If anybody is to be converted, the way God works is this. He puts into us a deep desire, a need to honour him, to love him, to be accepted by him. We understand that we owe him our love, our lives, and as soon as that comes into the heart, we realise we can’t do this. We can’t love God: we are sinful, we are selfish, we love ourselves and the things of this world too much. My mind cannot love God in a pure way, or desire him. Conviction dawns and that’s what happened in the life of this scribe. He sees the law in a new way: ‘I thought righteousness was carrying out all the meticulous details of the law. I thought it was all about observing ceremonies so that I could be proud of myself. I never realised it is love to God’, and he came under conviction. ‘I haven’t done this. I can’t do this.’
What do the atheists do? What do the humanists do? They take away the first – love to God; and they try to speak about the second only – love to fellow man, and it doesn’t work. ‘Love to God? We hate him! Love and humanitarian help to fellow man: that is everything to us,’ they say.
When you witness to people and they resist you, when we preach and people come sometimes to service after service and they won’t listen, don’t give up. Whenever you witness, whenever we preach Christ can transform the most unlikely people. Even his opponents may have their hearts opened and be brought them under conviction. That is what is happening here.