Scripture Reading: “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.” (Psalm 51:8) 

An important truth often overlooked in this day of “easy” evangelism is that the sinner’s miraculous conversion is impossible without the preceding miseries of the Spirit’s conviction. Men are never saved by the power of human persuasion. No one is talked into the Kingdom of God. It is only when one falls under the power of the Holy Spirit’s conviction that he has any hope of salvation. This explains the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 4:20: “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”

The Gospel is more than a presentation of propositional truth. “It is,” as Paul teaches in Romans 1:16, “the power of God unto salvation.” Salvation requires more than the nodding of the sinner’s head to a Gospel presentation and the sinner’s repeating of the “sinner’s prayer” after some well-meaning Christian. Salvation requires that the sinner encounter the life-transforming power of God. Only under God’s power, not the power of human persuasion, will sinners be convicted of their sin, convinced of their need of a Savior, and come to Christ for salvation. 

Unfortunately, many churches today are filled with our converts rather than God’s. They are filled with people who have made a decision, thanks to the power of human persuasion, but who have never become a disciple, since they’ve never encountered the life-transforming power of Christ. 

In David’s case, as in the case of every sinner convicted by the Holy Spirit, brokenness came before blessedness, agony before assurance, sorrow before singing, and conviction before comfort. In light of this, one cannot help but wonder why the contemporary church is so determined to spare the sinner from the throes of conviction, especially since they alone can lead to the sinner’s conversion.

“Those who do not weep, do not see.” (Victor Hugo)