1 Peter

Following my post earlier this week on the Lutheran doctrine of baptismal regeneration, I thought it would be good to address some of the texts they use to justify it. There really are only two that come to mind: Titus 3:5–7 and 1 Peter 3:18–22. Since I honestly don’t know why anyone would think Titus 3 is about baptism, I’ll go straight to 1 Peter.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 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. 21 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, 22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

Peter has spent the first part of the chapter admonishing his readers to live righteously, not in order to gain any merit for themselves — “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Romans 3:20) — but for the sake of the gospel. They are to be prepared, so that when they are persecuted for righteousness, the will be able to give a defense, not of themselves, but of the gospel, “the hope that is in you,” the cause for which they are being persecuted.

That hope, that gospel, is that “Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so 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.” This is a rather curious passage. It’s hard to say exactly what Christ said or where he went to say it. But that is hardly the point. We are reminded here of the wickedness of man in the time of Noah (see Genesis 6:1–7) and the catastrophic judgment that came upon them for their wickedness. And we are reminded that a chosen few were “brought safely through the water.”

Now Peter gets to the point: “Corresponding to that,” — or better, “The like figure” (KJV) — “baptism now saves you.”

We need to pause now to consider what the word baptize means. It is a word that, unfortunately, translators have chosen not to translate. So we tend to think of it almost exclusively as water baptism. To baptize means to submerge. A sunken ship is baptized. It can mean to cleanse or wash by immersion. It is not always associated with water. Christ, speaking of his crucifixion and burial, said, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50) This is exactly the baptism spoken of by Peter.

So, to summarize in the briefest possible way:

The physical salvation of Noah and his family through the flood is an antetype (translated “the like figure” in the KJV) of our spiritual salvation through the death of Christ. The flood is the judgment of God. The ark is Christ. Jesus said, “I have a baptism to undergo.” If we “have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), and “raised us up with him” (Ephesians 2:5–6; Colossians 3:1), we have gone through that baptism (flood) with him, in him; he is our ark. Therefore, “a few . . . were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you . . . through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

It’s not about water baptism at all. It’s about the cross.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He 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. 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, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

—1 Peter 3:18–22

This New Testament text informs us that the Old Testament account of the Genesis flood and the salvation of Noah and his family in the ark, while being an actual historic event, was an allegory of the wrath of God against sin and the salvation of his elect in Christ.

Now we need to take a time out and explain the word “baptism” in this passage. We need to know that it isn’t an English word. It is just a transliteration of baptisma, which means “immersion” or “submersion.”* Its meaning is not limited to the ecclesiastical rite of Christian baptism. There is no word for that. No name was ever given; they just called it immersion, because that’s how it’s done. This is where we could take off on a tangent about the baptismal rite that would not be irrelevant, but we’re not going to do that. It’s enough for now to see that “baptism” has a broader meaning than that.

Coming back to Noah, here, in a nutshell, is what this text is telling us:

The wrath of God was unleashed on the world; corresponding to that, the wrath of God is coming against sin. All who were outside the ark perished; corresponding to that, all who are outside of Christ will perish. All those inside the ark passed through the flood and were saved; corresponding to that, all those who are in Christ were crucified with him and resurrected to eternal life.

“Baptism now saves you” means all that? Yes, it does. The baptism of which Peter writes is the baptism of which Jesus spoke in Mark 10:38: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” and Luke 12:50: “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” This is the baptism we must undergo to be saved. We must be able to say “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). So what we see in the ark is Christ, taking the punishment of God’s wrath, carrying his own through the flood to life on the other side. And corresponding to that, that is also what we see in baptism.

There are several lessons we can learn from Noah: obedience, faithfulness, trust, etc., but don’t turn this account into another VeggieTales episode. The story of the ark is the gospel. Don’t miss it.

* For example: “send Lazarus so that he may dip (baptizo) the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue” —Luke 16:24; “the one for whom I shall dip (baptizo) the morsel . . . when He had dipped (baptizo) the morsel” — John 13:26.