"Baptism Now Saves You"

Now there's a verse that doesn't jive well with pop evangelical sensibilities! But what does this mean?

In context this phrase comes from I Peter 3: 18-22. Peter is writing to encourage Christians to keep strong in the faith despite the suffering we endure as followers of Christ. He likens the same situation to the days of Noah when God had patience with the Old World. So here, too, God once again is displaying patience with the world through his Son who suffered and died and draws all men to himself. However, Peter draws a parallel with this through water - the water of baptism and the water of the flood. But it is interesting enough to investigate how he draws the parallel. He says the flood saves Noah. So forget about the ark, it doesn't save them. Huh.

The means God uses to execute judgment is the same means he uses to exercise salvation. (I always liked how the Orthodox make little distinction between wrath and love. God doesn't change, people do. The sun burns and can kill, yet it also gives life. Furthermore, if you love something inevitably you are going to "hate" anything that tries to destroy your love) How about that as a concept of hell? Anyways, I'm sure we can take this in a thousand directions.

So the question is, how does the flood save Noah? It wipes out the old humanity and separates those in the ark from all the evils and destruction of the old world. Not only does it save them from the world it saves them from God's wrath which is the fate of the world. I'm sure God could have rained down fire and it would have burned the ark and everyone altogether. But God sends water. Water kills and water gives life. You can also float on it. The point being that "they were brought safely through water."

In several epistles of Paul we see how baptism drowns the old man so that a new man might emerge. The correspondence of baptism to the flood isn't just escaping the world as victims but escaping our own fallen nature. God's wrath and mercy was manifested on the cross, and Jesus has done it all. But we share in it through baptism, being united with him in his death and resurrection by faith.

But back to Peter. The implications are very evangelical - Not "Evangelical" as we now use the term to describe various protestants. But evangelical as in "good news" and not anything smacking of "works." If the gospel is a message from God to us that comes as gift then so is water baptism. Water is not a wage owed. It is a gift and a declaration. It's one of the several ways God promises the benefits of Christ's work for us individually. As God declares our sin and diseases of the world healed on the cross via words, letters, gospels etc, so he declares us cleansed and healed in baptism. The cross is not separate from water baptism, they are not opposing things, they are joined together correlating to Christ's work.

Peter says "not as a removal of dirt from the body." The apostle is still talking about the water of baptism (which happens to be just as external as dirt on the body.) This phrase doesn't then disregard the external act as if he is now talking about invisible water. We can see it, feel it, even hear it. But here is the distinction: it isn't the outward cleansing that saves us, as if our flesh needed to be bathed; rather this water cleanses our hearts and consciences through the power of the Holy Spirit and the hope of the resurrection. If we do not care for baptism it has no benefit and our hearts have no hope. What matters is the faith it gives in Jesus' saving work. We have good conscience in baptism because of what it declares to us in Christ's resurrection. As surely as Christ died and was raised for all, so he has placed his mark on us individually and personally in baptism.

Evangelicals need to realize that baptism has benefits for the baptized. Baptism isn't all about what we do for God. It's about what God does for us. After all no one baptizes themselves, God baptizes us. And as Peter states in Acts 2:38, God makes promises to us in baptism. Therefore, baptism shouldn't make us talk about ourselves, it should makes us talk about God. For this reason baptism has continual benefits for the Christian, and Peter draws on this to comfort Christians in their trials.

Peter says, "Baptism now saves you." It still has value in the life of a Christian with saving effect - baptism is a present reality. Baptism doesn't just save them, and wasn't that pretty cool, now everything is in the past without lasting value. When we are baptized we are baptized into something. We are placed into a new world - we are plunged into the Triune God. This is all through Jesus. In baptism we are also placed into the destiny of our Messiah. He died, rose and is glorified. We too are baptized into that destiny. As forgiveness isn't just something that happened to us in the past but a reality through which we now live - so is baptism. Baptism is an ever present blessing from God, it is a daily reality in which we live. Because baptism saves us now, and imparts good conscience toward God, Peter uses it as a comfort that we will be brought through safely because of the resurrection of Jesus.

When we look at baptism it isn't something to be stared at like a picture or a symbol, but it is a window through which we continually look to Jesus and are continually blessed through it.

Having spent a lot of time in evangelical churches, I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the words "you've been baptized" let alone "baptism now saves you" to be a sense of comfort and strength to draw from in our spiritual lives. I dunno if there is a word for it. Baptismophobia?