Changed On The Inside

“For if a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. The old life is gone. New life has begun.” - 2 Corinthians 5:17 
 
 
As we continue to look at baptism from a biblical standpoint, I want you to see there is a shift in its nature. There is a shift from the Old Testament ceremonial perspective of baptism to a New Testament version of baptism.  
 
The Old Testament was a ceremonial external cleansing. The New Testament is a statement of something that took place inside your heart. That is why Jesus would look at Pharisees and Sadducees and say, “you clean the outside, but you are whitewashed tombs on the inside. Even though you immersed it and made it clean, your hearts are wicked and vile.” 
 
Jesus deals with the inside. John the Baptist comes on the scene and now baptism in Christianity is about a confession of repentance. You get in the water and you are confirming you need grace, mercy, and forgiveness!  
 
Religion, as good as it is, should have pointed me to the fact that I needed God to do that for me. But instead, religion came about as something I can do to earn my way to heaven. So I did the ceremonial cleansing so God would accept me. 
 
But what God is saying is “no, you need a heart change. You can’t just clean up the outside. You need to be changed on the inside.” So John the Baptist gives a new perspective. That is when baptism becomes about getting in the water to confess, “I am a sinner in need of grace and mercy.” When somebody calls upon the name of Jesus, baptism becomes the symbol of what Jesus did inside their heart, and we can identify that. 
 
I want you to understand that baptism is a symbol. It is not about having an external cleanse, but instead, it is the result of an internal heart change. When you change on the inside, God wants you to be baptized so you can express and show that change that happened INSIDE of you!