{"id":9034,"date":"2022-06-24T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=9034"},"modified":"2022-06-25T09:20:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T23:20:48","slug":"confession-leading-to-baptism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/06\/24\/confession-leading-to-baptism\/","title":{"rendered":"Confession leading to Baptism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Matthew 3:4-6\u00a0<em><sup>4<\/sup>Now John himself had his clothing from the hair of a camel and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. <sup>5<\/sup>Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the area around the Jordan; <sup>6<\/sup>and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they were confessing their sins.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">John was a strange person with his clothing and food, even for that time period. He was dressed for the desert and able to survive through scavenging for the available food. The descriptions in verse 4 would have distinguished John and made him highly recognizable to people. His life exemplified a dependency upon God for sustenance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">People sought John out to hear what he had to say. These were seekers after truth. Those who seek God in humility and repentance will experience renewal and revival. Word about John had spread widely, from the capital of Jerusalem, in the whole countryside of Judea (the equivalent of a province or state), and around the Jordan river area where his ministry was concentrated. He did not need to advertise. Speaking the truth will attract those seeking it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The verb tenses for <em>going out<\/em> (<em>exeporeueto<\/em>) and\u00a0<em>being baptized\u00a0<\/em>(<em>ebaptizonto<\/em>) is imperfect, which indicates an ongoing activity in past time. The crowds were continually going out to find John and be baptized by him. Verse 6 adds an important insight about baptism. The people confessed their sins when they were baptized. Confession (<em>exomologoumenoi<\/em>) involves admitting one&#8217;s sins. It should part of the repentance process. One must change his or her mindset, which requires acknowledging that the old direction of life is not working and will end up in destruction. A new way must be embraced and accepted. Baptism is the outward action that represents this vital decision in salvation. Baptism represents the decision a person had made to confess sin and repent for the wrongs done against God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i><\/i>For older posts, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/blog\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=DavidAckermanDailyDevotions&amp;loc=en_US\">Subscribe to Daily Devotions by Email<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 3:4-6\u00a04Now John himself had his clothing from the hair of a camel and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the area around the Jordan; 6and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9034"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9053,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9034\/revisions\/9053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}