What Is Conversion?

The word conversion, as we use it in religious circles today, usually implies the acceptance of a religious belief system. But the fundamental biblical meaning is “to turn”—usually to turn to God.

This begs the question, then: What do we turn away from when we turn to God? Or, put another way, why do we need conversion? What separates us from God in the first place?

The prophet Isaiah gives us the answer: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities [or wrongdoings] have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2). This problem confronts everyone. The apostle John states, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves . . .” (1 John 1:8). To receive blessings and other help from God, we must turn to Him—recognizing what our sins are and turning from them.

Jesus commissioned the apostle Paul to go to the gentiles and “open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18). Christ’s instruction to Paul provides us with a brief outline of how converts are added to His spiritual body, “the church of God” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Each new convert must turn away from Satan’s ways by turning to the ways of God. Each must accept and respond to God’s terms and conditions for the forgiveness of sin.

In this lesson we examine the process by which we can turn to God—the process of conversion. We will learn what Peter meant when he exhorted his countrymen, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out . . .” (Acts 3:19). We examine how, beginning with repentance, new converts can turn from a life of sin to one of serving the living God.