2 Cents

If you look at the beliefs of numerous denominations across the country one thing you will certainly find is wide disagreement on the subject of baptism.

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, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Before moving on, just so we're clear, the "this" to which baptism corresponds according to Peter is the flood of Noah.

Baptismal Regeneration

Now the real issue I want to address is the phrase used here, "now saves you."

Recently, on the Ask Pastor John podcast, (which is consistently very good by the way!) Baptist preacher, writer, and theologian John Piper said of this phrase that it "sounds kind of dangerous... sounds kind of like baptismal regeneration," and then he went on to quote the rest of the verse and explain why it's not actually dangerous.

I disagree with Piper on what baptism actually is and does, but in this one statement he's exactly right and I'd like to use it as a jumping-off point to explain what Peter means by "now saves you," in the verse above.

First, Peter does not mean that the physical act of getting dunked under water is what brings about your salvation.  No... Christ's death on the cross did that.  Not everyone who has ever been baptized is automatically saved.  That's what "baptismal regeneration" means.

There have been and will always be people who get baptized for the wrong reasons (their friends were doing it, they felt peer pressured into it, they wanted to be liked, etc.) and baptism does not save those people.

A youth minister I knew once fell into the baptismal pool while decorating for VBS.  He was completely immersed.  Was he re-baptized?  Absolutely not!  It's the same as if he fell in a pool.

Salvation By Works?

However, what Peter does mean when he says "baptism now saves you," is that baptism is part of the salvation process.  Many denominations of churches today simply gloss over this fact and act as if baptism has no part in salvation whatsoever.

A statement as clear as "baptism now saves you," can only mean one of two things.  Either (1) baptism is what does the saving (which is clearly unbiblical, God does it), or (2) we are saved in the act of baptism or at the time of our baptism.  It would be dishonest to read such a statement, even with the caveat that comes immediately after, and conclude that Peter meant the exact opposite of what he says, that baptism does not save you.

Is this a type of works-righteousness and therefore heresy like that described by Paul in the book of Galatians?  Absolutely not!  Rather God has given certain conditions that all people must meet if they want to be saved.  Being baptized is simply obediently meeting one of those conditions.  The biblical phrase is "obeying the gospel." (See 2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17)

It is not salvation by works simply because we do something God told us to do to be saved!  God tells us to believe (John 3:16), to repent (Luke 13:3), and to confess (Rom. 10:9-10) in order to be saved.  Would anyone claim that it is salvation by works to require repentance of someone for them to be saved?  Hardly.

The Bible shows us, in many books and in many ways, that being baptized is one of God's conditions for salvation (Mark 16:16).  Baptism is the God-ordained time at which we receive the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).  It is the point in time in our conversion where we cross over from death to life (John 5:24).  In it we are buried with Christ (Rom. 6:3-4) and in it we are raised to new life (Col. 2:12).  It saves us (1 Peter 3:21) in the sense that God saves us when we get baptized.