Every Christian is converted the same way – by the grace of God applied through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Converting grace consists of the gifts of faith in Jesus and repentance of sin, which proceed from the new heart God gives us by His regenerating grace. Luke speaks of faith as a gift from God, of “those who through grace had believed.”61 Paul also speaks of faith as a gift of God’s grace so that we would believe in Jesus: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”62 He desires that “God may perhaps grant [sinners] repentance.”63
Converting grace lays an ax to the root of religious pride. Religious pride causes us to boast in who we are, what we do, and how we have chosen God, and it is insidious to God and others. On the contrary, the Scriptures declare that even the faith to believe in Jesus is a gift and all of our salvation is all of grace, which means rather than boasting that we chose Jesus, we can boast in the grace of Jesus that chose to grant us the gifts of faith and repentance.
To put it simply, we do not change ourselves so that God will save us by grace. Rather, God saves us by grace, and it is His grace at work in and through us by the Holy Spirit that begins a change process in us at the deepest level of our being that continues out into every aspect of our life.
What changes began in your life as a result of experiencing God’s converting grace?
61 Acts 18:27.
62 Eph. 2:8.
63 2 Tim. 2:25.