Many Christian circles love inviting Christians with the most dramatic conversion stories to share their stories with other Christians. In some circles, they call it a “testimony.” Stories of God’s grace in one’s life are valuable. Sharing such stories is a good practice and can help build the faith of other Christians, encouraging God-ward gratitude and faithful dependence on the grace of God.
However, not all Christians feel the same way about dramatic conversion stories. Some Christians look at their own conversion with disdain because they do not have such a story. Some may have been converted when they were little children or simply brought up in the faith, increasing from childlike faith to mature faith. Others believed later in life but did not have any of the crisis-and-cross moments that were as dramatic. Hearing the message of the gospel, they believed themselves to be sinners, looked to God for forgiveness in Jesus, and put their faith in the person and work of Jesus. Frankly, one kind of conversion is not superior to the other. Each glorifies God in their own way.
Nevertheless, can we justify the obsession with dramatic stories? Should Christians feel second-rate if they do not have a dramatic story? Paul was once the death-threatening, zealous persecutor of the church, Saul. In his zeal for God, he arrested Christians and imprisoned them. And on a journey to Damascus to arrest Christians there, he was met by Jesus and was dramatically transformed. From being a chief persecutor, he became the apostle to the Gentiles. He suffered much persecution wherever he went. Tradition holds that he was eventually martyred for the faith.
The Bible records two instances in which Paul testifies about his own conversion before various courts. So, banning dramatic conversion stories cannot be sustained in any case. However, for Paul, his story is factual evidence of Jesus’s resurrection and not merely a celebration of God’s grace in his life. He testifies that Jesus is risen and that he has met Jesus. This is important. The story is not so much about Paul as about Paul’s credible eyewitness testimony about the resurrection of Jesus.
That being said, Paul’s life and teaching show that he was not as obsessed with his conversion as with having fellowship with Jesus. In Phil 3:12–16, Paul says that he presses on to get hold of the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:1–11 tells us why he desires to fellowship with Jesus in every way. However, in Phil 3:12–16, Paul says that he lives between his conversion and glorification in a manner that best positions him to get hold of the resurrection. For Paul, the genuineness of the Christian faith is not measured by the intensity of the drama involved in conversion or initial experiences as Christians; rather, this is mainly the starting line for a daily, gritty discipline of pressing toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus—the resurrection.
Thus, Christians should not be absorbed by the radical conversion of themselves or others but work hard on their own sanctification, desiring their glorification.
This article is based on Eddie DSouza’s exposition of Philippians 3:12–16 at Cross Cultured Church, Mysore. Listen to the full sermon.
If you are in Mysore and looking for a church where Scripture is preached carefully, Christ is proclaimed, and Christians are encouraged to live out the gospel, we’d be glad to have you worship with us at Cross Cultured Church.
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