Baptism Now Saves You

1 Peter 3:18-22

¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, ²⁰because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. ²¹Baptism, 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, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Peter succinctly articulates the work of Christ in just a few short verses. Both His humiliation and exaltation are brought forth and Jesus’ saving action is held up as our hope. In the midst of this reminder we find an interesting side note, for it is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, Jesus descent into hell after His death. And actually, it is not even a side note but the source of some major theology.

This trip into Satan’s realm exposes the victory of Christ’s death on the cross for our sins. In that moment, between His death and his resurrection, He goes into the netherworld and announces His victory to the devil and his minions, as well as all those who chose to deny the power of God in their lives before Jesus was born. We rehearse this event every time we speak the words of the Apostles’ Creed:

…He descended into hell and on the third day, rose again from the dead.

Peter then takes up the story of Noah to make his point about God’s ability to save.

And—speaking of the ark, that led Peter into another interesting side path, which is the role of Baptism in God’s great saving plan. The very waters that were destroying the earth were in a way saving Noah and his family, since they buoyed up his great boat and were spared the terrible convulsions that were taking place on the surface of the earth. Since the great aquifers were all blasting to the surface at once and tearing up the land, it was actually much safer to be in a boat riding on top of all that water. Peter says that those “saving” flood waters prefigured the water of Baptism that now saves you also. The floodwaters actually preserved Noah and were not just symbolic. Baptism does not merely signify our salvation but actually gives it by connecting us with the death and resurrection of Christ. Its value is not in giving us a clean skin by removing dirt but in giving us a clean conscience by removing the dirt of sin.

Jeske, M. A. ©2002. James, Peter, John, Jude (p. 114). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

As Peter finally confirms, Jesus is right now seated at the right hand of the Father, with all of the inhabitants of heaven under His command and who are at this time bringing Him the worship He deserves. What we also know is that all believers will join that heavenly chorus and that gives us much to look forward to.