Those who have not submitted to Christ as Lord , but who trust in Him as Savior are deceived. The same principle is illustrated in passages where other titles of Christ occur. Waiving the dispensational signification of these titles, view them from the doctrinal and practical viewpoint, which should be our first consideration. In the Book of Acts we quickly discover that the message of the apostles was altogether different not only in emphasis, but also in substance from the preaching of our times. The apostles not only emphasized the Lordship of Christ, but also they made surrender to it essential to salvation.
Few today have a right conception of what a scriptural and saving conversion is.
Conversion, then, is a turning from sin unto holiness, from self unto God, from Satan unto Christ. It is the voluntary surrender of ourselves to the Lord Jesus, not only by a consent of dependence upon His merits, but also by a willing readiness to obey Him, giving up the keys of our hearts and laying them at His feet. Conversion consists in our being recovered from our present sinfulness to the moral image of God, or, which is the same thing, to a real conformity to the moral law. This is Christ s way of blessing men converting them. However the Gospel may instruct and enlighten men, so long as they remain the slaves of sin, it has conferred upon them no eternal advantage.