Jesus: the Cure for the Pandemic of Sin
by Ron Sellers
During a pandemic there is no less urgency in obeying the Great Commission or in responding to God’s call to salvation. Today several of us rejoiced when a precious couple confessed their faith and were baptized into Christ. Health considerations and nearness to the Medical Center made Impact ideal for the occasion.
This blessed event reminded me of another during the AIDS epidemic years ago. A local church elder/physician called to ask if I would baptize an individual because the church was fearful to use their baptistery. I then went to visit him and his wife. The man tearfully explained how he had sinned grievously against God and his wife. He shared that he knew he had obeyed the gospel from his heart years earlier. But now the weight of his sin made him wonder if God would forgive him and should he be baptized again? I reminded him that God’s grace and forgiveness for the Christian is the privilege of repentance and prayer. It was then that he prayed earnestly with as much penitence as I personally have ever witnessed. All three of us wept over his sin, repentance and forgiveness.
The next day I returned to check on them. His wife met me at the door with the news that during the night her husband had passed… into the arms of Jesus.
