But when he noticed a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who told you to flee from the coming Wrath?

Where did the baptism of John come from? From heaven or from men?" Now they argued to themselves, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?'

the voice of one who cries in the desert, 'Make the way ready for the Lord, level the paths for him' ??4 John appeared baptizing in the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;

Jesus said, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I have to drink, or undergo the baptism I have to undergo?"

They said to him, "We can." Jesus said, "You shall drink the cup I have to drink and undergo the baptism I have to undergo;

What about the baptism of John? Was it from heaven or from men?"

and he went into all the Jordan-district preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ??4 as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one who cries in the desert, 'Make the way ready for the Lord, level the paths for him.

(On hearing this all the people and the taxgatherers acknowledged the justice of God, as they had been baptized with the baptism of John;

but the Pharisees and jurists, who had refused his baptism, frustrated God's purpose for themselves.)

I have a baptism to undergo. How I am distressed till it is all over!

did the baptism of John come from heaven or from men?"

from the baptism of John down to the day when he was taken up from us ??of these men one must join us as a witness to his resurrection."

indeed Simon himself believed, and after his baptism kept close to Philip, utterly astonished to see the signs and striking miracles which were taking place.

you know how it spread over the whole of Judaea, starting from Galilee after the baptism preached by John ??38 how God consecrated Jesus of Nazaret with the holy Spirit and power, and how he went about doing good and curing all who were harassed by the devil; for God was with him.

"Can anyone refuse water for the baptism of these people ??people who have received the holy Spirit just as we ourselves have?"

before whose coming John had already preached a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel.

He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and he preached and taught about Jesus with ardour and accuracy, though all the baptism he knew was that of John.

"Then," said he, "what were you baptized in?" "In John's baptism," they replied.

"John," said Paul, "baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus."

Our baptism in his death made us share his burial, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live and move in the new sphere of Life.

For there is one Body and one Spirit ??as you were called for the one hope that belongs to your call ??5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

to consecrate her by cleansing her in the bath of baptism as she utters her confession,

when you were buried with him in your baptism and thereby raised with him as you believed in the power of the God who raised him from the dead.

Baptism, the counterpart of that, saves you to-day (not the mere washing of dirt from the flesh but the prayer for a clean conscience before God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ