A Flood of Mercy

to turn the corner into chapter
4, 1 Peter chapter 3. As I indicated last week, the
passage that we considered last week, Martin Luther admired from
a distance and at the end he had to stand back and say, I
admire it, but I have no idea what it means. Still another
exegete, reading about this past week, looked at this passage
and said, it is one of the most difficult texts in the entirety
of the New Testament. And I certainly don’t want to
make light of that, but the more that I began to study it, the
clearer and the easier that this became, because it either means
one thing, which would dismantle much of our understanding of
the gospel, Or it means quite another, which when understood
undergirds the gospel and our understanding of it. The context
I need to establish again is Peter explaining why God allows
us at times to suffer for doing what is right. That has been
the theme from the very beginning. We’re still in that general passage
that began back in verse 13, which we entitled instructions
to the oppressed, how to handle or the keys, if you will, to
handling or giving a right response to persecution or trials or difficulties
as we saw woven through there. Go back to verse 13, if you would,
as we consider the passage in its entirety. First of all, Peter
said that we should be reasonable. Look at verse 13. Who is there
to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? If you’re serving
Almighty God, be reasonable. Who really is going to harm you?
And even if they harm your body, they can’t touch your soul. Peter says, first of all, be
reasonable. Remember who you serve. Second
of all, Peter says, be assured. Remember that at the end of this
trial, this difficulty, this persecution, the smile of God
awaits. Look at verse 14. But even if
you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. In fact, it doesn’t even say
at the culmination of that that in essence, suffering itself
is a blessing. Remember, Peter and his companions
counted it a privilege. to have suffered for Christ. Not only be reasonable and be
assured, but Peter says, be composed. Don’t get rattled by what the
world dishes out, what the Lord allows. Look at the end of verse
14 and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. Don’t
let that be the way that you’re characterized as going around
fretting and worrying and Fearful in the face of opposition. Peter
says, be fearless. Don’t be intimidated by what
they present to you, by what they threaten. Finally, be devoted. Almost finally, be devoted. Verse 15, sanctify Christ as
Lord in your hearts. What Peter speaks of here is
a submission to God that issues forth in proclamation. That is
a key point. The whole reason that we’re undergoing
whatever we’re experiencing is to issue forth proclamation of
Almighty God. Who cares for us? Sanctify Christ
as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense
to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that
is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” The world is
waiting and longing for someone with a message of hope. Shouldn’t
it be us? Shouldn’t it be us even in the
midst of great difficulty? It should, Peter says. And finally,
he said, be clean Keep a good conscience, verse 16, so that
in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your
good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. So, as I said,
the whole passage started with these instructions to the oppressed. There is a purpose to our suffering
and trials and difficulty. And Peter, as you know, turns
the corner in verse 18 to present to us the argument of arguments.
that Christ Himself has suffered. And we looked at the benefits
of the cross of Christ, the blessings that accrue to the believer in
Christ, that His sacrifice was satisfactory, that it was enough,
that it was in our place, and that it was as a result of all
that saving. It really accomplished something. All this is meant, as we’ve said
for weeks, as an encouragement to the believer in the midst
of trials. We’re not going through these
things in a vacuum. They all have a purpose. And
Peter’s encouragement to his first century believers was just
that. This all has a purpose. And he’s not done with that argument
yet. And so pick up with me in verse 18. where Peter writes, 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 He also 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 Christ, who is at the right hand of God,
having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers
had been subjected to Him.” Those last sentences echo what we considered
last week. that Christ went and proclaimed,
made proclamation, preached, if you will, to the spirits now
in prison, those who by God’s doing were bound in the abyss. Those spirits, those angelic
beings who, as we saw from Genesis 6, had left The boundaries that
God had marked out for them cohabitated with human flesh and produced
a hybrid race. God judged them, sending them
into the pit. And the occasion here spoken
of is that interim ministry of Christ, which between his crucifixion
and the resurrection yet had a ministry. And he went and proclaimed
to them. And what did he proclaimed? He
proclaimed that death has no power over me. Death had no power
over Christ. And he went and made such proclamation
to those spirits, not out of a crass gloating, but to let
them know that he was Lord indeed. That no plan of Satan was going
to thwart any plan of God. And so the paragraph, as we saw,
starts as an explanation or a reason that we have to suffer, to suffer
as a Christian for doing what is right. And it continues with
this argument of Christ. What Peter wants to do is encourage
and build us up in our confidence of this Christ. The main point
of all of these verses, all of this entire passage is to help
us prepare to suffer, to suffer with Christ in doing what is
right, to arm ourselves with faith. It’s interesting that this passage
contains a word that is transliterated. And as I’ve suggested in the
past, Probably not every time, but almost every time you come
across a word that is transliterated as opposed to translated. Transliterated is what does the
word sound like and we’ll just give it an Englishized equivalent.
Translation is what did the word mean in almost every passage
where you have a transliterated word, you have trouble. You have
people with a faulty understanding of it because they are allowed,
in essence, to assign their own meaning to this new word. Such
is the case with the word evangelism. People have built an entire industry
out of that one little word, and it merely means to tell the
good news, to speak forth the good. And such is the case with the
word baptism, as we’ll see in a moment, that instead of being
translated to immerse, to dip, it was transliterated. And we’ll
see why in just a moment. What I want to look at this morning
is what I would call a flood of mercy. And in it, it is a glimpse, a
foray, if you will, into the mystery of baptism itself. What
is this doctrine that we hold to? First of all, I want to look
at the comparison of baptism, baptism’s comparison established. Look again at verse 21, because
Peter, in rapid fashion, looks immediately back over his shoulder.
And in order to get the gist of verse 21, you have to pick
up verse 20. 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. That’s the context. This word
corresponding comes from the Greek word antitupon, which means
to copy a copy or a counterpart or a figure. Some of you more
well-read saints might understand the types of the Old Testament
that then are seen in the New. What it really refers to is a
likeness or a symbol or a counterpart. Some people call it a figure
or a picture or even an illustration. What it does is point back to
this situation that we find in verse 20, and I leave it undefined
for just a moment. Peter points back and he says,
here’s a corresponding thing which describes in an earthly
expression a heavenly reality, as we’ll see. The first question,
though, that you’ve got to wrestle with is what does that refer
to what does that refer? When Peter says corresponding
to that, there were some that looked back into verse 20 and
said, why, clearly it’s the ark. And this is a very tempting position
is a very tempting way to go. Here’s how one described it.
Baptism does in a spiritual sense resemble the ark. in so far as
a few in comparison to the rest of the world partake of that
outward ordinance. What he says is only eight people
were saved in the ark and there’s very few people looking even
at her own body. There are very few people in
the world that partake of believers baptism and are saved. It goes on. And says, as few
were in the ark in that it is equally dispensed to good and
to bad who are within the visible church, but as such were admitted
into the ark in that it exempts all that partake of it according
to Christ’s appointment from the common case of the rest of
the world and does seal to the elect safety from that wrath.
In other words, he says, if you weren’t in the boat, you’re a
dead man. And if you’re not baptized, you’re equally dead, so he says. The problem is Greek is a very
technical and precise language. The word figure refers or the
question of whether the word figure refers back to the word
ark or water or whatever other thing, it’s easily settled if
you just look at the Greek. The Greek grammar is that word,
which is neuter, The word ark is feminine and it can’t refer
back to that. It can’t refer exclusively back
to the ark. And so some found it easy to
refer back to the water in general, that just as there was this water
in the flood, there is this water in Christian baptism. The argument goes like this.
As water saved Noah, so baptism is saving you. The water that
Noah was saved in, is said in the present day to save us as
well. That’s the argument. So, what
is the similarity between the two? It isn’t just the fact that
there is this element of water, and I’m laying out the argument
for you. It isn’t just that the element
is water, but it serves, as he says, to arrest the attention
and to make one think of the deeper resemblance. One obvious,
and he uses the same point, one obvious point is that the number
of persons accepting the offered salvation at the present crisis
is, as in the days of Noah, very small. So he says it’s the water. that only a few people were saved
by the water. And today, likewise, only a few
people are saved by the water. Is that the argument? Another described it in these
terms. Said each individual by himself
or for each individual by himself. There is a meaning in his baptism,
which is prefigured by the flood and the explanation of baptism,
which follows show that the apostle was thinking chiefly of this
individual application. What he points to is that passage
in First Corinthians 10 to where it says all were baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the sea. It goes on to say that Noah’s
safe passage through the flood was a type or a figure of baptism
because their humanity was saved just as in the case of water
baptism. Well, it’s a plausible explanation,
and I think that there are certainly elements to the whole thing which
hold water. But is that the final word on
what Peter refers to corresponding to that? Baptism now saves you?
I would prefer to take a third option that looks not just at
the ark and says that the ark is just like baptism. It is a
vehicle, as it were, to navigate difficult waters. Nor would I
say that it’s just the water, corresponding to that water,
baptism now saves you, in essence, is that second argument. I would
prefer to take the whole thing much more broadly and to take
really the bulk of verse 20 as the argument. That’s what corresponds
to Christian baptism. And you say, what part of it?
Beginning with the patience of God. The patience of God 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. Corresponding
to that, that element, that picture of salvation, if you will, that
picture of God’s redemption, that picture or image of God’s
saving grace, a flood of mercy, that while it was wiping out
a great portion of humanity was saving just a few. It does correspond
to that. One described it in these simple
terms, it is better to view this comparison in the broader sense
of Noah and his family’s total experience with the ark. God
preserved them from the floodwaters while the rest of mankind perished.
Noah and his children are a genuine type of the salvation in Jesus
Christ, which preserves believers safely through God’s judgment
on sinners. In this destruction by the flood,
only eight people, were saved by the ark. Several people made
that point. Whether they were looking at
the ark or looking at the water, everybody knows and looks at
that dramatic judgment of God. Eight people, Noah, his wife,
his sons, their wives. That’s it. And yet they were brought safely
through this catastrophic flood through a handmade boat called
the ark. And immediately this idea of
being brought safely through the water is what turns Peter’s
thoughts to Christian baptism. Baptism was likewise a bringing
safely through the water, said one. What Peter basically says
here is that baptism is an image. of Noah and the people in the
ark, a corresponding symbolic picture of baptism. That’s what
it was. Peter basically shows us that
in the Old Testament, there were some who perished through their
unbelief and others were saved through their faith. So likewise, in the New Testament,
there are some who are saved and others who tragically perish. Noah’s earthly salvation from
the flood and the ark was the model, if you will, the image,
the type of the eternal salvation that believers enjoy by baptism. And so we turn to the next clause. As we look at a glimpse into
the mystery of baptism, we’ve seen baptism’s comparison established. Look at baptism’s claim declared. Baptism’s claim. What is its
claim? Corresponding to that, baptism
now saves you. And they all ran out of the church. First of all, Let’s just pause
and look at what is this word? Because it has been transliterated,
baptism, so that at least on the face of it, we don’t even
really know what the meaning is. What is the nature of this
baptism that is mentioned? One popular argument to this
whole thing, which takes away a lot of trouble and takes away
a lot of effort and understanding into
the text itself is that this baptism simply means an immersion. And in this particular case,
it means immersion into Christ. That we have been just literally
placed into Christ. There is no water here. There
is no waters of baptism. That argument is completely moot
and outside the point. That baptism, said one, simply
means to immerse and not just in water. Peter here uses baptism
to refer to a figurative immersion into Christ as the arc of safety
that will sail over the Holocaust of judgment on the wicked. Well,
we’re done then. Because if this isn’t real baptism,
if this isn’t water baptism, what more argument do we have? But we’re not done because I
don’t believe that that’s what it’s saying. I think it’s an
interesting argument. It’s no doubt true that we are
placed in Christ, as Paul says repeatedly throughout the book
of Ephesians and elsewhere, that we are in Christ. But Peter wouldn’t
use such a loaded word and then expect believers, not just in
that first century, church, but down through the centuries to
be able to decipher at a moment’s notice what kind of immersion
he’s talking about. I believe that Peter meant water
baptism, and that’s the only other option. Baptism here, water baptism is
presented as a as corresponding to the deliverance of Noah’s
family by water, but it’s a vague parallel. Because Noah wasn’t
literally dunked into the water. Believers don’t sail upon the
waters of baptism in some kind of any kind of fashion. It’s a vague parallel. There’s
water. There’s some redemption. There’s
a sparsity of those that partake. There are some parallels, but
it’s not a one to one. It’s not a perfect analogy, even
though It derived from the Holy Spirit himself. It’s not it wasn’t
intended to be crystal clear and absolutely perfect in that
regard. One pastor described it in these
terms, he said, baptism is a vivid reproduction in figure. in symbol
of the great fact already accomplished that the soul, having been regenerated
by the Spirit of God, has been buried to sin and raised to holiness. Baptism then is the symbolic
representation of what already took place before. That’s what
he’s saying. It’s a symbolic representation.
Baptism doesn’t save you. But if you stand back and look
at it in its totality, what baptism is embracing is the whole of
your Christian life, your repentance, your faith, your turning to Christ. It is water baptism that is in
the apostles mind, I’m convinced here. Here, one other godly saint,
how he put it, baptism, which was by immersion during the time
of the New Testament. That’s what the word means. You’ll
hear me say it over and over again. That’s what baptism meant. Baptism, which was by immersion
during the time of the New Testament, occurs when one is plunged under
the water. Submersion under the water represents
death. We’ll come back to Romans 6 in
just a moment. That’s exactly what Paul has
in mind in Romans 6, is that death, burial and resurrection
with Christ as you come up out of the waters. He goes on and
says, just as the chaotic waters of the flood were the agent of
destruction, so too the waters of baptism are waters of destruction. We are called to death. When
we come to Christ, we come to die. die to self. In New Testament theology, however,
believers survive the death dealing baptismal waters because they
are baptized with Christ. We don’t raise or are not raised
or resurrected on our own. We are granted new resurrection
life because of Christ, because of his resurrection. It goes
on to say that they are rescued from death through His resurrection.
The waters of baptism, like the waters of the flood, demonstrate
that destruction is at hand. But believers are rescued from
these waters in that they are baptized with Christ, who is
also emerged from the waters of death through His resurrection.
It’s water baptism that is implied here, and we don’t need to shy
away or be afraid to admit that because there is in a very real
way Truth to the statement, we are saved by baptism. But let’s
pause for a moment. What is this baptism that we
speak of? We are, for all intents and purposes,
a Baptist church or Baptistic, if you want to split hairs. We
believe in believers baptism. What is it then? What is this
baptism? It’s a controversial subject,
unfortunately. divisive throughout the centuries
of Christianity, two primary views. There are those that believe
in the baptism of infants and those that believe in what we
call believers baptism, a baptism of those who profess faith in
Christ. Some, because it’s controversial, just like every other doctrine
that’s controversial, they back completely away from it, right?
They reduce it to some kind of Controversial insignificance
that I don’t want to fight over. You know, what do they call those? Oh, I forget the name. The non-essentials. Yes, thanks.
I don’t want to fight over the non-essentials. And even though
Jesus says this is essential, I’m going to back away and consider
it non-essential and therefore insignificant. Some people ignore
it. Others elevate it to the status
of it is the entrance. This is the first, the door,
if you will, of church membership. So say the Southern Baptists.
Some consider it is absolutely an indispensable condition for
one’s salvation. They say that baptism is necessary
for salvation. We’ll look at that one. It won’t
take long. I said that Christ is the one
that established this doctrine. Christ is the one that says it’s
significant or essential. Christ is the one that said that
we can’t do that with this doctrine and call it non-essential. All
authority, Matthew 28, has been given to me in heaven and earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nation, baptizing
them. In the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I command you and lo, I’m with you always, even to the
end of the age.” These were Christ’s parting words to his disciples.
This is the Great Commission. It’s part and parcel of what
we’re called to do is to go and proclaim Christ, see lives change
and bring them to baptism. The Great Commission wasn’t just
to evangelize. In fact, it isn’t even really
there. You know, for shock value, from
time to time, I’ll tell people, you know what? Jesus never told
us to evangelize. You know that, you know, what are you saying? And it’s always these people
that are so zealous and it’s not that zeal for evangelism,
evangelism is bad. But you know what? What I tell
them is never. In the pages of Scripture, does
that word evangelism occur in the imperative? Never. The truth
is, it assumes that as those who love souls, as Christ loves
souls, it assumes that we will take the good news of Christ
to others. We’re called to make disciples
and to do that first, we must must preach the good news. And
then comes conversion. And then the then they must be
baptized and then they must be taught. In other words, discipleship
isn’t complete without it. It is a ritual that was prescribed
by our Lord, as we see, it was practiced in the early church,
expanded by the apostles. They taught about it in almost
every book or mentioned it or alluded to it widely practiced
in the book of Acts, as we’ll see in a moment. As one said, it is pardon me,
as one said, herein lies an obligation for everyone who becomes a disciple
of Jesus Christ, if you are concerned about obeying the Lord, if you’re
concerned about living in fellowship with the Lord and pleasing Him,
this is what Christ said. If you love me, you will keep
my commandments. What is the purpose of baptism?
As I said, some see it as the door to church membership. Is
that the case? No. The salvation place one as a
member rather Does baptism place one as a member in the church?
No, salvation does. The instant that someone comes
to Christ, they are already in the church. What baptism does
is an opportunity to proclaim that. Here’s another misunderstanding
about baptism. Is it merely the washing away
of sins? Is that when you get saved? That
somehow your desirous of salvation until you come to those wonderful
waters of baptism and only at that moment are your sins washed
away. It’s a very common understanding.
Very common, even in otherwise solid churches. Cleansing from sin is associated
with calling on Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the
blood of Christ that washes away sin, not water. And Peter will
make that point very clearly in a moment. Is it a condition for salvation? Some people would take a passage
like Acts 2 38. Repent, let each of you be baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Is Peter there
saying that baptism is absolutely a prerequisite for membership
in the church? No. Later on in the book of Acts,
Peter says this in Acts 10 43 of him, all the prophets bear
witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him
has received forgiveness of sins. Well, where’s the water? If baptism
is necessary for salvation, where’s the water in that passage? Where’s
the exhortation to be baptized in that particular passage, it
isn’t necessary for salvation. He only mentions believing. There’s
no reference at all to baptism. S. Lewis Johnson, who we had
the privilege to sit under for a time in Dallas, said it this
way. So it’s like getting your hat to get into your car to go
downtown. Getting your hat is a non-essential
to going downtown. You may always get your hat when
you’re going downtown, but the essential thing is getting into
your car. The essential for salvation is
faith. Baptism is often associated with believing in the New Testament,
but not as an essential for salvation, but as the normal confession
of it. It’s a great point. What is baptism? It’s an opportunity
to preach the gospel. It’s an opportunity to proclaim
Christ. It is a confession of identification
with Christ. I am with him. I am in him. Here’s how one pastor said it.
Identification is the primary meaning of all other forms of
baptism in the New Testament times. When a proselyte was baptized,
he was identifying himself with Judaism. in the baptism of John
the Baptist. An Israelite was identifying
himself with John and the repentant remnant who were awaiting the
coming Messiah. When our Lord was baptized, he
was identifying himself with the believing remnant in one
sense, with guilty sinners in another sense, and with the work
of Calvary and redemption in still a third. When a believer
is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he is identified with Christ
In other words, he is in Christ. He is identified with the body
of Christ. He is identified with Christ’s
church. So Christian baptism is an identification. He has identified himself publicly
with Jesus Christ. He is declaring his personal
faith in him. He is acknowledging that he is
dependent upon Jesus Christ in his death alone for salvation. That’s what you do when you go
into the waters of baptism. And as believers, Baptists, we
believe in baptism by immersion. That is what the word meant to
plunge or sink or drench or overwhelm. And I told you a minute ago,
I’d share with you why it was transliterated. And it was a
political thing. In the church of England, where
the King James was written, the church was already largely embracing
out of convenience this sprinkling mode of baptism. And so the translators,
rather than rock the boat, came to the text and merely transliterated
the word, allowing for a multiplicity of interpretations and sprinkling
took off like never before. Baptism means to immerse, to
dip, to plunge. And who is the candidate for
baptism? Who is it that is called to be baptized? Believers. I mean, let me take you on just
a brief course through the book of Acts. Turn to the book of
Acts. We’ll look at six, maybe eight passages. Who gets baptized? Believers
get baptized. Look at Acts 2, verse 41. We’re going to do this quickly. Acts 2, verse 41. So then those
who had received his word were baptized. It is those who were
able to receive his word. Then they were added about 3000
souls. A great day in the church. Acts 8 verse 12. Acts 8 verse
12 says, But when they believe. Philip preaching the good news
about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. They
were being baptized, men and women alike. Acts, same chapter
down to verse 36, Acts 8. You know, the story about the
eunuch was there, they went along the road, they came to some water
and the eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. And he answered, I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Believers are baptized. Turn
to chapter 9. In chapter 9, verse 18, speaking
of Paul, immediately there fell from his eyes something like
scales and he regained his sight. He arose and was baptized. In Acts chapter 10, next chapter
over, In Acts chapter 10, beginning in verse 40, 44, while Peter
was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all
those who were listening to the message. And all the circumcised
believers who had come with Peter were amazed because of the gift
of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon Gentiles also, for they
were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then
Peter said, answered, Surely no one can refuse the water for
these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just
as we did, can he? And he ordered them to be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ. Turn over, if you would, to Acts
chapter 16. We’ll look at one final passage. In Acts chapter 16, verse 30,
And after he had brought them out, he said, Sirs, what must
I do to be saved? The Philippian jailer here. And
they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved,
you and your household. And they spoke the word of the
Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he
took them at that very hour of the night and washed their wounds,
and immediately he was baptized, he and his household. And some
have used this passage to suggest that there were perhaps infants
in the household. And so we just would encourage
you to read on. And he brought them into his
house and he set food before them and rejoiced greatly, having
believed in God with his whole household. His whole household
believed. His whole household was baptized. Believers are baptized. Believers are immersed into the
water, not for salvation, but in order to proclaim the salvation
that God has given them. Paul said it this way. If you’re
still flipping through your Bible, you might as well flip to Romans
6. Listen to this beautiful passage. It starts with that incredible
rhetorical question. What shall we say then? Are we
to continue in sin that grace might increase? Should we sin
it up so that God will grace it up? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin
live in it? What a way to characterize our
approach to life. We have died to sin or have we? Or do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized, immersed into Christ, have been baptized,
immersed into his death? Therefore, having been buried
with him through baptism into death in order that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we
too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united
with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be
also in the likeness of his resurrection. That the body of that our body
of sin might be pardon me, knowing this, that our old self was crucified
with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that
we should no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is
freed from sin. When we come to Christ, we come
to die. When we go down in the waters of baptism, it is a picture
of that death, burial, and resurrection. So, how on earth can Peter say,
baptism now saves you? And is this really one of the
most difficult statements in all of Scripture? Saving baptism. He’s already clarified it. it
corresponds to what went before. Peter isn’t saying literally,
and he clarifies it multiple times here. The saving by baptism
that Peter mentions here is symbolic. It’s a metaphor, just as Romans
6 is a metaphor, not literal, as Peter goes on to explain.
Peter isn’t saying that the rite of baptism itself is what contains
this inherently saving power It is not baptism that saves
us literally. It is the spiritual things that
are attached to it. Repentance and faith. Just as
Noah, think of this, just as Noah and his family would not
have conceived of the idea of suggesting that they were saved
by an ark, neither does the Christian say that he’s saved by his baptism. Noah and his family wouldn’t
have dreamed of, upon landing, suggesting that they were saved
because the ark floated on the water. God is the one that commanded
it. God is the one that laid out
this plan of redemption to them. God is the one that saved them.
They were saved by God. And so also the Christian baptized
lays no claim to salvation by means of the baptism. His salvation
is strictly because of his faith in Christ and his finished work
of redemption. Baptism is just the outward visible
profession of that faith. Peter here is just expressing
a dynamic view of baptism, which encompasses all the elements
of salvation. In other words, it is the outward
sign of the inward reality. He’s not gaining his salvation
there in that moment. He’s merely proclaiming what
God has done. It is a flood of mercy. The third glimpse into the mystery
of baptism is simply this. We’ve seen baptism’s comparison
established and its claim declared. Thirdly, baptism’s clarification
given. Look at verse 21. Peter says
it. He says, don’t get lost on this. Corresponding to that, baptism
now saves you. Not the removal of dirt from
the flesh. That’s the Jewish mindset of
the washings that Paul so frequently treats. This slavish fear that
somehow earthly and physical dirt is tied to spiritual contamination. Peter says it isn’t the removal
of dirt from the flesh, but it’s an appeal to God for a good conscience. Peter says that water can wash away the filth
of your body, but it can’t touch the filth of your soul. He’s
not saying that baptism washes away sins as is so often the
characterization by some. There were those baptisms among
the Jews, but they were only the kind that washed away the
dirt off the flesh. And their effectiveness was limited
to that. But even now, even now in the
waters of baptism, the flesh is washed, right? Water does
have that property. The washing of the flesh isn’t
the point of baptism. It’s not what it consists of.
Nor does that washing off that outward dirt save you. Peter makes it very clear here
that he didn’t want his readers thinking of that when they considered
baptism. It isn’t the removal of dirt
from the flesh. God gives salvation because a
sinner by faith is immersed in Christ’s death and resurrection
and has his heart and soul purified from the stain of sin. One pastor said it this way.
Peter says that the mere removal of dirt from the body does not
bring salvation, demonstrating that water itself does not save.
So either Peter here is contradicting himself and looking like a bumbling
fool or what he said in the first place, he meant in an entirely
different capacity. Baptism does save, but not like
you think, I mean. Baptism is only saving if there
is an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. In other words, baptism saves
only because it is anchored to the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. And that’s what that next clause
says. It is an appeal to God for a good conscience, and I
love the diversity and the beauty and the way this phrase was translated,
listen to it. One said that it is a confession
of faith to God by a good conscience. Another said it is the earnest
seeking of a conscience that is clear in God’s presence. Still another, it is the prayer
for a clean conscience before God, and that one I especially
love. Still, the fourth, J.B. Phillips says that it is the
ability to face God with a clear conscience. But J.B. Phillips
doesn’t give God the credit there. That’s why I love, it is a prayer
for a clean conscience before God. It is an appeal to God for
that conscience. What you have here is essentially
a definition of baptism. Baptism is an outward expression
of a spiritual, inward appeal to God for cleansing. When we
come to God, we plead with Him. We’ve got nothing to offer Him.
We’ve got no way to change our lot in life. We’ve got no way
to correct our life or behavior. We’re hopeless and helpless without
His assistance. Baptism is a way of saying to
God, I trust You to apply the death of Christ to me for my
sins and to bring me through death and judgment into new and
everlasting life. That’s what Paul says. Baptism
can cleanse the body, but that’s not why it saves. It saves for
one reason. It’s an expression of faith.
Baptism is a calling on an appeal to the Lord. So said Piper. Peter, in closing, points to
the great and glorious, the same truth that we touched on last
week. What is our baptism tied to?
Look at the end of verse 21. 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. That’s where the anchor holds.
That’s where the tie is to our baptism. That’s where its efficacy
comes from. That’s where our confidence is
gained from God’s finished work in Christ our Savior. Let’s pray. Merciful God, we thank You for
a glorious Savior. One who has come down and accomplished
all these great things. And Father, we thank you for
Peter’s difficult, but not impossible passage of Scripture. A clear
declaration of the hope that awaits a believer. The salvation
likened to those precious souls that were saved from judgment.
on a wooden boat. Lord, we thank You. We praise
You for Christ our Lord. We thank You for every occasion
to proclaim Him. Be glorified, we pray, in Jesus’
name, Amen.