As we think about the process of coming to Jesus, we have to consider what actually
happens at key points in that process. We began a new message series, ‘Faith and the
Maturing Life’, this past Sunday. I’d like to reinforce some of the initial points that we
made about what actually happens when someone comes to Jesus.
To understand this, we need to get a handle on what we might call ‘man’s Pre-Conversion
State’. This term refers to his spiritual condition prior to his coming to know Jesus. The
first thing to acknowledge is, in this pre-conversion state, he is unregenerate, and
characterized by his sinful nature. Romans 5:12 (NIV) tells us…. ‘Therefore, just as
sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came
to all people, because all sinned—.
In this condition, man can certainly do good things. But his only power is in himself. This
is because he is unregenerate. To be unregenerate simply means that man has yet to
experience the spiritual REGENERATION that occurs when someone recognizes their sin,
confesses that sin and asks Jesus for the redemption that is available through Jesus’ death
on the cross and His subsequent resurrection.
In the unregenerate state, man is enslaved to his nature that Paul speaks to in Romans 5:12,
which dominates man’s life. The enslavement is because he has not recognized a higher
authority than himself. The presence of his sin nature is ‘sealed’ as a result of Adam and
Eve’s Garden of Eden sin, and the fact that this nature has become inherent in him. While
God IS his Authority, he doesn’t recognize God as that Authority or subject himself to that
authority.
Because of this condition, he can do good things, but again, his power is within himself.
With no internal authority above himself, he is limited in what he can do- limited to his
own strength, talents, etc.
But – in his unregenerate state, the Bible is clear that man has an inherent awareness of the
creation and the Creator. It is through this awareness – although man may not be very
aware of this awareness. This last statement may seem contradictory. Let’s let Romans
1:18–20 (NLT) explain it…. ‘But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful,
wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about
God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created,
people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his
invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not
knowing God.’
God created man with the ability to see creation and to ascertain that there must be a
Higher level of Being Who is responsible for all of it. Inherently, man knows that he
couldn’t create anything, and so no other man could either. (Have you ever tried to create
dirt – or water? My guess is that may not have gone too well….)
So God is always drawing the unregenerate man toward a relationship with Him. God is
ALWAYS working! As the Romans 1 passage said, God uses even the creation to draw the
unregenerate man, even when the unregenerate man doesn’t realize he is being drawn.
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