24 Regeneration and Conversion. CHAP. 



To this it may perhaps be answered: "The 

 change in the Revised Version from the passive to 

 the middle substituting to turn for to be turned is 

 exactly what was needed to show the distinction 

 between regeneration and conversion. Regeneration 

 is the word chosen to express the part of God in the 

 work of grace : God is the Father of Spirits, who, 

 according to His great mercy, begat us again unto a 

 living hope, lij the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 

 dead. 1 Conversion, or turning, is the word that 

 expresses man's part : the Holy Spirit demands our 

 co-operation in the work." I reply, that this does 

 not correctly explain Our Lord's use of the expression 

 conversion, or turning. When the Apostles were going 

 to be immediately exposed to a severer trial than 

 any they had yet dreamed of, and when He knew 

 that Peter's faith would fail for the moment, He 

 said : " Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have 

 you, that he may sift you as wheat : but I have 

 prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : and when 

 thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." 2 So 

 in the Authorised Version ; but for " when thou art 

 converted," the Revised Version substitutes "when 

 once thou hast turned again." The change is most 

 significant. Christ foresaw that Peter, under the 

 pressure of overwhelming fear, would commit that 

 sin of denying his Lord, which, from his position as 

 chief of the Apostles and from the dramatic character 



1 1 Peter i. 3. 2 Luke xxii. 31, 32. 



