Boy you guys are really getting it on. I came in late and did some catch-up reading, I can feel that the conversation is anything but as Christ would have it.
Perhaps I am wrong but is not the water Baptism a public proclamation that you have chosen Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that you die to your old self and are resurrected in Christ? Could the thief on the cross who proclaimed Jesus to be the Son of God with his words, " remember me when you enter into your kingdom..." have made a bolder louder proclamation hanging there in front of the Jewish leaders and the Romans?
Jesus is the Lamb of God. His blood was willingly spilt to pay for our sins, and John 1:1 says that Jesus is God, so God our creator spilt His blood for His creation that we, His separated children could be rejoined into our heavenly family. Yet even salvation like damnation is our choice. We can choose one or the other, but not both. And as far as works go, we do not have works to be saved, we have works because we are saved. The verse that God gave me this very second to close with is,
1 John 4:20,21 If anyone says,“ I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command; Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
May God Bless us all with peace and patients
The Berlin Bear