CONVERSION POWER
Romans 1:16-17 I am
not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of
everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the
gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith
from first to last…
Were it not for the resurrection, we would
have no choice but to preach Jesus as example, law, or obligation. But, there
is no good news in that! The demand to be like Jesus or to do what he says is
only the intensification of the law. Where people cease to believe the
resurrection or else treat it as a miracle of the past, they also tend to
preach Jesus within the context of works righteousness. Therefore, instead of
being a gift of God’s wondrous love, Jesus becomes another Moses who makes
impossible demands on top of the ones we already have. Such a message cannot
reveal the righteousness of God which was disclosed in Christ. For the
righteousness of God disclosed in Christ features a God who acts on behalf of
persons who fail to measure up to the law. The distinction of the gospel is
that it offers salvation precisely to those who fail to measure up to the
standards of the law…. Therefore, wherever the message of the gospel is
proclaimed, the living Lord makes happen again what happened originally. Now we
can understand how Paul can say that the gospel is not simply a piece of
information about the past, nor is it simply a piece of doctrine about God’s
power. It is rather the means, the instrument, by which God’s power is revealed
for those who believe.
To summarize: The gospel is not a report about God’s
power but an event in which God’s power becomes operative when it is believed.
This is because in the preaching and believing of the gospel, God’s
righteousness is not God’s fairness by which God gives everyone what is
deserved, but God’s act of setting things right precisely where no one deserves
it. For in the gospel a revelation of God’s true character happens, a character
set forth in the event called Jesus Christ…. Moreover, I repeat, there can be
no Christian conversion without the gospel. Christian conversion doesn’t happen
by simply talking about it… Christian conversion happens when the gospel is
communicated and when there is response to it. It is only the person who trusts
God as the gospel presents God who experiences Christian conversion.
The Mystery and Meaning of
Christian Conversion, by George E. Morris, pgs. 75-77.