B i b l e S t u d y
Lesson: What does it mean to be Converted?
SCRIPTURE READING: Romans 8:5-9
GOLDEN TEXT: Matthew 18:3
1. What two things are required if you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? (Matthew 18:3).
Note: Let’s notice first that we are to become as little children. Why little children? Little children are humble, forgiving and they have faith. We adults need to possess these spiritual qualities and attributes.
Note: Jesus said, "Unless you are converted ... you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." We must find out what Jesus Christ meant when He said, "Unless you are converted." Unless we know what true conversion is, and further, unless we become converted, we will have no place in the Kingdom of God, and our hope is lost. This is what Christ our Savior said.
Note: The phrase ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is only used in the gospel of Matthew. Every where in the New Testament the phrase used is the ‘Kingdom of God." Matthew wrote his gospel to the Jews and he did not want to offend them by using the name God so he used the term heaven.
2. How does our carnal mind react to God? (Romans 8:7).
Note: Our carnal mind and our sinful nature is always hostile to God and it does not want to obey God's laws. The carnal or fleshly mind (the word carnal literally means "fleshly") is the natural mind that a person has apart from God and influenced by this world.
3. What is conversion?
Note: Conversion is the changing of our minds and actions from the carnal way of the natural man to the spiritual way of thinking and acting like God and Jesus. We all have heard the expression What Would Jesus Do? Perhaps better stated is What Did Jesus Tell Us to Do! We need to read the 4 gospels to know what Jesus said.
At present conversion is living a Christian life but it also includes changing, or converting, being resurrected to spirit from the physicochemical state of mere existence in which we now find ourselves to the immortal, glorified life that God Himself enjoys.
4. How do we begin the process of conversion? (Acts 2:38).
Note: Conversion begins when we repent and are baptized and after the laying on of hands, then we receive God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us a spiritual mind and converts us to creatures God can use. We must continue throughout life overcoming and spiritually growing which will ultimately culminate at the resurrection when one is born into God's Kingdom as a new creature -- a spirit-composed member of God's Family.
But even here, some have misunderstood. They think that once a person has received God's Spirit, conversion is total and complete, and that the person cannot or will not sin at all -- ever. Such is not the case. Conversion is a process, and is likened in the Bible to the process of a baby's gestation and birth. In both cases, the newly conceived person -- be it a physical child or a spiritual child of God -- must grow and develop over time before birth. We are familiar with our physical birth. Our spiritual birth will happen at the first resurrection when we are resurrected into spirit beings with eternal life. (John 3:16).
5. Are we to conform to this world? (Romans 12:2). Are we to be transformed by the renewing of our minds? What are we to prove?
Note: To change a person means to change his or her mind -that is, the way one thinks -- for a person is his or her mind. Proverbs 23:7 says, "As he thinks ...so is he." One's mind is the core of one's personality, character and thought.
6. Are we to be pure in heart? (Matthew 5:8). Are we to be holy? (1 Peter 1:15-16).
Note: In one of Jesus’ beatitudes He tells us that we are to be pure in heart. This is part of the transforming of our mind. This leads us to being holy as God is holy.
7. Are we to live according to the Spirit? (Romans 8:5-9). Does this lead to life and peace? What happens if we do not have the Spirit of Christ?
Note: The carnal mind is not sufficient for salvation but the indwelling of God's Spirit is the source of the spiritual mind.
8. Do you have a ‘spirit in man’ within you so you can know the things of a man? (1 Corinthians 2:9-14, Job 32:8). Does the breath of God Almighty give you understanding? Do we need to have God’s Spirit to be able to know the things of God?
Note: Our mind is not the mind of a mere animal, but the superior mind of a human, and consists of the brain and the ‘spirit in man’ (this ‘spirit in man’ should not be confused with the pagan concept of the "immortal soul").
9. Jesus told Peter that Satan desired him, to sift him like wheat. Then Jesus told him that He had prayed for him and that his faith would not fail. What did Jesus then tell Peter? (Luke 22:31-32).
Note: In the King James Version Jesus is quoted as saying, "and when thou are converted, strengthen thy brethren." Other translations say, "And when you have repented and turned to me, strengthen your brethren."
Conversion is not merely belief, because even Peter, though he believed, was told he had yet to be converted. Peter needed to repent and turn back to Jesus.
10. Did the apostle Paul struggle against sin? (Romans 7:1-25).
Note: Read Romans 7 and see how Paul describes the struggle he had to endure while the still-remaining carnal component of his nature struggled against the Spirit of God dwelling within him.
Likewise, a spiritual convert must repent, change and grow until the resurrection, when he or she will be literally "born again" , (John 3: 3-6) -- this time of the Spirit -- and will enter God's Family as a spirit being.
11. Does Jesus admonish us to repent and overcome? (Mark 1:14-15). What are the blessings if we overcome? (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26, 3:5, 12 ,21).
In Conclusion: "Unless you are converted..." proclaimed Jesus, "you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." But with the proper baptism and the consequent receipt of God's Holy Spirit, we can become a new creature (II Corinthians 5:17) converted to spirit at the first resurrection with the hope of eternal glory!
Scriptures
Scripture Reading:
(Romans 8:5-9 NKJV) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. {6} For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. {7} Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. {8} So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. {9} But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Golden Text: (Matthew 18:3 NKJV)
Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
1.
See the Golden Text.2. (Romans 8:7 NKJV) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
3. -
4. (Acts 2:38 NKJV) Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
5. (Romans 12:2 NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
6. (Matthew 5:8 NKJV) Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
(1 Peter 1:15-16 NKJV) but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, {16} because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."
7. (Romans 8:5-9 NKJV) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. {6} For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. {7} Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. {8} So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. {9} But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
8. (1 Corinthians 2:9-14 NKJV) But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." {10} But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. {11} For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. {12} Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. {13} These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. {14} But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
(Job 32:8 NKJV) But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
9. (Luke 22:31-32 KJV) And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: {32} But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
(Luke 22:31-32 NKJV) And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. {32} "But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."
10. (Romans 7 NKJV) Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? {2} For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. {3} So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. {4} Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another; to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. {5} For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. {6} But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Struggling With Sin
{7} What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." {8} But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. {9} I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. {10} And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. {11} For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. {12} Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. {13} Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. {14} For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. {15} For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. {16} If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. {17} But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. {18} For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. {19} For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. {20} Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. {21} I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. {22} For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. {23} But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. {24} O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? {25} I thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
(John 3:3-6 NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." {4} Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" {5} Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. {6} "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
11. (Mark 1:14-15 NKJV) Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, {15} and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."
(Revelation 2:7 NKJV) "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."'
(Revelation 2:11 NKJV) "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death."'
(Revelation 2:17 NKJV) "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I willgive some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it."'
(Revelation 2:26 NKJV) "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations;
(Revelation 3:5 NKJV) "He who overcome shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
(Revelation 3:12 NKJV) "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
(Revelation 3:21 NKJV) "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
(2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.