Jesus brokered the new covenant. 
The Bible calls “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (Heb 12:24), adding, “He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Heb 8:6). 

The new covenant promised that if we repent from our sins, He will cleanse us. 
The beloved apostle wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Peter taught, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19). 

Those who repent follow Jesus. 
While preaching, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17) Jesus invited Peter and Andrew, “Follow me” (Matt 4:19). 

Jesus asks us to follow Him. 
He said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be” (John 12:26).  Peter wrote, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 P 2:21). 

We follow Jesus by taking up our cross like He did. 
Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

Before Jesus took up his cross He submitted will His will to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt 26:39). 

As we follow Jesus, we must submit our will to the Father’s will. 
James commanded, “Submit yourselves therefore to God” (Jam 4:7).  The apostles labored that “ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God (Col 4:12).

God wills that we abstain from fleshly desires. 
Peter taught, “I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul . . .  For so is the will of God” (1 Pet 2:15).

We must control our bodily desires just as Jesus did. 
Paul taught, “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom 8:13).  Elsewhere, he said, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).

We show our willingness to crucify our carnal desires by being baptized. 
Paul taught that in baptism “our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom 6:6).

Baptism brings a remission of sins. 
John the Baptist preached “the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Lu 3:3).  Peter taught, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38).

We begin to take up our cross and follow Jesus by being baptized. 
Paul wrote, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death” (Rom 6:3-4).

Those baptized show their readiness to rise above their bodily desires. 
Paul taught, that “in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by . . . [being] buried with him in baptism  . . . ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God” (Col 2:10-13).

Jesus said we must be born again. 
He told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

Jesus saves those who believe and are baptized. 
He said, “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved” (Mark 16:15).

Baptism is a seal of salvation. 
Peter wrote, “Baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 P 3:21).

Those who are resurrected with Jesus will have been baptized. 
Paul taught, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Rome 6:5).

Keeping the Christian covenant gives us an inheritance of light in celestial glory. 
Paul said that the Father “made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col 1:12-13).
 

 Every person has destructive and selfish impulses seething within.

 We cannot always control our urges; neither can we avoid our eventual death.

 Jesus said that we must be born again if we want to see his kingdom.

 Our natural birth began when we left the watery sack in our mother’s womb.