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Hi, Tom —
Thanks for your question.
It is true that some verses in Scripture
say all we have to do is accept Jesus
as Savior and His sacrifice on the
Cross, and we are saved; Acts 16:31 comes to mind, but Scripture must
be understood in context of the whole.
For example, elsewhere it says, "Repent,
then, and turn to God, so that your
sins may be wiped out" (Acts
3:19). So not only must we believe,
we must also repent. But wait, there
is more.
"Repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of your sins." (Acts 2:37)
Moreover,
"I preached that they
should repent and turn to God and
prove their repentance by their deeds." (Acts
26:20) So not only do we need to
believe, not only repent, not only
prove our repentance by our deeds,
but we also need to be baptized.
See also 1 Peter 3:21. But wait,
there is still more.
We have to obey (1 John 2:3, 1 John 3:10, 24, John 3:36, Hebrews
5:8ff, Romans 1:5, Romans 2:13, Matthew
19:23ff).
Even more, we must also
persevere in righteousness (Hebrews
6:7-8, James 1:12, 2 Timothy 2:12, Colossians 1:22, 1 John 2:24, Matthew
10:22, James 5:19-20).
Suppose you're
driving along with me in the passenger's
seat, and I'm giving you directions.
I say turn left, which you do, immediately,
careening over the median and narrowly
missing oncoming traffic. I scream,
What are you doing?
and you say,
But you told me to turn
left, and I did! Don't blame me!
The problem was I had certain assumptions
implicitly in mind when I said that,
namely, I was assuming you knew to
wait until the next intersection
and wait for the light to turn green
and wait for traffic to be clear.
Likewise, when Scripture says,
"Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
will be saved," (Acts 16:31)
It doesn't mean
literally that all you have to do
is say the Sinner's Prayer and boom,
you're set to go for life. It assumes
that you understand that repentance,
conversion, Baptism, obedience, and
perseverance are givens, or at least
that believe is an umbrella
term for these things, rather than
mere intellectual assent or trust.
So are entering the Church and receiving
the Eucharist
(see John 6:53-54), for example.
You said:
Does accepting Jesus
as our Savior basically mean because sinning
is in our nature, and we cannot live perfectly,
like Jesus did, we have to:
- be open about our sin to God
- confess our sins, and
- then He will forgive us?
I would agree with this. Theoretically
it is possible, by a special grace,
to live perfectly.
We believe this is true for the Blessed
Virgin Mary. Some believe this was
also true of John the Baptist (although
in a different manner), but for ordinary
people, it is true.
As for your questions on selfish
ambition,
you'll have to provide a scripture
quote. I am not sure what concept
the biblical translation you are
using is trying to express. It sounds
like vainglory, but I'm not sure.
I don't think seeking to fulfill
a desire that is not intrinsically
evil or disordered is sinful. God
gives us natural talents and expects
us to fulfill them. You have to watch
your motives though:
- if you did it, for example, to glorify
yourself, and not for the glory of
God, that would be sinful.
- If you did it to make a lot of money,
to acquire a lot of possessions, or
indulge yourself in luxuries, that
would be sinful.
I agree that if
you put Jesus first, and cultivate
humility and eradicate pride (and
also do all for the glory of God),
you will do well and avoid selfish
ambition. This however is a constant
battle; pride crops up everywhere.
We must be vigilant.
As for Baptism, your Catholic Baptism
was sufficient in God's eyes. You
do not need to be re- baptized, no
matter what they tell you. Ephesians
4:5 says that there is one Lord,
one faith,
and one baptism. Baptism therefore
cannot be repeated. Your original
baptism was valid because the early
Christians baptized children and
infants. This is because baptism
is not a public profession of faith; otherwise
why was the Ethiopian eunuch baptized
privately by the side of the road? (Acts 8:38). Rather, it is entering
into the Passion, Death, and Resurrection
of Jesus Christ
(Romans 6:3-8, Colossians 2:12),
without which we normally cannot
be saved. See these articles:
This is chiefly because Baptism is
the New Testament circumcision (Colossians
2:11), and infants were circumcised
in the Old Testament. Also whole
households were baptized according
to Acts, and the promise of Baptism
was given to your children (which
would have been understood by the
Jews in the context of infant circumcision).
See the articles above for details.
If you'd like to further discuss
the question of why your original
baptism was valid, feel free to write
me back.
I hope this helps!
Eric
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