From Wednesday:What happens when wisdom has finally found a home in the heart?
“When wisdom enters your heart,” it marks the final stage of conversion.
This implies that conversion comes in stages, which I never thought about that way before.
The first is, "He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness." The very first step in the path to life is to keep the mind stayed on God, to have his fear continually before the eyes. A single departure from moral integrity blunts the conscience, and opens the door to the next temptation. {ST, February 7, 1884 par. 3}
The first step toward salvation is to respond to the drawing of the love of Christ. God sends message after message to men, entreating them to repentance, that He may forgive, and write pardon against their names. {1SM 323.2}
The very first step to Christ is taken through the drawing of the Spirit of God; as man responds to this drawing, he advances toward Christ in order that he may repent. {1SM 390.1}
The first step in the path of obedience is to surrender the will to God. {BEcho, April 6, 1903 par. 1}
Repentance for sin is the first step in conversion. Repentance is an intense hatred of sin in all its forms. {BEcho, November 5, 1894 par. 4}
Conviction of sin is the first step in conversion; and the law of God is the instrument to convict the sinner. It is this holy law that discovers the deformity of character, that reveals the plague-spot of sin. {ST, November 26, 1885 par. 7}
The first step toward heaven is conviction of sin, the second is repentance and obedience. {RH, September 17, 1895 par. 4}
The first step toward obedience is repentance. We are to see the excellence of its requirements by beholding the wrong of disobedience. {BEcho, November 5, 1894 par. 5}
Repentance toward God for our failure to keep His law, is the first step in the Christian life, while faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ claims the merits of His blood for the remission of sins that are past, and makes us partakers of the divine nature. The carnal heart, that "is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," is made spiritual, and exclaims with Christ, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart." We cannot afford to make any mistakes in this matter, for our eternal interests are at stake. A correct faith will be made manifest in godly works, and will bring the whole life into harmony with the law of God. Faith and works must go hand in hand. When, through the goodness of God, our attention has been called to the demands of God's commandments, and light shines on us from His word, we are to believe and obey from the heart. {BEcho, June 11, 1894 par. 3}
Repentance comes from Christ just as much as does pardon for transgression. That repentance is a work which man must do without any special help from Christ, is a false theory. The sinner cannot take the first step in repentance, without the help of Christ. He cannot keep the moral law unless Christ imputes to him his righteousness. The grace that works contrition and repentance, as well as the forgiveness of sins, is the grace of Christ. If one step could be taken without Christ, every step in the way of salvation might be taken without him. {ST, August 11, 1890 par. 3}
The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within. {AA 551.1}
The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within--when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance. {COL 384.2}
True conversion means a radical change of heart. {13MR 165.1}
True conversion is a radical change. The very drift of the mind and bent of the heart should be turned and life become new again in Christ. {4T 16.4}
For "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." That which was objectionable in the character is purified from the soul by the love of Jesus. All selfishness is expelled, all envy, all evil-speaking, is rooted out, and a radical transformation is wrought in the heart. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. {RH, July 22, 1890 par. 15}
The new birth consists in having new motives, new tastes, new tendencies. Those who are begotten unto a new life by the Holy Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature, and in all their habits and practices, they will give evidence of their relationship to Christ. When men who claim to be Christians retain all their natural defects of character and disposition, in what does their position differ from that of the worldling? They do not appreciate the truth as a sanctifier, a refiner. They have not been born again. {RH, April 12, 1892 par. 9}