In response to God’s lavish grace, surrender everything, including what you’re most tempted to believe. That’s what happened to Becket Cook. He went from agnostic/atheist to child of God, but it didn’t stop there. Upon my conversion, God gave me a new heart and put his Spirit in me (Ezek. 36:26 ), and that transformed what my heart wanted. Now my heart wants to be obedient to God, not conform to the passions of my former ignorance; in other words, to be holy because God is holy (1 Peter 1:14–16).
Ten years ago, Becket Cook was a gay agnostic man in Hollywood who had achieved great success as a set designer in the fashion industry. He worked with stars and supermodels traveling the world to design photo shoots for glossy magazines. He attended award shows and parties at the homes of famous people. He spent summers swimming in Drew Barrymore’s pool. He rubbed shoulders with people like Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, and Oprah Winfrey.
But then everything changed. Ten years ago this month, he saw a group of people chatting over Bibles in a coffee shop in L.A. They invited him to church. He took them up on their invitation where he heard the gospel.
Listen to his description of what happened:
As he preached, every sentence that came out of his mouth resonated as truthful to me. It was strange, and I had no idea why. My thoughts kept exclaiming, Yes, that’s true . . . Yes, that’s true . . . Yes, that’s true! … At one point, I remember thinking, This is the gospel? What he was saying was turning everything I thought I knew about religion on its head. I was stunned by the utter simplicity of it.
He went forward for prayer, said, “Hi. I’m not a Christian, and I don’t know what I believe, but I’m here.” He went to sit down and something happened that changed the rest of his life:
All of a sudden, a giant wave of God’s presence came crashing over me. A flood of intense warmth, emotion, and power coursed through me …
Then it happened. I don’t know how to describe it other than to say that God revealed himself to me. In that moment, everything became clear: God was real, Jesus was real, the Bible was real, the resurrection was real, heaven was real, hell was real—it was all real. Everything that I had dismissed as a fairy tale was all true.
My sins were forgiven, and I was reconciled to God through Christ. Every Christian term I had heard over the years to describe this indescribable reality was appropriate: “saved,” “born again,” “regenerated,” “adopted into the family of God,” “given eternal life”!
He didn’t expect it. He was completely changed.
How do you respond to something like this? He found that he started to change. He immediately felt convicted about sinful behavior in his life, about things that were very significant to him. These changes didn’t happen as a result of study. They just happened.
Other things happened too. He used to find reading the Bible boring and tedious. “Suddenly the Bible became the most fascinating book in the world. As I read it, the words seemed to jump off the page and began to make sense.” He found himself hungry for sermon podcasts. He even cancelled his cable TV and magazine subscriptions and stopped listening to his favorite radio station. “I just wanted to hear truth all day long and be immersed in the Bible, sermons, and worship music,” he writes.
I love this story because it’s a reminder of how God works. You don’t know how God will use you. You could be sitting in Balzac’s or William’s Landing, and God could use your presence there with open Bibles to spark a conversation that completely changes somebody for eternity. Never underestimate what God can do through you and through the simple preaching of the gospel in the church.
But I like this story for another reason. I like conversion stories. I love the truth that God mercifully transforms believers from enemies to sons and daughters who are at peace with him. He forgives us, completely on his initiative, as a free gift with no help from us. It’s a free and gracious gift that we receive by faith. He makes us right with himself, justifies us, unites us with Christ, moves us from death to life, and sets us free.
I never get tired of thinking about this. Maybe you’re like Becket Cook. Maybe you’re here today and you’ve never believed this up until now, but you know every word is true. I pray to God and I urge you: receive this new gift today. It will completely change you. It is the best gift you could ever receive. God’s lavish grace is unbelievable.
What Should We Do in Response?
The question comes, though: What should we do in response? God completely changes you. You become a new person. What do you do then? Does it mean that you just start going to church? What exactly does it look like?
Paul answers this question for us in Romans 12:1:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Here’s the heart of Paul’s appeal: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God in response to what he’s done for you.
I don’t know about you, but this raises questions. What does he mean? The word “offer” is one that was commonly used of slaughtering animals as a sacrifice. Here’s the thing about a sacrifice: there’s no way to go halfway. A sacrifice is all in or it’s not at all.
What Paul is saying here is this: God has given you everything. What does he expect from you? He expects all of you. Your body is the totality of who you are — more than your skin and bones. He wants total commitment.
God doesn’t want part of your life. He wants it all. God doesn’t want 90 minutes of your week; he wants all seven days. God wants every part of your life: your finances, your sexuality, your time, your relationships, and most of all your affections.
C.S. Lewis gets it right:
He cannot bless us unless he has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There’s no bargaining with Him.
“In love, he claims it all. There’s no bargaining with him.” What do we do in response to God’s grace? Surrender everything. From now on, it’s all his. He burns with passion for us. He wants us, all of us.