have no conscious faith, nor knowledge of the treasure possessed. The new life is present,
but dormant; kept not by the recipient, but by the Giver—like seed-grain in the ground in
winter; like the spark glowing under the ashes, but not kindling the wood; like a subterranean
stream coming at last to the surface.
- The callby the Word and the Spirit,internal and external. Even this is a divine act,
commonly performed through the service of the Church. It addresses itself not to the deaf
296but to the hearing, not to the dead but to the living, altho still slumbering. It proceeds from
the Word and the Spirit, because not only the faith-faculty, but faith itself—i.e.,the power
and exercise of the faculty—are gifts of grace. The faith-faculty can not exercise faith of itself.
It avails us no more than the faculty of breathing when air and the power to breathe are
withheld. Hence the preaching of the Word and the inward working of the Holy Spirit are
divine, correspondent operations. Under the preaching of the Word the Spirit energizes the
faith-faculty, and thus the call becomes effectual, for the sleeper arises.
- This call of God produces conviction of sin and justification, two acts of the same ex-
ercise of faith. In this, God’s work may be represented again either subjectively or objectively.
Subjectively, it seems to the saint that conviction of sin and heart-brokenness came first,
and that then he obtained the sense of being justified by faith. Objectively, this is not so.
The realization of his lost condition was already a bold act of faith. And by every subsequent
act of faith he becomes more deeply convinced of his misery and receives more abundantly
from the fulness which is in Christ, his Surety.
Concerning the question, whether conviction of sin must not precede faith, there need
be no difference. Both representations amount to the same thing. When a man can say for
the first time in his life “I believe,” he is at the same moment completely lostand completely
saved, being justified in his Lord. - This exercise of faith results in conversion; at this stage in the way of grace the child
of God becomes clearly conscious of the implanted life. When a man says and feels “I believe,”
and does not recall it, but God confirms it, faith is at once followed by conversion. The im-
planting of the new life precedes the first act of faith, but conversion followsit. Conversion
does not become a fact so long as the sinner only sees his lost condition, but when he acts
upon this principle; for then the old man begins to die and the new man begins to rise, and
these are the two parts of all real conversion.
In principle man isconverted but once, viz., the moment of yielding himself to Immanuel.
After that he converts himself daily, i.e.,as often as he discovers conflict between his will
and that of the Holy Spirit. And even this is not man’s work, but the work of God in him.
297“Turn Thou me, O Lord, and I shall be turned.” There is this difference, however, that in
regeneration and faith’s first exercise he was passive, while in conversion grace enabled him
to be active. One is converted and one converts himself; the one is incomplete without the
other.
XIX. Old and New Terminology