Baptism of Jesus
Devotions:
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.”
Ezekiel 36:25-29 KJV
Here we see another prophecy about the New Covenant. God through Ezekiel spoke and said that He would sprinkle clean water on the people so that they would be clean from all their filthiness and idols. Paul picks up on this in the book of Titus.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;” Titus 3:5-6 KJV
Our salvation comes not through our works but through the work of God. It is because God is merciful that we are saved. Paul tells us how, by what Paul calls the washing or sprinkling or baptism of regeneration, being born again, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
“But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” Matthew 20:22-23 KJV
So we are baptised with the baptism of Jesus, the new birth. When we were born again, God cleansed us from all of our filthiness and all our idols once and for all. We were born again of incorruptible seed, the living word of God. We are new creations in Chirst Jesus. When we sin it is not us who sin but the sin which dwells within us. The true us wants to do the will of the Father. This is the new heart.