(2) But we are not confined to the terms for ' turning ' in the NT, in seeking there for the fact of conversion. The reality itself is constantly in evidence. In the ministry of our Lord Himself we have manifest cases of conversion in the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Lk l^''^-), in Zacchseus the publican of Jericho (IQ^"^'), in the penitent robber on the cross (23*^- ^). The parable of the Prodigal Son (15""^-), who 'came to himself ' and then returned to his father, is a parable of conversion. And what are those great appeals that Jesus constantly makes — for a taking up of the cross in order to follow Him (Mt \&* ||), for a Avillingness to lose one's life in order to find it (103» 16'25 188-9), for a 'hating' of one's dearest friends in order to be His disciple (Lk 14^^) — but a demand for conversion, even though the figure of turning is not employed ?
In the story of the Apostolic Church, again, we have constant illustrations of the great spiritual change— the 3000 souls brought into the Church on the day of Pentecost (Ac 2*^), and those who thereafter were added to them day by day (v.*'^) ; the results that everywhere followed the preaching of the word, whether by the lips of evangelists (85.6.12 1 pi. 24) oj. Apostles (935 10« 141 etc.); the striking individual cases of the Ethiopian eunuch (837), Cornelius (10««'- IP^), Lydia of Thyatira (16"'-), and the jailer of Philippi (v.^off-). Above all, we have the case of St. Paul himself — the most typical and remarkable example the world has ever seen of that complete and conscious turning of the soul which we name conversion i^^^- 2^^- 26i2ff-).
(3) Once more, the fact of conversion is brought before us in the teaching of the Epistles, and above all in the Pauline Epistles, by the employment of other figures than that of turning. For it is evi- dently conversion that is described by the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new (Col 3"), by the transition from a world of darkness to a kingdom of light (Ro 13^2, Eph 5^, Col P^, 1 Jn V 2**), by the ideas of a crucifixion of the old
self (Ro 6^), an awaking out of sleep (Eph 5"), and even a rising from the dead with a view to walking in newness of life {ib., Ro S'*). This last figure of a rising from the dead reminds us how near conver- sion as a forthputting of the human will approaches to regeneration as an act of the Divine Spirit, and so brings us to consider the subject in its larger doctrinal relations.
3. The Christian doctrine. — Properly speaking, conversion as we use the word is a modern and popular rather than a Scriptural or theological term ; but, while its inexactness leads sometimes to its being misapplied, it is nevertheless a con- venient word to denote the conscious side of that great change by which a man becomes a Christian. In dwelling further on it we may think (1) of its essential nature ; (2) of its particular contents ; and (3) of its types or modes.
(1) The essential nature of conversion. — There is a very frequent misconception, according to which conversion is thought of as a passive experience rather than an active energizing of the human will. We have often heard it .said, for example, that someone 'has got converted.' Most, if not all, of the blame for this incorrect use of the word must be laid at the door of the AV, with its ' be con- verted' instead of 'turn.' The Greek lends no support to the idea of a passive conversion. If we except Ja S^'^- ^^ (where the reference is to the action, not of the Divine power, but of the human preacher or teacher Avho mediates the message of salvation), there is not a single case in the NT where the word for turning or conversion is so employed as to sug- gest that something is wrought upon a man from without. Always it is an act of the man himself that is so described ; the turning is a self-turning, a human and moral, not a supernatural and meta- physical change.
This, of course, is not to deny that there are other figures in the NT which represent the process of becoming a Christian as something that is carried through by the operation of a Divine power. The new birth (Jn ^^^•), the new creation (2 Co 5", Gal e'-'), the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Tit 3^), all point to another side of the matter. But what we have to notice here is that, as distinguished from regeneration, conver- sion at all events is always represented as a work and a duty the full responsibility for which is laid upon man.
When we come to consider the precise relations between conversion and regeneration, we pass into a difficult region where questions are raised which, as Professor Laidlaw has said, it has been the habit of theologians to avoid. ' Reformed theology pre- sents no reasoned connexion between regeneration in the stricter sense and conversion with its fruits ' [Bib. Doct. of Man, 266). And for lack of a reasoned and definite theory, or even of a careful study of the NT teaching, the figure of regeneration has very commonly been overworked, while the moral side of the change involved in becoming a Christian has been neglected. But, while it is Scriptural to say that when a man becomes a Christian a mys- terious Divine work has been effected within him, it is equally Scriptural to say (and Scripture says it much oftener) that we become Christians by our own free choice, and that the power of deciding whether we are to be Christ's disciples or not rests with ourselves. Thus we are brought face to face with the larger problem of the relation between human freedom and the Divine will, and can only say here that in the NT regeneration and conver- sion come before us as one and the same process, looked at from the Divine and the human side respectively, but looked at as essentially a moral rather than a metaphysical change. Men are born of the Spirit, but they must turn if they are to