PUTTING LIPSTICK ON CONVERSION STORY

By Akin Ojumu

Every salvation story is a surreal encounter that needs not be spiced up to make it sound more extraordinary than it is. The act of turning to God from a life of sin is a divine intervention of unimaginable proportion, embellishing it to make it sound more exciting is unnecessary. 

Getting rescued from the clutches of iniquities is a miraculous accomplishment and it demands no additional ornamentation to make the recipient of the divine favor glow in the dark.

To be regenerated to life from our previous degenerate state of spiritual death is a mighty work orchestrated by the will, mercy, and love of God. There’s no greater wonder than to see a prisoner who had hitherto been held captive by the prince of the power of air set free by the power of God. Our redemption is a supernatural phenomenon that could only have been engineered by the grace of the Omnipotent God.

Ephesians 2:1-5

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.”

Those who accessorize the testimonies of their conversion with tall tales of supernatural encounters are engaged in the gimmickry of charlatans. Resorting to concocted fables of radical encounters with celestial beings is the stock in trade of impostors. It’s the exclusive preserve of fabulists to spin fantastical yarns about the moment they surrendered their lives to Jesus.

Painting the conversion experience with bright colors of esotericism is the way religious phonies razzle-dazzle gullible people into thinking they are something that they are not. What they are doing when they regale their audience with profound stories of angelic visitations the day they came to Christ is to manipulate them into believing they are special. They like to shroud their salvation experience in such mysteriousness as a thought-stopping device that renders the listeners malleable to their evil machinations. This is the parlor trick of fraudsters. It is the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

Beware of such people who festoon their redemption stories with mystical ornaments. Be wary of modern-day “super apostles” who create myth and legend around their conversion experience. Watch out for those who come to you with cock and bull stories of how Jesus walked into their bedrooms to specially call them to follow him. Keep your head on a swivel for folks who inundate you with tall tales of angelic visitation on their day of salvation.

No one person’s salvation is more spectacular or profound than somebody else’s. The same way you were drawn to Christ is the same way everyone else came. We were all dragged into God’s kingdom kicking and screaming, against the desires of our flesh and contrary to the wishes of our fallen human nature.

Ephesians 4:4-6

“There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Salvation is the gift of God. No one earns it. No one deserves it. It is bestowed upon the undeserving by divine providence.

Ephesians 2:8

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

Dawn Hill, a YouTuber with a growing subscriber base, puts it more succinctly than I ever could. She said, and I quote:

“There are many people who cannot attest to some radical encounter when they got born-again. And then when they hear others tell their salvation stories, and that is their emphasis, they automatically may believe that they’re not truly born again. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would just encourage you if you’ve never had any claim of any supernatural experience know that something truly supernatural did happen to you. The moment that you were born again, you were brought from death to life. Christ brought you from spiritual death to spiritual life. He transformed your heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh and He adopted you. The greatest calling you will ever have is to be a son or daughter of Jesus Christ and being adopted into the family of God. Because of the finished work of Christ on the Cross, He has saved you from the wrath of God that you and I rightfully deserved. That is miraculous! And you know what? The greatest miraculous thing that we put our faith in is that our Lord and Savior died on the Cross and rose from the dead. He sits at the right hand of the Father and He rules and reigns forever. He has sent His Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to indwell born-again believers, to seal born-again believers, to give Him as a down payment, a guarantee of our inheritance, to give us the assurance of our salvation because we place our trust in what He did for us on the Cross and Him rising from the dead. My friend, you don’t need to claim any supernatural experience in order to validate your salvation or your faith in Christ except for what Christ Himself did. And that is enough.” 

End quote.

Those who paint themselves as the hero of their conversion story by garnishing it with profundities trample underfoot the Lamb of God who takes away their sins. Such folks profane the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified.