Kedo Peseyie
It is called sin, and just a bad feeling. One important element of evangelical piety is the conviction of sin.
Today Christians are known not so much for their theology, but for their pragmatism and emphasis on personal piety. To sacrifice biblical theology for the sake of pragmatism and relevancy to the secular mindset would be most impractical. But that is what many Christians seem to be doing. Today we are more informed and influenced by secular postmodern psychology than by the biblical theology. We feel more obligated to preach on “how to become someone, be successful and feel good…” It is “Feel-goodism” and prosperity that matters if we are to be relevant, or so we think.
So far Naga churches have been inclined toward evangelical theology claiming to follow one of the largest global trend in Christianity—evangelicalism and Pentecostal movements. But it is sad to note that conviction of sin is no longer a deep conviction in our evangelical piety. Has it been numbed by the overemphasis of praise and worship in our youth Christian culture? —you know, you have to develop a positive attitude for good praise and worship.
Or maybe it is the comfort of our pews? No matter what many of us may have been doing during the week, we never fail to find a strange kind of comfort in the pews to appease our questionable actions. Or maybe, it is the influence of the Positive-Thinkers in our pulpits, the influence of the “feel good” and “feel righteous” factor, and the motive of maintaining proper income in the church budget? Or maybe it is the confusing and mixing up of the “Divine mandates with our political allegiances”, or the confusing and mixing up of our “good Naga traditional behaviour” with the sanctification of the Spirit.
Today we are burdened with huge conflicts and tensions in our society and political scenario. But we see this only as a result of a mistake that was committed some years back. And often this mistake is not from our side, it is from the other party. We can harp on the need for reconciliation and forgiveness, but without the regeneration of the human spirit, soul and attitude it will only be in paper. And the blood will still flow.
In the bible regeneration is coming into a new life; a life of the spirit and not of the flesh; a new kind of life that finds and freely gives forgiveness and reconciliation.
But regeneration never happens without a deep conviction of sin. If a person does not feel the need to leave his former way of life, he will never see the need for regeneration in his life. If we as Christians have an answer to give to our problems, it must start from the teaching of regeneration of the human spirit and soul by the Spirit of God. It’s time we put the horse in its proper place in front of the cart, instead of trying to push the cart by ourselves. We must unashamedly go back to the Cross of Jesus Christ. We cannot be put right with God without regeneration. We cannot move ahead with God without offering reconciliation and forgiveness to others. Regeneration makes that possible.
Why do many Christians backslide so easily? Maybe it is because we don’t preach conviction of sin as fervently as we ought to. We don’t preach the need for repentance as fervently as we ought to. But we do preach positivism, the benefits and the blessing first. So when people “become” Christians, it is not an act of repentance or regeneration by the Spirit of God, it is merely a change of ideas, a process of learning and unlearning some principles in life.
There are a few people I have seen who have truly repented from sin and were truly sorry. There was a girl in a camp who could not get up because the burden of sin was too heavily upon her. She could not believe that God could forgive so great a sin as hers. But she did and that was true repentance. There was another boy with whom I knelt together as he prayed the salvation prayer. He could not control his tears. He didn’t say anything about changing ideas and principles in his life. He simply prayed a long prayer punctuated every second with words like, “I am sorry… please… please… forgive me… sorry… please… help me God…” That was a change of the heart, a surrender to God because of a deep conviction of sin.
Charles Wesley once said, “I must preach law before I preach grace.” Conviction of sin is a central part in our Christian experience. It shapes our ethics and standard for living. We learn to live cautiously because we are always aware of the power of sin. And most importantly it is the reason why we are ever grateful and thankful to God for making the impossible possible—giving us forgiveness. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7: 47.
