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Responding to one of these
recent columns, someone wrote: "In good conscience, what
do you do with I Peter 3:21, where the Apostle compares
the Noah story to baptism, "which also now saves you"?
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- I take this
Petrine (Peter) text very seriously -- but I urge that
we look very carefully at what it actually says. The
apostle does NOT say that "baptism saves you" in the
abstract. He says that baptism saves us in the same
way that the Flood water saved Noah's
family.
-
- No New
Testament fact can be taught in the abstract. In one
way or another Christ came to fulfill all of the Old
Testament prophecies and types. The meaning to us is
determined by how the inspired writers interpreted the
types such as the flood.
We do not have
to worry about future floods or crossing of the Red
Sea. These were physical types. Baptism is the
spiritual antitype or fulfullment of the type.
-
- Baptism,
(which corresponds to this,) now saves you, not as
a removal of dirt from the body but as an
appeal to God for a clear
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, 1 Peter 3:21RSV
-
- By removing
the parenthetic expression Peter said:
"Baptism now saves
you"
because it is the time and place where you call
upon or appeal to God for a clear conscience. It is
not real sharp thinking to make all fulfilled types
mean exactly to what the type or prophecy pictured.
In the same way, the ark was the time and place
where God saved Noah and his family and restored
the earth.
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- Baptism is not
the work of our own hands. Undergoing the "antitype"
of which the flood was a sign or type is that which
frees us from our own labor. Those who reject baptism often
go through life with the Calvinistic doubt as to
whether God has predestinated them for salvation.
Therefore, they seek signs through ceremonial
legalism. Peter said that Baptism is the place where
God gives us a clear conscience and we can trust our
souls into the hands of God:
-
- And he
called his name Noah, saying, This same shall
comfort us concerning our
work and toil of our hands, because of the
ground which the Lord hath cursed. Genesis 5:29
-
- Nuwach (h5117)noo'-akh; a
prim. root; to rest, i. e. settle down; used in a
great variety of applications, lit. and fig.,
intrans., trans. and causat. (to dwell, stay, let fall,
place, let alone, withdraw, give
comfort, etc.): - cease, be confederate,
lay, let down, (be) quiet, remain, (cause to,
be at, give, have, make to) rest, set down. Comp.
3241.
-
- The Noah
event, at some level, was to destroy the old
earth
of "emptiness and chaos" and regenerate it as the wind (spirit)
hovered or blew over the waters. After the flood we get
the clear piture that the survivors moved into the
fertile crescent which became the seat of the greatest
secular society and food producer the world had ever
known. Indeed, putting themselves into the hands of
God in the Ark and in the water moved them into a
quite-literally new heavens and new earth.
-
- Which
raises an interesting question. From what did the
water save Noah's family? From sin? No. For the
Scripture says that Noah, by faith, was righteous,
blameless and walked with God -- before he ever caught
sight of the water (Gen. 6:9:Heb. 11:6-7). But
faith-righteous Noah was out of place in a wicked
world of unbelievers. Yet there he lived -- right in
the middle of that crowd with which, spiritually, he
had nothing in common.
-
- Sin was
personified by the drowned people who made sinning
into an art. Therefore, before the flood, Noah and
his entire family was under the constant force of
sin. In the same way, baptism moves one out of the
zone of sin because the "body is dead" but the
spirit has its citizenship transferred into a new
heaven.
By faith
Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as
yet, moved with fear, prepared an
ark
to the saving of his house; by the
which he condemned the world, and became (future tense) heir
of the righteousness which is by faith. Hebrews
11:7
-
- But the
water "saved" Noah from his wicked generation. It
clearly distinguished him (as a believer who had right
relationship with God) from the rest of that
world.
-
- The final evil
generation will be destroyed by fire rather than
water. Noah's obedience to God's will showed that he
had faith. However, if he had not obeyed God and built
the ark -- as a form of the church -- would he have
floated and been separated from the sinners who
drowned? We think not. In the same way, it is water
which kills off the "old man of sin" and separates one
from the present evil generation. Those who do not
"have their citizenship transferred to heaven" will we
not burn with the earth?
-
- These are the
generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Genesis
6:9
Caddiyq (h6662) tsad-deek'; from 6663; just:
- just, lawful, righteous (man).
Cadaq (h6663)
tsaw-dak'; a prim. root; to be (causat.
make)
right
(in a moral or forensic sense): - cleanse, clear
self, (be, do) just (- ice, -ify, -ify self), (be,
turn to) righteous (-ness).
By faith Noah,
being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house;
by the which he condemned the world, and became heir
of the righteousness which is by faith. Hebrews 11:7
And spared not
the old world, but saved Noah the eigth
person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the
flood upon the world of the
ungodly; 2 Peter 2:5
Diasozo (h1295)
dee-as-odze'-o; from 1223 and 4982; to save
thoroughly, i.e. (by impl. or anal.) to cure,
preserve, rescue, etc.: - bring safe, escape
(safe), heal, make perfectly whole, save.
The like
figure (antitupon) whereunto even baptism
doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer (appeal to God for) of a
good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ: 2 Peter 3:21
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- The type was
of a literal, physical destruction of "the old body of
sin" from which Noah was separated from or freed from
only after he came out of the ark. The antitype is
literal water but the effect is upon the inner being
as one appeals to God for a clear conscience having
burried the old body.
-
- Noah and his
family were saved by the pure grace of God. There was
no way for them to be saved from the flood. However,
God's grace was in the form of instructions about how to build the
ark, get inside and be saved. It was through the
Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11) that Noah was taught
the gospel of salvation from the flood. Peter
wrote:
-
- Which
sometime were disobedient, when once the
longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that
is, eight souls were saved (preserved, cured) by
(through) water. 1 Peter 3:20
-
- The like
figure whereunto even baptism doth also now
save
us
(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer (seeking) of a good
conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ: 1 Peter 3:21KJV
- 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, 1 Peter
3:21NAS
- Baptism,
which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a
removal of dirt from the body but as an
appeal to God for a clear
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, 1 Peter 3:21RSV
-
- The
implication is clear: those who did not believe
Noah or did not get on the ark drowned.
-
-
- IN THIS
SAME WAY, says the apostle Peter, baptism "now saves
you" -- from a wicked generation, marking out the
believer as different from his/her unbelieving and
unbaptized contemporaries.
-
- If we teach
that baptism is important only after we are saved by
faith only, we still have Peter saying that baptism
saves us. The total overwhelming of Noah and his family
by the waters of the flood was their "coffin" showing
that they were already dead to the old world. Only God could give
them life and a resurrection as the returning birds
symbolized that a new "land" had been prepared for
them. Peter said that water baptism was God's simple
method of saving us in the Spiritual sense.
The population
of the world represented sin. They were put to death;
Noah and His family were made alive by the rescuing
power of God. Without the physical ark God would not
have saved the new spiritual father of the human race.
-
- In the same
way, our salvation has both a physical and a spiritual element. It involves
both body and spirit. Peter noted that the physical
element in baptism was not to remove the outward, physical
dirt. Rather, physical baptism was the
actual request to God for a clear conscience.
Therefore, baptism in literal water is the
assurance or the maturing of
faith.
This is the "faith only" which saves. Those who
do not submit to baptism or minimize its power in the
mind of God who gave it may not have the faith which
Scripture says saves.
-
- Let us
draw
near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
- having
(past tense) our
- hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our
- bodies washed with
pure water. Hebrews 10:22
- For more
details Click
Here.
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- It is not
surprising, therefore, that the same Apostle Peter who
talks about Noah and baptism, concludes his remarks to
the Pentecost audience in the same terms -- "save
yourselves from this perverse generation!" (Acts
2:40).
-
- However,
this same Peter told those who wanted to be saved
from the consequences of their sins:
-
- Then
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:38
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- This was
not just salvation from the destruction of
Jerusalem:
-
- Let
him know, that he which converteth the sinner
from the error of his way shall save a soul from
death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. James
5:20
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- Scripture shows that the new
believers literally became "the way" or a new
citizenship and the old people of sin had less
influence upon their lives.
-
- Like
those before the flood, the inhabitants of
Jerusalem were about to be destroyed -- a million
strong. Those who were "safe in the arms of Jesus"
obeyed Him and got out of the evil environment.
Those who rejected Him suffered physically and
spiritually.
-
-
- Noah was
reviled by his contemporaries but God vindicated his
faith by bringing him safely through the water to a
new world. Jesus was condemned by his generation, but
God vindicated his trust by bringing him back from the
dead.
-
- The
believers to whom Peter wrote his first epistle were
reviled by their generation also, but Peter assures
them that God, who raised Jesus, will vindicate their
confidence in God as well -- and that God
has
already marked them out as his believing people by bringing
them through the water of baptism. Every time they
think of their baptism, they may remember faithful
Noah and faithful Jesus -- and, ultimately, remember
God who is always faithful to those who put their
trust in him.
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- Let us not
misuse 1 Peter 3:21 to say that baptism "saves" in any
sense other than that which Peter specifies in the
context and in the passage itself. And let us not be
embarrassed -- in an age when many professing
Christians seem to go to great lengths to avoid even
mentioning this gospel ordinance commanded by Jesus
himself -- to say eveything about baptism that this
text (and any other) does actually say.
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- What do
you suppose Jesus meant? Did he not speak of
salvation in eternity?
-
- He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark
16:16 Baptism had no real effect upon their
being saved from the evil people: they could
just get up and go to another country.
Therefore, Baptism is connected to spiritual
life because that is where Jesus put it.
Salvation from the physical generation was a
result of their spiritual salvation or "good
spiritual health."
-
- Kenneth
Sublett
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