²² let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

²⁵ “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.

⁵ Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.^[a]

²¹ And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from^[a] a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

²⁶ to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.^[a]

¹¹ Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

¹⁹ For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

7 Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

² God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

May God give you more and more grace and peace.

²⁴ You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.