Graduate Profile: Martin Medina

My name is Martin Medina. I reside in Moreno Valley, CA. Besides a short stint in the Bay Area, Moreno Valley has been my home for 34 years. Isabella gives me the blessing of calling her my wife. We currently have 4 living children and one with the Lord. I work full time as an Analyst, while serving as a Pastor/Elder of Christ Redeemer Reformed Church.

Since the earliest of my memories, I remember having a general fear of God and Hell. I was raised in a non-practicing Roman Catholic home where God was used as a fear tactic to do good and avoid evil. It worked. I would often pride myself of how I was not like the other kids while knowing that I was rotten inside. My good grades and success in soccer were the roots of my self-righteousness. Thankfully, our gracious God revealed to me my utter despair and through the gospel offered me an eternal hope in Christ when I was 17 years old. Though I cannot say if this is when I was truly converted, but at minimum, the Lord began to work on my heart at this point. It would not be for another 18 months that I would really begin to consider my sanctification, the Scriptures, and who God really is!

I began to desire the word as ‘newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk’ (1 Peter 2:2). God, through His Spirit, began to work on my theology and through the plain reading of the Gospel of John, I began to see the sovereignty of God in election. From then on, my spiritual journey has been one of peeling back, layer by layer, the glorious and unending beauty of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ! As I look back on my spiritual life, I see God’s hand in every step. The times when I was cold and dry in my theology, God placed brothers in my life to spur me on to love and good works. When I was becoming lax in my pursuit of holiness, God placed brothers in my life to challenge me. Truly, all of our spiritual growth is by grace and grace alone for ‘what do you have that you did not receive?’ (1 Co. 4:7).

My enrollment into RBS is no different. God has so mightily used RBS and Dr. Gonzales in my life. The marks and characteristics of RBS is what makes it stand out as a seminary. RBS is first and foremost, Christ-centered! By extension, the seminary is also winsomely reformed and contextual. This trifecta, along with the rigorous academic standards, makes RBS uniquely and distinctly impactful. At a time when I thought being Reformed Baptist meant certain false qualities, God used RBS to mold and shape my orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

There is no way that I could have finished seminary without my wife, Isabella. She went beyond what I could have asked from her! I cannot thank or commend RBS enough for the impact it has had on my life today and for the years to come! I am confident that RBS has better equipped me for my service to the Lord. May Christ, clothed in His gospel, be the substance of all my ministry now and forever.