If you are like me, you love to listen to conversion stories. Hearing someone’s testimony about how they came to know Jesus is quite inspiring. Every story about someone being “saved” is different, and every story is a blessing. In a section of the tenth chapter of his book “Jesus Creed” called When is Peter Converted?, New Testament scholar, Scot McKnight offers some great insight regarding conversion. I found it to be thought provoking, and I think you will as well…
“WHEN IS PETER CONVERTED? - In which of the five scenes below do you think Peter is converted? Is it when he is introduced to Jesus? Simon Peter’s brother, Andrew, is at one time a disciple of John the Baptist. While in Jerusalem for a feast, John tells Andrew about Jesus, and Andrew spends most of the day with Jesus. Andrew tells his brother Simon that he thinks Jesus just might be the Messiah, the long-awaited king and liberator of Israel, and he introduces Simon to Jesus. When Jesus sees Simon, he reveals to him that someday he will be called “Peter.” Is he converted here? Or, is it when Peter confesses he is a sinner? After fishing all night, not catching anything and cleaning out his nets on the lake shore, Peter is asked by Jesus to oar his boat out into the water to listen to his teachings. Then Jesus asks Peter to let down his nets again. Peter, the fisherman, obliges Jesus, the carpenter. Peter’s catch is wildly abundant. Peter falls to his knees and declares, “I am a sinful man!” How about now? Or, is it when Peter, prodded by Jesus, confesses Jesus is Messiah? “But what about you?” Jesus asks Peter. “Who do you say I am?” Peter gets it right: “You are the Christ [or, the Messiah].” How about here? Or, is he only converted after the death and resurrection of Jesus? During the questioning of Jesus, Peter is asked three times if he is one of the followers of Jesus, and each time he flat-out denies it. After the Resurrection, Jesus meets up with Peter, and Jesus asks Peter to renew the Jesus Creed: Do you love, do you love me, do you love? Peter says, Yes, yes, yes. How about here? Or, is his conversion only complete when he and the others receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the next major Jewish holiday is Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks). Some of Jesus’ disciples are in a room together on Pentecost when the group is bushwhacked by the Holy Spirit, and Peter is among them. The Spirit emboldens Peter to tell everyone around about Jesus. Is this Peter’s conversion? Two other events can be mentioned—Peter’s vision of a church that is both Jewish and Gentile, and Peter’s letters to churches. But only celestial snobs who inspect others from back pews think Peter isn’t really converted until just before he writes 1 Peter, and it takes someone with higher ideas than Socrates to think Peter can’t be called a convert until he embraces (what had been for him the dreaded) Gentiles. But, serious Christians can make a case for each of the first five events mentioned above. The unserious can humor themselves with this: Number-counting groups might like the first sign of life in Peter in scene one, confession-oriented theologians hear “I am a sinner” and smile ever so slightly, while creedal Christians stand up at Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ. Surely the charismatics finally find a brother when Peter is flooded from above with the Holy Spirit’s fire, and the socially active churches are unenthusiastically satisfied when Peter finally embraces the multicultural acceptance of Gentiles! Only utopians wait until the end of someone’s life to make a ruling. But this is humor . . . perhaps. No one doubts that Peter is converted, but we may not be sure when the “moment” occurs, when he gets his birth certificate. And therein lies the mystery of conversion. Conversion is more than just an event; it is a process. Like wisdom, it takes a lifetime. Conversion is a lifelong series of gentle (or noisy) nods of the soul. The question of when someone is converted is much less important than that they are converting.”
I like the way that McKnight lays that out. Our conversion is more of a process rather than a specific moment. If you have ever been concerned about when exactly you became a Christian, maybe it might be better to just focus on remaining loyal to Jesus and becoming more and more like Him everyday. Again, as McKnight puts it…
“The question of when someone is converted is much less important than that they are converting.”
Here are some encouraging words that Peter wrote to those who once did not follow Christ, but now do…
1 Peter 2:10 (GNT) – At one time you were not God’s people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God’s mercy, but now you have received his mercy.
Godspeed, to the brethren!
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