RE: Coming to Faith
All I can speak of is my truth as I remember it... I knew that baptism was the way forward upon accepting Christ as my saviour, but at that time I was not able to articulate the depth of the decision which is why I did not write about it for that point.
I was 12 when I was baptised, so at the time my understanding was very simple, I had knowledge of what I believed, and I prayed for a sign, specifically for a sign that I would recognise as "the" sign. And then on hearing that a friend was being baptised I felt absolutely sure that that was my next course of action, not because my friend was doing it but because it is what is asked of us and I believed it to be my answer to prayer.
I already stated what Jesus did for me, he died for MY sins, to accept MY punishment on himself in MY place, so no. Nobody could do that now. Jesus lived a perfect life, fully man and fully God so that I may be reconciled with a perfect God despite my failings.
Sorry, I thought that I would be nice to you, but if you think that murdering a man was necessary for your personal gratification, then get the fuck out. End of discussion.
@yogidarshan it pains me to see that based on your responses, you clearly have no understanding of the gospel or trinity whatsoever. So allow me to enlighten you:
John 3 : 16 states "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Christ is the mediator between mankind and God. Christ took mankind's punishment on our behalf when he was nailed to the cross, so that anyone who trusts and believes in him will be saved.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Because of all the sin in the world God could have just abandoned us to be damned with no hope or chance of salvation. But despite the sin and horror in the world, God sent his only son to walk among us, to take our burden of sin and to take the punishment of our sin on our behalf so that we can be born again and reconciled with God. This was only possible through Christ dying for our sins.
This is not a matter of obtaining "personal gratification". It is a matter of the understanding that through the tremendous love and grace of God we have been reconciled with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and recognising that as the ultimate truth.