spirit of the mind, dying to sin and living to
righteousness, putting off the old man and
putting on the new, becoming partakers of
the divine nature, and so on.
It follows that if there is no real and lasting
change in people who think they are
converted, their religion is worthless,
whatever their experiences may be.
Conversion is the turning of the whole man
from sin to God. God can restrain
unconverted people from sin, of course, but
in conversion he turns the very heart and
nature from sin to holiness. The converted
person becomes the enemy of sin.
What, then, shall we make of a person who
says he has experienced conversion, but
whose religious emotions soon die away,
leaving him much the same person as he was
before? He seems as selfish, worldly, foolish,
perverse and un-Christian as ever. This
speaks against him louder than any religious
experiences can speak for him.
In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision,
neither
a
dramatic
experience nor a quiet one, neither a
wonderful testimony nor a dull one, counts
for anything. The only thing that counts is a
new creation (The Experience That Counts!
p. 99).
In Matthew 12, Christ rebuked those who
were following Him just for the sake of
witnessing great signs and wonders:
When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it
passes through waterless places, seeking re ? ?[??\????[?] ?[?] ?^\?8?%RH ?[??] \?? ?^H?\?H???H ?X?H?[Yx?%??[???[?]??Y\?]?[? ?] [????\YY ??\ ?[? ][??\??[?]??\?[? Z?\?[?? ?]] ?]?[??\? ?\?] ?[?H ?X??Y?[?] ?[?[? ^H??[?[?]?H \?N?[??H\? ?]H? ]X[??X??Y\? ???H [???H?\?? ?]\? H ?^H] ?[[ ???H ?]?\?]?[?[?\?][?
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