Ricky Wright's Baptism Testimony - Why I Decided to Be Baptized Properly

Ricky Wright was baptized this past Sunday, along with Mike Smith. It was a great day of celebrating God's grace saving two more sinners! Ricky was gracious enough to let us post his profession. I hope you are as blessed by it as we were on Sunday morning.

-Daniel

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Preface to My Profession of Faith: Why I Have Decided to Be Baptized Properly

Sovereign Grace Church, Before I profess my faith and receive water baptism, I wanted to issue a statement. I have received a water baptism before. But over the years, as I have grown in my knowledge of God, his Word, and his Church and her confession, I have had concerns about the baptism I formerly received. I would not say the baptism I received was biblical. That it was Christian.

The baptism I received was administered by a group that taught what is known as Oneness Theology . You may not know much about this teaching, but as I grew in my understanding of what Scripture taught and what the Christian Church has confessed under the authority of Scripture, it became clear to me that this teaching is actually a form of an ancient heresy known as modalism. Modalism denies that “in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-existent, co-equal, co-eternal.” Such words have been confessed and guarded by the Christian Church and is confessed and guarded by you. According to modalism, the one true God is one person, not three persons, who has manifested himself in three different modes or forms throughout history. The language commonly used is that the one God, the one person, manifested himself as the Father in creation, as the Son in redemption, and is now at work as the Holy Spirit in regeneration and sanctification. Oneness Theology further asserts that to be baptized using the baptismal formula “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is serious error for that is baptism in the name of the titles, the modes, or the manifestations of this one God. To be properly baptized, one must be baptized only “in the name of Jesus,” the name revealed as the one saving name.

Sovereign Grace Church, this is heresy . This is not Christian doctrine, and for this reason, I do not believe that I received Christian baptism in a Christian church. Today, I wish to correct this. I confess that to be Christian is to be Trinitarian. You cannot separate the two. Now, let me make something clear. I do not believe that baptism or even a baptismal formula saves you. Believing in Jesus Christ is what saves you. My concern is that groups who teach Oneness Theology are deeply affected in the way they understand God the Father, His Son, His Spirit, and baptism, dividing them from the Christian Church. Such a division puts them outside what Christians have confessed and guarded.

I stand and confess with you and Christians worldwide that our God is one yet three, three yet one. This is the true God. He is God and he alone. In regards to baptism, I stand with you and confess:

“Water baptism is intended only for the individual who has received the saving benefits of Christ’s atoning work and become his disciple. Therefore, in obedience to Christ’s command and as a testimony to God, the Church, oneself, and the world, a believer should be immersed in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Water baptism is a visual demonstration of a person’s union with Christ in the likeness of his death and resurrection. It signifies that his former way of life has been put to death, and vividly depicts a person’s release from the mastery of sin.”

My Profession of Faith

Therefore, in the light of my earlier statement and our confession as a church, I profess the following:

I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth bad news. I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He is holy and righteous. I am not holy. I am not righteous. He is and does good. I am not good. I have not done good. He is worthy to be feared, to be reverenced, to be obeyed and sought after. I have not had the fear of God before my eyes. I have not sought after God. I, like a sheep, have gone astray. I have turned my own way. I have not feared him and kept his commandments. My sins have separated us and hidden his face from me. My sins have made me his enemy. I am before God, my just Judge, guilty, worthless, without excuse, without hope, and deserving of eternal wrath and eternal death.

I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that this holy and righteous God is love, and in this the love of God was and is made manifest to me in that God sent his only Son into the world.

I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, is the gospel. He is the good news to my bad news. The eternal Son of God became flesh and he dwelt among us. God sent the perfect, spotless Lamb that would take away my sin. He was rejected, forsaken, and ultimately crucified. But, oh, the glory of the cross! For here the holy, righteous, loving God crushed him for me. He put him to grief for me. He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. Christ has made an eternal and perfect offering for my guilt. He died. He was buried. But, on the third day, God raised him from the dead.

I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead for my justification. God has declared me not guilty because of what Christ has done for me. I who was once God’s enemy have now been reconciled to him, accepted by him, and adopted by him. Christ has secured for me faith, repentance, and the Spirit by whom I am empowered to walk in obedience before God and keep his commandments. I have been rescued from the wrath of God. Christ, the Worthy One, has made me worthy. God has exchanged eternal life for the eternal death I so richly deserved. And this is all because of Christ! He is my defense, my hope, my Savior and my Lord, now and forever. Amen.