11 ^b“I baptize you with water ^cfor repentance, but ^dhe who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you ^ewith the Holy Spirit and ^ffire.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

1 ^hIn those days ⁱJohn the Baptist came preaching in ^jthe wilderness of Judea,

21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, ^unow saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but ^vas an appeal to God for a good conscience, ^wthrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

28 For ^sno one is a Jew ^twho is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one ^uinwardly, and ^vcircumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. ^wHis praise is not from man but from God.