Every preacher of the Holy Scriptures teaches that baptism is repentance. What no one teaches is that baptism is not a repentance from your sins but, it is a covenant with God that you shall turn around from being disobedient, to being obedient to His will.

If you are aspiring to become a disciple of Christ, you enter into a covenant to turn around from a life of doing your will, which results to disobedience, to a life committed to doing God's will, which results to obedience.

Without the covenant to obey, repentance from sins turns into hypocrisy instead of the result of the promise.

So when you repent,

   You do not only say, "Help me to obey and follow you my God" but with an oath in your heart you say, "I shall seek and obey your will, my God" (2Chronicles 15:12-15; Ecclesiastes 12:13; 1John 5:3).

   You do not give counsel to your Lord to, "Come into my heart and be the King of my life" but, in all meekness with a promise in your heart you say, "From now on, I shall obey you as King of my life" (Psalms 119:106; Acts 5:29).

   And you do not only declare, "I surrender my life to you, oh God" but, with a vow in your heart you proclaim "I am here to do your will, oh God" (Hebrews 10:7,9).

With such commitment and conviction, you cut away the unclean portion of your heart, which is your own will, the source of man's disobedience (Acts 7:51), and thus, get your heart circumcised and cleaned (Deutoronomy 10:16; Romans 2:29) so you may love and obey God with all your heart and with all your life (Deuteronomy 30:6). And because you have washed your "house" clean, God sends you Jesus Christ (Acts 3:20), who begins to make his abode in you (John 14:23).

The Covenant to Obey is the key that opens up the door to your heart to receive Jesus Christ (Revelation 3:20). Without it, you shall be like the man of the wicked generation spoken of by Jesus who, after repentance from sins, has cleaned out his house of a wicked spirit. But the door does not open for the spirit of Christ to come in, so the house, although swept and garnished, remains unoccupied. In time, the wicked spirit that has left the man returns with seven different spirits, more wicked than itself, and after getting inside, they dwell there; and the final circumstances of that man become worse than the first. That is how it will be also with this hypocrital generation (Matthew 12:43-45).

It is not repentance from your sins that will open up the door of your heart to the spirit of Christ, it is your faith to enter into God's Covenant to be obedient to His will.

Blessed are you who are given the wisdom to discern truth from life.