Ben's Testimony Of God's Saving Grace

On Sunday, church member Ben Slabach shared the story of his conversion. We intend for this to be the first of many similar testimonies as we hear the stories of how God has saved the members of Sovereign Grace Church. Here’s what Ben shared:

I love movies. In movies, books, and stories in general, what makes that story interesting is drama and conflict. In my story, there is not much drama or conflict. It’s rather simple, ordinary. And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.

I grew up in a Christian home, going to church at least 3 times a week, and that’s not including helping with band practice. I never struggled with addiction, was never involved with the wrong crowd, and at no point in my life did I ever question whether or not God was real.

However, in my early 20s, I started to question whether or not I was a genuine Christian. I had all of the external signs of being a Christian, but internally, I still felt dead. I felt no joy in reading my Bible, praying, talking about my faith. Finally, I set aside my pride and talked with my pastor, got saved, and then baptized. But I think I did it for the wrong reason. Selfishly, I wanted a clean conscience – I wanted God to serve me, instead of me serving God.

In 2014, I moved to California. My pride had grown and I didn’t want to confess to anyone my big secret. But God is bigger than my pride. He softened my heart, and I confessed to my brother my hypocritical life of living a Christian life externally, while internally feeling dead. I realized that I wanted to be close enough to Jesus to receive the benefits, but not close enough that it required anything of me.1 In Matthew 19, the rich young man comes to Jesus and asks how to have eternal life. Like this young man, I too thought I had kept all of God’s commandments, yet something was missing. Jesus says to him, “Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” I did not treasure Christ. I believed in him. But I did not follow him. It was then that I started truly following him.

Perhaps your testimony looks like mine: simple, ordinary. I think that’s okay. It’s less about what God saved us from, and more about that God saved us. We can all agree that is grace worth celebrating.