A Sinner Must Be Convicted To Be Converted
Before a man can experientially know the salvation of Christ, he must first know who and what he is in the eyes of God. That he is a sinner helpless and hopeless to save himself. Aware of this knowledge, he will look and flee to the Savior who alone can save him.
Lamentably, we often rush someone to "decide" to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior even if he obviously has not seen his true condition before God by the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. As a necessary result, we have so many shallow conversions and fill our churches with spiritual goats.
You don't truly need a Savior when you have not truly seen yourself a sinner hopeless and helpless to save yourself. You must know that you are dead to realize that you need life. Without conviction of sin there is no true conversion.
A true and faithful evangelist will not only preach vigorously the free grace of God in salvation but he also preaches the utter lost condition of man before God. He preaches the one as much as he preaches the other. The latter is in preparation for the former.
It is alarming to hear testimonies of so called conversions that are totally devoid of any trace of conviction of sin in their lives. It is not surprising therefore that there is not even a mention of "Christ" in their testimonies.
Christ is prominent when conviction of sin is present.
