Anyone who has children knows that there are two kinds of being sorry. One is genuine remorse for doing something they should not have, and the other is being sorry they got caught!
My life has both. Sometimes I’m sorry because I’ve done something that I know offends and hurts other people. But I have to admit that sometimes I’m sorry because what I have done has unpleasant consequences for me and if there were none, I might continue doing whatever it is.
I know which kind of sorrow parents prefer. What good is being sorry if it is merely selfish, without any realization of the seriousness of the offence, and no desire to ever do it again?
Yet there is a deeper conviction than this. It is a deeper sense of being in the wrong before God, a sorrow that no person would put on themselves. We are too protective of our own hearts and would never admit to being sinful to the core—because we really don’t think we are. Yet this conviction happens to people. It happened to me. As I read the Bible I realize that this sorrow is another affirmation that what God says is true.
When the new church formed, Peter preached a sermon about the identity of Jesus. Those who heard it realized they had crucified their Messiah, the Christ. “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’”
Notice that they were “cut to the heart.” This is the conviction that I’m talking about. It is a deep and total realization that I am not right with God, that I have sinned and that my sin is responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. He was crucified because of my turning away from God to do my own thing. This conviction is an overwhelming thing and brings a deep sense of sorrow and a desire to change.
Honestly, I would never put that conviction on myself. It is a thought, a realization that must come from God and actually did. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would come and “convict the world of sin” and this happened to me, big time. Because it did, He convinced me that what God says is true.
The second part of Peter’s words about salvation are true too, but it is important to understand something about baptism. The New Testament taken as a whole shows that believing and baptism are almost synonymous, yet the act of baptism does not save a person. Rather, it is an observable declaration of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God..."
The bottom line is this: both a deep conviction of sin and a saving faith in Jesus Christ are gifts from God. Without faith I cannot be saved. Without deep conviction of sin I would not be the slightest bit interested.
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