Introduction
How much misery over sin is required before someone can come to Christ? It’s a question most people never think to ask, but for many struggling souls it becomes a source of deep confusion, and real harm. In this episode of Ask FGBC, Pastors Jim Butler and Cameron Porter address whether conviction of sin belongs before or after regeneration, and why demanding a measured period of grief before offering the gospel short-circuits what we actually see in Scripture.
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Transcript
Summary Keywords: Conviction of sin, regeneration, faith, repentance, misery, gospel, salvation, assurance, certainty, ecclesiastical imposition, joy, gratitude, baptism, presumption, believer.
Speakers: Pastor Jim Butler, Pastor Cameron Porter, Wim Kerkhoff
Conviction Before Faith, and After
Pastor Jim Butler 0:00
Conviction of sin before or after faith? I’d say both.
Before faith, in terms of conviction of sin: Jesus says in Matthew 9, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” The Spirit of God convicts us of our sins to show us our need for Jesus.
Now, of course, the question comes up: how much and how long? I don’t think it’s a two-year period. “I’ve been convicted of my sin for two years — I think I’ve filled up the measure of my guilt, and therefore now I’m going to believe.” Conviction of sin — how much depths of despair and misery do I need to get into? The Bible doesn’t address that.
Wim Kerkhoff 0:59
Regeneration before the conviction, or after?
Pastor Jim Butler 1:03
Conviction comes, and then we look to the Lord Jesus. If you’re asking whether conviction of sin is a part of regeneration itself…
Wim Kerkhoff 1:12
I think that’s really what’s under the hood with this question.
Pastor Jim Butler 1:15
Is there any conviction of sin before we believe the gospel? Yes — or else we’re not going to look to Christ as our Savior. And then after faith, is there conviction of sin? Yes. The law is a tutor. I feel it driving down Yale Road every single day. I’m not the most patient man, and traffic seems to exacerbate that — and I’m convicted of my sin and I need to confess it to God.
I wouldn’t locate conviction of sin as a part of regeneration itself.
Wim Kerkhoff 1:55
And I think some churches do teach that — you’re awakened, kind of regenerated, you’ve got this conviction going on for a period of time. You’ve got the misery and you’re feeling the burden — and then God gives you faith and you believe. And that gets kind of chronological in the order of salvation.
A Period of Misery Before Conversion?
Pastor Jim Butler 2:19
Is there conviction before you believe? Yes — or else I wouldn’t believe. Is there conviction after you believe? Yes, because I feel it all the time.
Pastor Cameron Porter 2:28
Going back to that idea that there’s a required period — a period of grief over sin, of misery, reflection and contemplation on your sin before faith is given — that’s not what the Bible presents as reality.
When you are regenerated, when we speak of conversion itself, there’s no required period of misery prior to which the gift of faith is given. Conversion is the divine bestowal of the graces of faith and repentance.
To heap upon a weak sinner the reality that they must experience a particular period of self-wallowing, grief and misery before something can obtain in the blessed complex of salvation — that is to heap something unbiblical upon that person.
Spurgeon says something like this: “Let us peruse the diary of our memories, for there the witnesses of our guilt have faithfully recorded their names.” But he goes on to say: don’t spend a lot of time there. When we’re convicted of sin, what’s the call? What’s the blessed command? It’s flee to Christ. That’s where we go.
We don’t go with both eyes looking inwardly upon ourselves in misery — what a terrible place to be. Conviction of sin drives us with both eyes of faith to look upon the risen and exalted Christ, and there to find not our misery but our joy. Nor are we to look with one eye upon ourselves and another eye upon Christ. We’re to look to Christ. That’s his own command: “Look to me. Come to me, and you will find the blessed captain of your salvation.”
Ecclesiastical Imposition and Church Purity
Pastor Jim Butler 4:49
David in the Psalms: “If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand?” Am I going to live in that state for two years? No. “There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.”
It seems like an ecclesiastical imposition on categories to produce an intended outcome. Keep people miserable — why? Joy is the default disposition — or supposed to be — of the people of God. And to try to quantify how much misery, how much sin… it almost becomes a kind of work. “I’ve got this much misery — now I know I’m convicted enough to believe.”
There is conviction. If I don’t know sin, I’m not going to see my need for a Savior. But how much? If you look at the conversions recorded in the New Testament, there’s no period of time. Matthew is told, “Follow me.” The Philippian jailer — he’s ready to do himself in. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.”
So again: an ecclesiastical imposition put on people for some intended outcome. What’s driving it? Probably a desire not to have presumption. We don’t want fakes. But God has given us a tool to keep the church pure — it’s discipline, it’s Matthew 18. It’s not keeping people from the peace that is in God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We’re not going to withhold the call to look to Christ because someone might pollute the church down the road. No — look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you do pollute the church down the road, know that there are going to be implications. Matthew 18. But why do we necessarily assume everybody’s a fake? Why do we necessarily assume everybody’s presumptuous?
How is it presumptuous to believe what God commands us to believe? John in his first epistle commands us to receive what God has freely offered. The burden of proof is on them — show us this ecclesiastical construct that keeps people in a position of disadvantage, in this sorrowful state, until such time as you’re convinced they’ve arrived at sufficient misery. Now you can give them permission to believe the gospel.
It really does short-circuit what we see in the book of Acts: “Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In our attempt to keep the church pure, we’re probably inadvertently bruising the souls of many.
Wim Kerkhoff 7:59
Absolutely, yeah. It’s very hazardous.
Assurance, Certainty, and the Protestant Doctrine of Faith
Pastor Cameron Porter 8:03
It is. And if we think about the blessed words of Scripture that speak to the certainty of salvation and the assurance that we can have as believers — we’re not Catholics. The doctrine of presumption is Catholic, not Protestant. Keeping people as slaves to a penitential system…
We have the blessed promise of John, who wrote his epistle so that those who believe might know that they have everlasting life in the Son. We have that blessed hope. We have that blessed assurance. We have that blessed certainty that if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved.
Pastor Jim Butler 8:50
Yeah, it’s glorious.
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