Category: Musings on Baptism
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you-- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience-- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him (1 Peter 3:18-22).
Here the apostle Peter actually says the words, "Baptism now saves you" (v.21). If that were all he said, we would have a very difficult time reconciling this with everything else in the New Testament regarding baptism. And we would have a difficult time not ascribing actual saving power to baptism. Thankfully, Peter explained what he meant.
First he says that baptism saves, but "not" in a certain way--"not the removal of dirt from the flesh." This, I take, to be speaking of the external action of laying down in the water. In other words, Peter is denying that the actual washing with water saves us. A person is not delivered from the wrath of God by taking a bath, even if we call it baptism. Baptize a man a thousand times and if the outward flesh of his body is the only thing being cleansed, he will come out of the water a thousand times still in his sin.
So then, how does baptism save, according to Peter? By being "an appeal to God for a good conscience." As we have seen repeatedly, baptism is the means by which a person who believes the gospel is expected to profess his faith and call upon the name of the Lord for salvation. In baptism, a person is appealing to God for something, he is making a request of God. He is saying, "Please, Lord, will you...?" And for what is he appealing? A good conscience. A pure, clean, righteous inner man. A person who truly believes the gospel, understands that he has disobeyed God and fully deserves His inmitigated wrath. He recognizes that he is unclean. He feels guilty and ugly inside. In baptism, he is asking God to make him clean on the inside, to wash away his sins, to forgive his disobedience, and to give him an inner sense of God's acceptance and absolution. When a person is undergoing baptism sincerely seeking this purification from God on the basis of the death and resurrection of Christ alone, and admitting that nothing he can do or say will make him righteous before God, in that way, and only that way, does baptism save the one being baptized. In the final analysis, it is not the water ritual that saves, but the faith of which the water ritual is the expression that brings salvation.
Summary/Conclusion:
Baptism without faith is an empty ritual at best, and idolatry at worst. Faith without baptism is like a marriage without a wedding, or a king without a coronation ceremony, or a president without an inauguration and oath of office, or a husband and wife without rings.