A friend and I were having this conversation. He's a pastor and refused to baptize an individual because of sin in their life that they wouldn't repent from.
I said:
We have this massive sin of materialism in our lives. And for some reason, we are comfortable saying that we are better than some other person who struggles with a different sin. We deceive ourselves and think that we are worthy to be baptized because our sin is an accepted sin in American Christian culture.
We are so far from Jesus. We need grace. Grace that I receive. Grace that I also have to be willing to dispense. If Jesus doesn't want to accept the unrepentant sinner wanting to be baptized, that is between Him and them. But I am not going to refuse baptism to someone that is a sinner just like me.
If I will only be perfect on the other side of eternity, and I know that. If I know that my imperfection is covered by His undeserved grace. I know that if people could peer into my heart and told me to change the sins in my life right now, I wouldn't be able to. After all this, if I encounter a person who struggles with a different sin than I struggle with, a person who isn't willing to change that part of their life, yet they want the same grace that I revel in, should I deny that grace to them?
I share this here because I want other perspectives. I don't want to get the conversation bogged down in one specific sin, so I don't share what the sin was. But I was looking for input.
