Day 28—1 Peter 3:18-22

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. ¹⁹ In that state he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— ²⁰ to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, ²¹ and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

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Peter was writing to a plethora of disciples who were suffering for Christ (1 Peter 1:6) in various ways.  He encourages them to stay strong in their faith, to do what is good and holy and pleasing to God, and reassures them of their salvation in Jesus, who has all authority.  There’s more in the letter than those things I listed, but they are certainly important for understanding the context of today’s Scripture.

Peter writes some interesting things in this part of his letter regarding baptism.  He compares the water that saved Noah (and his family), to baptism.  And he doesn’t leave it there, he wrote: “baptism that now saves you also.”    

How does the water from Noah’s ordeal symbolize baptism? (And by the way, understand that it is not the other way…baptism doesn’t symbolize the water of Noah in this text.)  How about the following for an explanation of this part of the text?

• The water in the days of Noah picked up the ark from a world full of sin and disobedience and carried Noah and his family safely to a new world of purity and new beginnings.  The water therefore saved Noah.
• Baptism, in the days of Peter (and in our day as well) saves us by taking us from a life full of sin and disobedience—actually dead in sin, to a new life in Christ that is pure and holy, completely desiring to obey God in Jesus. 

However, to be very clear, baptism means nothing if you are only washing dirt off your body!  Baptism isn’t about the outside of your body; it’s about what’s going on in the inside—in your heart.  Peter couldn’t have made that point clearer.  When we make our “pledge of a clear conscience toward God” we are certainly making that pledge in our heart, and to God.  We can’t sneak our way into commitment by faking a covenant with God.  He can read our hearts.  He knows without us ever saying with words what we are thinking.  If we enter into the water of baptism and never truly commit in our hearts to God, then we end up just washing dirt off our bodies.

But…when we do enter the water of baptism and truly pledge our life to God through baptism, and in our hearts join Jesus in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-11), then we are raised with him.  And remember, in our passage two days ago, Paul explained that “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:1-10).  How do we know we are raised in Christ?  Because now Jesus has all authority over everything and sits at the right hand of our Almighty God, and he promised many times during his ministry that he would raise us if we believe in him and put our faith in him (John 3:16; 5:21,25; 6:40,47,51; 10:27,28; 14:23).

I can not ignore this passage of Scripture—or any passage of Scripture for that matter—because this passage too is from God.  How can I not accept the role of baptism after reading what Peter wrote?  It is not only something God expects us to do, but salvation is administered through this “baptism that now saves”!

Wow, the meaning of baptism was cranked up a notch in my book tonight!