Getting Baptized - A Second Testimony

I'm getting baptized next Saturday, April 3. In preparation for this, I've been asked to compose a short little somethin' on the reasons why I want to be baptized; and since I can't possibly make the assignment *that* easy, I thought I'd turn it into a nice long blog post. OK, not too long. We'll see. :)

Actually, I appreciate the fact that Jim asked me to do this because it's caused me to think. Critically and biblically. To be honest, I was baptized once - the only problem being God hadn't yet revealed Himself to me salvifically. On two occasions in the past, though, I'd made "decisions" to "accept Jesus into my heart" and that was all that was really necessary, right? Many rebellion-filled years later I found that not to be the truth at all.

The longer version of my testimony can be found here, but God hasn't completed His work yet. After several years of study, much contemplation and a good bit of agonizing, I came to realize that in 2004, God not only opened my eyes to see Him and embrace His great sovereignty, but it was during this time that He, in fact, called me as His own and gave me genuine faith in Jesus Christ. He revealed to me the ugliness of my depraved heart, but I believe He was gracious not to reveal all of myself to myself, for that would have surely done me in. My depravity keeps me from fully recognizing just how wicked I truly am before a holy God, but when I came face to face with what He did reveal, I wanted nothing more than to throw myself at the foot of the cross. I struggled for quite some time with the question, 'But if God just saved me in 2004, what about all the previous years of Bible study, church attendance, choir membership, accountability groups, etc, etc ?' It was strange to ponder the thought that He might have only that recently saved me. However, that nagging thought was alleviated when, last year, a wise pastor reminded me that my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. God had already chosen me, and the timing of his calling me in this earthly life was of no real consequence; it was, after all, HIS timing.

The fruit that should have flowed from a Spirit filled life was non-existent in the years following my two previous attempts at saving myself, but life began to be very different in the fall of 2004. I started to "get it." In prior years I'd read through the whole Bible, but I distinctly remember the stark difference in how I read beginning in January 2005. I couldn't help but see on every page of Holy Writ a righteous, just and holy God who was - IN FACT - sovereignly decreeing and orchestrating every event and every person's life, throughout redemptive history. He did it then, and He's doing it now, and THAT causes me to do nothing but fall on my face in humble gratitude. Also as a result, God set about molding this clay pot of His, giving me a new heart, renewing my mind and transforming me more fully into the image of His Son. And, the journey continues...

So.... all this to say that I want to be baptized because *now* I am redeemed! And I wish to be obedient to Christ, declaring publicly and boldly that He saved me and that I am His. Salvation is, from beginning to end, solely a work of God. It is a supernatural calling and revelation wrought in the hearts of those to whom God freely bestows His grace. He chose me; I did not choose Christ, 'accept Him into my heart' or 'meet Him halfway.' In baptism, I am identifying myself with the one true God through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son.

Paul says it best in Romans 6:

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; or he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (verses 3-11)

As to the reason I want to be baptized by Jim .... in Tennessee, I say this: If someone were to ask me, "Who's teaching/preaching/thoughts/life has most shaped your understanding of the Scriptures?"(yes, I know- aside from the Holy Spirit) I would say, hands down, Jim McClarty. I'm quite sure words cannot express how grateful I am to God for having me 'stumble' across some blog in Nov 2008, where I 'happened' to click on one of Jim's sermons and listen to a teaching on the origins of Christmas. And I've been listening to him ever since. I certainly owe Jim a debt of gratitude for the untold amount of time he devotes to the study and proclamation of God's word, and to the amazing way he handles every text with surgical precision. As I say to him often, I am taught well. And thank you, Jim, for being the kind of pastor - a true, biblical pastor - that God has called you to be.

I'm weepy now, so it's time to close.

Grace Christian Assembly