The Conversion of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

To become a genuine believer in Jesus Christ, a miracle must happen. You must be born again (John 3:3). The new birth, which comes through the Holy Spirit’s application of the Word of God to our hearts, recalibrates our souls (1 Pet. 1:23). We become a new person (2 Cor. 5:17). We immediately respond to the truth of the gospel in repentance and saving faith. Without this reality, we remain unbelievers, even though we may subscribe to genuine Christian truth in our minds. 

Such was the case with D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899 – 1981). He was raised in the church. When his family moved from Wales to London when he was a young teenager, they began attending a Welsh congregation called Charing Cross. However, the preaching was not centered on the gospel and Christ’s work. Rather, much of the message that was preached dealt with morals and living the Christian ethic. Of course, there is a Christian way to live, but without the life-changing power of the new birth, we will struggle and inevitably fail to live the Christian life. But this was not emphasized at the chapel. Martyn described the situation at the chapel this way:

What I needed was preaching that would convict me of sin and make me see my need, and bring me to repentance and tell me something about regeneration. But I never heard that. The preaching we had was always based on the assumption that we were all Christians, that we would not have been there in the congregation unless we were Christians.[1]

Though regularly in the church, Lloyd-Jones would later reflect that he wasn’t an actual Christian. He lived morally. At age eighteen, he even becomes the Superintendent of the Charing Cross’s Sunday school department![2] Yet none of these things made him an actual Christian. 

The Misconceptions of Unbelievers

I heard Tom Nelson, long-time pastor of Denton Bible Church, say recently that there are three misconceptions that are true of nearly all non-Christians: 1) that man is better than he really is; 2) that God is not as great as He really is; and 3) that God’s Word is not true. When genuine conversion happens, the Holy Spirit changes our outlook on all three of these matters. First, we come to understand that we are nothing but unworthy sinners before God. Second, we come to this conclusion because we have come to understand that God is holy. And third, God shifts our worldview on these matters through an encounter with His Word. We come to see that God’s Word is true and not merely true, but the essence of truth itself (see Psalm 19; 119). As the apostle Paul says, “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). This is the outlook of the genuine Christian. Lloyd-Jones went through a similar change in his conversion to Christianity. 

The Reshaping of Lloyd-Jones’ Outlook

When Lloyd-Jones served as a physician under the famed Sir Thomas Horder in his early twenties, his outlook began to change. Horder, who served as the King’s physician, treated the upper class of London society. He was a famous Harley Street doctor. At the time, poor morals were attributed to a lack of education. However, what Lloyd-Jones found is that the clients of Horder lived no differently than the lower classes. Lloyd-Jones realized that he was helping a patient heal physically only so that they could return to their life of spiritual lostness. Iain Murray says this about Lloyd-Jones’ spiritual realization:

The real problem which he now saw written large on Horder’s case notes was neither medical nor intellectual. It was one of moral emptiness and spiritual hollowness. Horder’s card index was to him almost what the vision of a valley of dry bones was to the prophet Ezekiel.[3]

During this time, Lloyd-Jones also began attending Westminster Chapel, the church he would eventually pastor. He heard on December 17, 1922, that the church was going to receive a new pastor, the Scottish preacher Dr. John A. Hutton. Lloyd-Jones returned the next week to hear him. He was stunned by the authority with which he spoke and the way in which the truths he preached impacted him. Lloyd-Jones would return to the chapel again and again to listen to him. Hutton impressed upon him the need for his life to be transformed by the truth of the gospel.

The Reality of Sin and Grace

Through these experiences, Lloyd-Jones came face-to-face with the reality of his own sin. Perhaps this is the thing we need to take note of the most because it is the starting point of all true Christianity. Lloyd-Jones described his realization this way. I find this most profound.

I am a Christian solely and entirely because of the grace of God and not because of anything that I have thought or said or done. He brought me to know that I was dead, “dead in trespasses and sins,” a slave to the world, and the flesh, and the devil, that in me “dwelleth no good thing,” and that I was under the wrath of God and heading for eternal punishment.[4]

Lloyd-Jones continues: 

He brought me to see that the real cause of all my troubles and ills, and that of all men, was an evil and fallen nature which hated God and loved sin. My trouble was not only that I did things that were wrong, but that I myself was wrong at the very centre of my being.[5]

The new birth brings us to the reality of our spiritual deadness and our need for forgiveness (Eph. 2:1). Our spiritual predicament is, as Lloyd-Jones stated, not just that we do wrong but that we are wrong. This means that the only way forward is through repentance, which means to turn from our sin to God in faith. Lloyd-Jones would later say, “Without repentance there is no salvation. The need for repentance is one of those absolutes the Bible does not argue about. It just says it.” Accompanying repentance is saving faith. Faith is trusting Christ as our Lord and Savior. We come to understand that His shed blood is the only means by which we can find forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). We come to an understanding that Christ died to save us from the penalty of sin (2 Cor. 5:21), the power of sin (Rom. 6:4), and ultimately the presence of sin (1 Cor. 15:54-57).

Murray closes his chapter on Lloyd-Jones’ conversion with this quote from Lloyd-Jones describing his own conversion:

Many people come to listen to the gospel who have been brought up in a religious atmosphere, in religious homes, who have always gone to church and Sunday School, never missed meetings; yet they may be unregenerate. They need the same salvation as the man who may have come to listen, who has never been inside a House of God before. He may have come out of some moral gutter; it does not matter. It is the same way, the same gospel for both, and both must come in in the same way. Religiosity is of no value; morality does not count; nothing matters. We are all reduced to the same level because it is “by faith” because it is “by grace.”[6] 

Are you Converted?

I highlight Lloyd-Jones’ conversion because I fear that many remain unconverted in the modern church. Like Lloyd-Jones, they have never come to grips with the reality of a holy God. They have never seen their sin for what it is. They have never trembled before God’s Word. Only through these realizations can we truly understand the meaning of the cross. Christ died in the place of sinners (Rom. 5:8). Christ died as a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). only by faith in Christ and His death can we receive forgiveness. Outside of that, our good morals are worthless. So, if you are reading this, I would challenge you to take stock of your own soul. Are you converted? Have you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior? It is not an easy path to take. It requires repentance. It requires you to admit that you’ve been wrong at the very core of your being. If you are grappling with these matters, I would love to hear from you. Nothing is more important for your own soul.

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[1] Iain H. Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939 (Edinburgh, UK ; Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth, 1982), 58.

[2] Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, 57.

[3] Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, 62.

[4] Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, 64.

[5] Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, 64.

[6] Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, 78.