Tom's Testimony

Charles Ryrie entitles Romans 2:1-16 "The Condemnation of the Moralist," and in so doing describes why I, Tom Sinton, need the grace of God. I grew up as a "moral" kid. I never did all the things that most high school kids get involved with. I grew up in a family that respected other people, that knew right from wrong, that did not exalt wickedness, and that went to church every Sunday. However, in eighteen years of going to church, I did not hear the gospel taught one time. All I heard was that God loves you, but all that meant to me was that an intangible "something" had some kind of feeling of love toward me. Blame it on what you will, but I now know that it was all part of a divine plan for me to truly see God's grace that I did not hear the gospel taught until I went away to college.

I attended Montour High School in the Robinson Township area of Pittsburgh, PA, and when I decided to go to college at Virginia Tech, I had no idea what was in store for me. I had never been away from home for a long stretch of time, let alone 6 hours away. When I arrived in Blacksburg, VA, for my freshman year in the fall of 1993, all I knew was that my roommates name was Garlan Yoder and that I was going to be a Computer Science major. The first day in my dorm was lonely, and I felt like I had made a mistake in coming to Tech. Then the grace of God started to work in my life. As it turned out, the guy across the hall from me, Sam, was a computer science major also, and we had a bunch of classes together. He was from Richmond, VA, and being from in the state had friends from home at Tech, including Jason Luther. Well, Jason and Sam quickly became my two best friends. They introduced me to many new things including Ultimate Frisbee (which we played every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday), Sega Genesis (which we played all the time), many other people, and most importantly Young Life Leadership Training. Both Sam and Jason always went somewhere on Wednesday nights, and since they were my only friends, I was left alone at the dorm. Well, eventually, I asked them where they were going, and they told me Young Life. I had no clue what that was, so I asked them all about it. They went as far as to ask me to come. At first I avoided their invitations by saying I had homework or some other excuse, but their persistence eventually got to me. I ended up going and hating it. Can you imagine 30-40 college students that all knew each other meeting to sing, hang out, sing, read the Bible, sing, and have fun together, and did I mention sing? I was nervous every time I went, but I kept going simply because Sam and Jason went.

One day Jason asked me to go with Sam and him on a weekend retreat at Camp Willow Run where we would serve meals to high school age kids and get away from Tech for the weekend. I reluctantly said yes, again mainly because my only two friends were going. Well, that weekend was amazing! I not only got to serve meals, but I also heard the Gospel taught in a clear and simple way. I finally understood why everyone was always telling me that God loves me. It was explained to me that God loves me IN SPITE OF me being a wicked sinner. Even though I turn my back on God everyday by doing things that my Creator did not create me to do, He still loves me. He even loves me so much that He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for me. I had heard about that as I grew up going to church, but did not understand why he had to die for me. Why was some man dying for me 2000 years ago important to me today? Well, that was explained to me also as the only way that I, as a sinner, could have eternal life and live the life that God created me to live, one that is pleasing and glorifying to Him. That because Christ died a sacrificial death, my debt (my sin) was paid. I could not personally do anything to pay that debt, but because Christ lived a perfect life and died, I could have eternal life. Not only that, but all I had to do to receive this grace that God extends to us was to believe in Jesus Christ. Not that he existed or that he died, but that I had faith that Jesus Christ and His death on the cross paid the penalty that God set forth in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death." I prayed that night, February 26, 1994, to tell God that I believed just that. I was amazed that it was so simple, but what I didn't know is how difficult it would be to follow through with that decision.

After that weekend, I returned to Tech and began my journey as a Christian. I have had many ups and downs since then, and God is still shaping me into a Godly man. He started this process by changing my views on a lot of things. He took over my personal life and "cleaned it up," so to speak. He helped me realize that I was on the wrong path in life, so I eventually changed my major to a double major in Mathematics and Economics, which is what I ended up graduating with in May of 1997. That spring was also a life changing time because God was preparing me for the next couple of years. Another friend of mine, Eric Beckman, told me about a discipleship program that he had decided to attend the following fall, called The Young Guns Discipleship Program. One thing that I was lacking in my life at that time was discipleship. Even though it had been three years since February of 1994, I had yet to be properly discipled, so I also looked into this discipleship program. The worst thing about it was that it was in Denton, TX, just north of Dallas. Now I was thinking about moving 24 hours away from home and leaving everything I knew for God. I would like to say that I jumped at the opportunity, but I didn't. After much time in prayer and trying to convince God that I needed to be in Pittsburgh, home for me, God was still leading me to Denton, so I went. God is amazing! The discipleship program was more than I could have expected. Tom Nelson, the Head Pastor at Denton Bible Church, took 35 guys and showed us what the Bible has to say about being a Godly man. He taught us the Bible each morning from 6 to 7 AM. Tom took us verse by verse from Genesis to Esther, then taught us Romans, Matthew, and other books in the New Testament. Tom really prepared us for what life has in store for us. As part of the discipleship program, we were expected to do door to door evangelism in a program called Evangelism Explosion and serve in a ministry at the church. I chose to work with Heirborne, the high school youth group, and I liked it so much that I stayed for another year to be an intern to the Youth Group.

In May of 1999, I finally moved home to Pittsburgh to continue my life as a Christian that was started when God's grace was shown to me. As you can see, I have had many exciting things happen to me in the past 5 years, but none have compared to seeing God's grace being bestowed upon me time after time. Back in Romans, Paul talks about the condemnation of the moralist, the Jew, the gentile, and all men, but then he says:

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.