let’s be supremely grateful for anyone’s decision to follow Christ and the salvation that only He can bring to one’s life.
AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
