By

George Calvas

 Testimony

     As a sinner who was without hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12), the Lord was pleased, at the age of twenty-three, to intervene in my life in a way I could never have orchestrated. A friend who had once shared in my sinful lifestyle came to Christ before I did. After nearly a year without seeing him, he came to my home in September of 1980. Looking back now, I see clearly that God saw me as a broken vessel (Psalm 51:17) and, in His mercy, sent to me a man who would soon become my brother in Christ to preach the gospel to me while both of us were standing in my mother’s garage.

     I remember vividly listening as he patiently reasoned through the Scriptures, building upon the wreckage of our lives and pointing me to the truth concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment to come (John 16:8). He showed me plainly that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), that righteousness is found only in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), and that judgment is certain for those who remain outside of Him (Hebrews 9:27). After laying this foundation, he presented the simple gospel of salvation, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

     At that moment, the truth became unmistakably clear to me. I remember pointing at my friend and saying with conviction, “This is the truth, that is it, Jesus Christ came to save us from ourselves!” Shortly thereafter, I bowed my knees and my heart before God, repenting with tears and crying out to the Lord Jesus Christ to save me (Luke 18:13). In that instant, I was changed. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). An overwhelming sense of forgiveness flooded my soul, accompanied by a settled knowledge of God’s grace and mercy. I knew that God Himself had performed a work that translated me “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). I later came to understand this as “the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11).