Just as it was God's undeserved love that sent Jesus to redeem us, so it was God's undeserved love that sent the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts to convert us.  

Little children usually love birthday parties. Sometimes parents ask their birthday boy or girl to give a brief "Thank you" speech. It's intended to thank everyone for the birthday gifts as well as demonstrate a sense of gratitude for all the other blessings the child has. No child would begin, "I'm so happy that I chose be part of this family. Your gifts were all there waiting for me until I chose to be born. Happy birthday to me!" No one would take seriously anyone's claim that he actually caused his birth. And no one should take seriously anyone's claim that he chose to be part of any family.

Yet the sinful nature in us all does not want to accept the fact that we also have no ability to cause or choose our spiritual birth. While unbelievers do not believe they need a Savior from sin, believers are tempted to believe that they helped the creation of faith along in some way.

The reason for these serious misunderstandings about things spiritual is that all people are born in the condition of original sin. We are born thinking that we know better than God how to get right with God. The Bible makes is clear, however, that we do not become right with God by any choice or decision we might make. Choosing to come to faith is not our work. That is the work for which the Bible gives the Holy Spirit complete credit. It is the work called conversion. It is the work that takes us from darkness to light.

Last month's article on original sin emphasized that every single person since Adam and Eve is born without true fear of God and true faith in God. This article will remind us of what God says about how we come to faith in Christ's work of redemption.

WE NEED TO BE TURNED AROUND

Just as with the work of redemption, we need the work of conversion because of original sin. The Augsburg Confession of our Lutheran church says this about original sin: "Since the fall of Adam all men who are born according to the course of nature are conceived and born in sin. That is, all men are full of evil lust and inclinations from their mothers' wombs and are unable by nature to have true fear of God and true faith in God" (Formula of Concord, Augsburg Confession, Article II, Tappert, p. 29). In other words, not only are we born separate from God, but from the moment of our birth we also are doing things that show we are separate from God. We need conversion from the darkness of sin to the light of life.