Brought Safely Through Water

Last week we talked about the fact that 1 Peter 1:18-22 is one of the hardest passages, if not the hardest passage, to understand in the whole New Testament. One of the challenges in this passage is that Peter keeps bringing things up that seem to come out of left field. I mean, one moment he’s talking about the gospel, and the next moment he’s talking about spirits in prison from some bizarre situation back in Genesis 6 before the flood came.

And all of a sudden he’s talking about the eight people who were saved on the ark, and how their salvation is like baptism, and how baptism saves us, and we might be thinking “what does this have to do with anything?”

The answer is that this all has a lot to do with everything. These are not rabbit trails. This is all connected. And it’s all connected when we remember the context, and Peter’s main burden here for his readers: helping them deal with suffering as exiles and strangers.

That’s why he first started talking about Christ’s innocent suffering: it’s an encouragement for us to follow in His steps. That’s why he addressed Christ’s victory over the spiritual forces: it’s a reminder that whatever powers are working to oppress the people of God, Christ is greater still and its only a matter of time until ever knee bows to Him.

And, as we’ll see as we keep working through our passage today, it’s this big theme of suffering for doing right that connects our passage together and helps us understand what in the world is going on in what’s actually a really wonderful and encouraging passage.

A. The Days of Noah

1. A Few

Let’s pick up half-way through verse 20. Peter has been talking about the days of Noah, because that’s the time frame in which these angelic spirits disobeyed that Jesus went to proclaim His victory over after His resurrection.

But while we’re talking about the days of Noah, Peter draws attention to the few, the eight, who were saved in the days of Noah. In a time when the wickedness of the human and spirit world was being multiplied, a lonely few were faithful to the Lord. Labouring away for all of those decades, building an ark based on nothing but the promise of God (Hebrews 11:7), proclaiming righteousness to the hostile world that surrounded them (2 Peter 2:5)

Does that sound familiar at all?

Of course it does. Peter’s readers were also small in number, also on the fringes of their society. Also spending their lives on things that looked crazy to the rest of the world, living in the light of promises God had made about the future. Trying to stay pure in the midst of rampant wickedness. Feeling alone and small and on the outside.

Peter’s words here remind his readers, and us so many years later, that this experience is nothing strange. This is the normal Christian life. This is the way it’s always been for God’s faithful few.

2. Brought safely through water

But more importantly, Peter’s words remind us that it was those few who were saved. It was those “few, that is, eight persons,” who “were brought safely through water.” Though they spent decades almost certainly looking like fools as the ark was built, they were the ones who were saved.

It was in that ark, that ark which again was a likely source of curiosity and strangeness if not ridicule, that those eight were brought safely through the waters. In some other Bible translations you might see the words “saved through water.” But the word that is used here for “saved” is a word that is used often in the New Testament to speak about being rescued from danger.

And that’s what I believe is the best way to understand these words here. Noah and his family were brought safely through the waters of judgement in the ark that God graciously told them to build. Even if that did require months on a cramped boat, they were brought safely through the waters of death to new life and new beginnings.

B. The Connection of Baptism

And it’s not that much different for us. We, too, are saved from God’s judgement, brought safely through death and into life, through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. And this salvation is re-enacted in baptism. That’s Peter’s point in verse 21: “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 good conscience, though the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

1. Baptism and the Flood

What we need to understand that Peter is engaging in a way of thinking known as “typology.” The idea here is that God often works in repeating patterns. He often does one thing in a certain way so that when He does something else in a similar way we can make a connection between the two and get a richer understanding of what was going on in both instances.

Think of the sacrifices at the temple, and how they typify the sacrifice of Christ. The animal sacrifices provide a framework that helps us more fully understand the sacrifice of Christ. And so Peter sees the salvation from the flood as a type of baptism—or, as he puts it here, “baptism… corresponds to this.”

Just like Noah and his family were brought safely through the waters of God’s judgement by means of the ark, so you and I are brought safely though God’s judgement by means of Christ, who shelters us and saves us through His death and resurrection.

Jesus is like our ark. The flood of God’s judgement beat down on Him instead of us. Hidden safely in Christ, we are saved from judgement, and brought through death and into life. Do you remember Jesus’ words in John 5:24? “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

In Christ, we bypass the great day of God’s wrath, because Jesus endured the great day of God’s wrath for us on the cross. And so we are brought with Him safely through judgement into the new life on the other side.

And baptism reenacts this reality. Colossians 2:12 tells us that we were “buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12). Romans 6:3-4 says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4).

Baptism is a living symbol of being united to Jesus. When someone goes down into the waters, they re-enact the death of Christ under the judgement of God for them, which is to say they re-enact the truth that they died with Christ. And when they rise up out of the waters, they re-enact Christ’s resurrection to new life for them, which is to say they re-enact their resurrection with or through Christ.

Baptism re-enacts their safe passage through death and into life with Christ, and as a result, death and judgement no longer have a hold on them. The old has gone, the new has come.

And as such, baptism re-enacts the same journey made by the eight people in the ark, who were also brought safely through judgement into new life. That’s Peter’s point here. “Baptism corresponds to this.” Baptism is a living sign of our connection to Christ along with the people of God throughout all of history who have been brought safely through judgement and into new life by the mercies of God.

2. Baptism and Salvation

And that’s why Peter can say that baptism saves us. That’s what verse 21 says. “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.” We might get freaked out by this, because we rightly think that we’re saved by grace through faith. And we are! Peter has affirmed that truth many times, including what we’ve seen last week in verse 18. Christ suffered to bring us to God. We’ve been born again to a living hope. Grace through faith all the way.

And baptism is how we express and seal our faith. In the New Testament, baptism happened as soon as possible after someone had believed in Jesus. And because baptism signifies and symbolizes our saving faith, Peter has no problem saying “baptism now saves you.” It’s like at a wedding, when the groom puts a ring on his bride’s finger, and says “with this ring I thee wed.” We don’t hear that and think there’s something magical about that ring. If he were to put it on someone else’s finger by accident they wouldn’t be instantly married. What makes them married is their vows to one another.

And that’s why Peter specifies in verse 21 what it is about baptism that saves us: “not as a removal of dirt from the body.” In other words, it’s not the outward act of being washed by water that saves us. Which, again, is why we don’t baptize babies. It doesn’t work that way.

Rather, baptism saves us because of the inner reality that baptism is a sign of. As Peter goes on to say in verse 21, baptism saves us as “an appeal to God for a good conscience.” Through baptism we cry out to God to give us a good conscience—in other words, to cleanse us from our sin. Through baptism we express our repentance and our faith. Through baptism we look to God alone to save us.

And even this would have no power were it not for Christ. Which is why Peter ends verse 21 by saying, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Now there is some question about where this phrase connects to. Does it connect to the first part of the verse? “Baptism now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” That’s a possibility, and it’s certainly true. Baptism has no saving power apart from the resurrection of Jesus.

It also could be talking about the fact that we’re asking God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We call out to God to save us and make us new through Christ’s resurrection.

Both of these possibilities are true. Either way, it shows us that the power to save is not in the act of being baptized but in the Christ who saves us through His death and resurrection. And it shows baptism is the crucial step by which we cry out to God through faith. And because baptism is a sign and symbol and seal of our faith in Jesus, Peter can say “baptism now saves you.”

C. Questions

Now what we want to do at this point is ask three questions to further get at the meaning of this text and help us consider what this means for you and I today. And the first question is fairly straightforward:

1. Do we need to be baptized to be saved?

Is that what Peter’s saying here? If “baptism now saves us,” then does that mean we need to be baptized to be saved?

And of course we want to say, “No.” Of course the thief on the cross was with Jesus in paradise that day, without being baptized.

And yet, as I answer this question, I want to be careful that we don’t make the mistake of turning baptism into some kind of an optional extra that we can take or leave. Or escape from the fact that Peter has no problem saying, “Baptism now saves you.” God inspired Him to say that. Are we okay with that language? If I was praying for someone after they were baptized, and said, “Lord I thank you for baptism which now saves them,” how uncomfortable would you be with that? Would you be more uncomfortable than Peter, an apostle of the Lord Jesus?

There is no doubt that Peter has a higher view of baptism than many modern Christians do. There’s no doubt that the apostles took baptism more seriously, and more importantly, than many of us do. As God’s appointed sign and seal of saving faith, Peter assumed that someone who believed would be baptized, and he had no problem saying that baptism saved them as easily as he’d say that faith saved them.

So as we circle back to this, even though I would answer this question with “of course not,” I think this question is a faulty question. The question, “Do I need to be baptized to be saved?” seems like it’s trying to find the exception to God’s pattern that believers get baptized.

Now again, if we were to ask, “what about those who could not be baptized?”, we’d say that of course God accepts them on the merits of Christ. They are saved by grace through faith. But in general, Peter is assuming that if someone has been saved by grace through faith, they will express that faith through baptism, because that’s what Jesus told us to do.

2) When should someone get baptized?

And that leads us in to the second question, “When should someone get baptized?”

To answer this question, we can say with certainty that in the says of Peter they didn’t have this phenomenon of people following Jesus for a long time and finally getting baptized when they “felt ready” for it, as if it was a personal decision for them to make on their own time. Or maybe the reward for living like a Christian for a while, like the end of probation period or something.

They got baptized when they believed in Jesus. And we need to get this back. When is someone ready to be baptized? When they believe in Jesus.

Think of the replacements for baptism that we often use nowadays. When someone comes to faith in Jesus, we often encourage them to pray a prayer, or sign their names in the front of their Bibles, or to go tell someone, or walk an aisle to the front of the church. Even though we believe in salvation by grace through faith, we have this deep-rooted sense that faith must express itself. Action must be taken. Something has to be done to signify that this person has been saved.

That is a very biblical impulse. The problem is that we’ve told new Christians to do all of these other actions instead of obeying the Bible’s very simple instructions to new believers: get baptized. Baptism is how we signify our faith in Jesus. Baptism is how we seal our commitment to Him. Baptism is how we make it known that we belong to Him.

“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:37–38).

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”’” (Acts 8:35–36).

“Then he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family” (Acts 16:30–33).

When we read those accounts, of course faith comes before baptism. That’s why we don’t baptize babies or people who don’t have a credible profession of faith. Of course baptism is a sign and a seal of faith. But faith expresses itself in baptism—and fairly quickly. Because that’s what Jesus told us. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20).

Baptism is where a life of discipleship with Jesus is supposed to start. Baptism is how you tell God and your church that you need a clean conscience, that you are coming to Christ for salvation, and that you want to follow Jesus.

I wonder if there’s some wrong ideas that often keep us from performing baptism the way the early Christians did. One is, I wonder if we’re scared of scaring people off. When someone seems to profess faith in Jesus, maybe we’re scared that if we tell them they need to stand up in front of everybody and get dunked then they’ll run off scared.

But I want to suggest, with gentleness but firmness, that if someone is not ready to obey Jesus in baptism then they’re not ready to follow Him. Didn’t Jesus tell us that we had to take up our crosses to come after Him? Didn’t Jesus say that if we loved Him, we’d obey His commandments?

The command to get baptized is perhaps one of the best ways of figuring out whether someone is really in, or whether they’re still flirting and trying to have Jesus on their own terms. Christians get baptized. Plain and simple. There’s no other options in the New Testament.

The second idea is that we might think that if someone does something because they have to, then it’s less genuine or less good or less valuable than if they freely choose to do it themselves. So we shouldn’t give people commands or put pressure on them. We need to let them choose it for themselves.

I know I’ve heard that idea a lot in churches. It’s the kind of idea that will get you a lot of “amen” comments on Facebook. But it’s not an idea that comes from God's word. I mean, how many pages of the Bible do we need to read before we run in to a God who gives commands and expects us to obey? Now, wonderfully, God so often gives us reasons for those commands. He tells us why. But even then, he expects us to obey.

I heard a testimony recently of someone who got baptized because someone else suggested to them that they should, and they responded and said “ok” and they did it. And instead of thinking that this is less good than if they freely decided to do it themselves, we should see that as a beautiful and wonderful and a very Christian thing to do. Time and time again the Bible shows us the beauty of obedience, the sheer beauty of us doing things because God told us to and we trust that He knows best. And we’ll follow what He says when we don't fully understand.

So I do not agree that baptism is something that we should never encourage someone to do, or that we need to wait until it springs up from their own hearts. I just don’t think that’s biblical.

Now, on this issue, still connected to this question, I want to bring up the idea of children being baptized. We don’t baptize babies, because a baby can’t appeal to God for a good conscience. A baby can’t have faith. But what about children who are a bit older?

I know people who say you should never baptize someone until they are 18 or so, because they won’t understand it until then. But does any of us really understand everything at our baptism? Did the Ethiopian eunuch or the Philippian jailor understand everything when they were baptized? Again, we need to remember that baptism marks the beginning of our faith journey, not that we’ve passed probation. And didn’t Jesus say that unless we become like little children, we’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3)? Didn’t Jesus say, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14)?

Questions and passages like this convinced me that I needed to adjust my fairly firm assumptions of when someone was ready for baptism.

At the same time, I also understand that different children have various faith journeys, various levels of understanding and maturity. We also should not assume that just because someone is born into a Christian home that they will automatically be born again. We also want to remember that, especially earlier on, children are more susceptible to suggestion and pressure. I would not talk to a ten-year-old about getting baptized the same way I would talk to a twenty-year-old.

And yet, the Jewish people celebrate their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs at thirteen years of age—twelve for girls in Orthodox settings. That’s the point at which that child is held responsible before God for their actions. And I wonder, with teenagers, if we’ve often bought in to our culture’s beliefs in setting low expectations, assuming they’re not ready for things until years after they actually were.

Parents, this calls for wisdom. But let’s make sure it’s the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of the world we apply to these situations.

Finally,

3) What does baptism mean after the fact?

In other words, what does this mean for those of us who have been baptized? Baptism is a big deal the day of, and maybe in the weeks to follow, but what comes next? Does your baptism mean anything to you years or even decades after the fact? What encouragement can you and I take from a passage like this?

Well, in some ways, this is like asking “what did the months in the ark mean to Noah and his family years after the fact?” It meant everything to them! It meant that they were alive. It meant that they had escaped judgement and were even there to breathe in the air of the creation made new.

And if baptism is how we express our faith in Christ, then looking to our baptism is much the same as looking to our salvation. This might be especially important to those of you who can’t pinpoint the moment that you trusted in Christ. But you can look to your baptism as a marker of the fact that you do believe and it’s been sealed through baptism.

Some of this is going to come up on the study guide this week, but in Romans 6 we see the idea that baptism has a lot to say about our ongoing walk with God in holiness and obedience and our ongoing fight with sin.

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:1–3).

In other words, “You’ve been baptized! How can you keep on sinning?” B. B. Warfield, I think, had this great phrase of “grabbing people by their baptisms.” And baptism provides a wonderful place to start with each other as we encourage each other to walk with the Lord.

Let’s not forget Peter’s big idea, once again. When following Jesus gets hard, when the pressures of the world press in on you, when you’re tempted to get soft in your Christian life so that you can blend in, look to your baptism.

Remember that you have died in Christ. The old you is gone. The old you breathed its last when Christ breathed His last on the cross. And the you who lives is a new person who has been united to the resurrected, victorious Christ.

That’s the point of verse 22, which we looked at last week and which is a wonderful place to conclude together again. Baptism unites us to the resurrected Jesus, who has ascended and reigns above all powers. So remember your baptism. Remember that you’ve been baptized into the Christ who suffered unjustly but rose victorious and now occupies the highest place in the universe. Baptism is not just a pledge from us to God—it’s also a promise from God to us that we will share in His victory. Evil will not have the last word. Jesus has triumphed, we are united Him, and His victory will be ours.

And so in the end, baptism isn’t about us. Baptism is about Christ, who is risen, and whose life we share. And that’s why we’re going to end here with a song celebrating Christ’s resurrection. That’s what this is about because that’s who this is about.