1 Pet 3:20-21~~
20who 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,
Did those 8 people who were saved get wet?
baptism now saves you—
not the removal of dirt from the flesh .....(.this is a DRY baptism.)
but an appeal to God for a good conscience—
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,........the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Eph 4:5~~one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Mark 1:8~~"I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
The Bible very clearly states that any type of overt, physical washing, or any ritual, cannot cleanse us from sin.
Heb. 10:4; IPet. 3:20-21.
The following response was shared with me by one of my Elders at church.
Regarding 1 Peter 3:21.......Remember that it was Peter who commanded those who heard the gospel on Pentecost to be baptized in Jesus’ name,
Acts 2:36-38 which is in perfect harmony with what Jesus told him and the other apostles in the great commission as per
Matthew 28:18-20,
Mark 16:15-16 &
Luke 24:44-47.
It was also Peter who later in the same way, commanded Cornelius and his family to be baptized in water,
Acts 10:48 after God showed his approval of them coming into the kingdom by giving them
Holy Spirit baptism. Peter makes this point in both councils at Jerusalem which were specifically convened to discuss the Gentiles being baptized,
Acts 11:15-18 &
15:1-11. He argued that HSb (for short) proved that they were “acceptable” (
Acts 10:9-16) to receive gcb.
We should ask ourselves why God inspired Luke to record Peter’s defense of baptizing the Gentiles in both
Acts 10 &
15 too, if not to help to us understand that HSb was only given to Cornelius to justify their receipt of gcb. I believe this is because gcb is the one baptism of
Ephesians 4:5. Gcb is the only baptism which reenacts the death burial and resurrection of Jesus (the gospel,
1st Corinthians 15:1-4) according to
Romans 6:3-6.
With the above as a context, we read in
3:20 of his first letter that Peter introduces the historic salvation of Noah which obviously brings water into the conversation.
Why? Does he do this to show that we don’t need water? On the contrary, he does it to show us that we do need water, stating very clearly that baptism saves us. Why else would he have commanded this on Pentecost? Why else would he have commanded it for Cornelius
even after he and his entire family had been baptized with the Holy Spirit?
Only water could possibly make folks think that it was about cleansing the flesh, so he reassures them that it is not about that. Rather, it is an appeal to God for a good conscience because the promise with gcb is that sin is forgiven at that point.
That our sins are forgiven at baptism has already been mentioned from
Acts 2:38 &
Romans 6:3-6 but
Colossians 2:11-14 gives it to us in additional detail.
1…. Like
Romans 6 said, baptism is a
burial from which we arise (HSb is not a burial
from which we arise) -
Col. 2:12
2…. We arise
saved through faith that God at that point has removed our sin and
the forgiveness of sin is never connected with HSb -
Col. 2:11-13
3…. Jesus took away the “certificate of debt”
nailing it to his cross. Remember
Romans 6:3 that we are baptized into the death (crucifixion) of Jesus and that
our old self was nailed to the cross, crucified,
6:6 with him. HSb is never said to
connect us with the cross of Jesus but gcb definitely does -
Col 2:14.
You cite
Hebrews 10:4 to say that no ritual can cleanse us from sin. Well, that’s not what the passage says. It teaches us that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, which is true. However, they forget that God took away/forgave the sin of those who offered up the blood of bulls and goats according to
Leviticus 4:20,
26,
31 &
35.
God forgives sins according to His own plan and the law was His plan to forgive sin until the coming of His son whose blood would pay for the sins of us all (which the blood of animals could not). Those under the old covenant were forgiven because they, by faith, kept the law and offered the sacrifices that pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus. We, like those who kept the law, are forgiven because we do in faith what Jesus said. Jesus and his apostles said that we are to believe, repent and be baptized in His name according to his great commission. Our faith in Him compels us to believe that and do it.
The above point about forgiveness under the law is exactly what
Romans 1:16-17 &
3:21-26 are given to explain. God is declared righteous because He paid with Jesus’ blood the debt of sin that He forgave through the keeping of the law and sacrifices. He did not welch on this debt, but paid it in full and teaches us that if we want to be forgiven now we must get to the water.
What about the Passover (
Exodus 12)? Do I really have to put blood on the doorposts and lintels of the house? Gross. God knows who is in there and that we love him. He doesn't need me to put blood on the door. If I put blood on the door then I could claim that I saved myself. Right? I'll just explain to the death angel when he comes tonight how my faith in God's grace eliminates any need I may have to actually do what he says I need to do because any action on my part could be considered a work.
How were those healed when snakebitten in the wilderness (
Numbers 21:4-9)? They had to look on the bronze serpent that Moses had put on a pole. How silly, right? Everyone knows that looking at a bronze serpent won't cure a snakebite, right?. Why if you crawled over and looked at it then you could claim that your own power to crawl had saved you and your healing would have been by your own works. Better to just lay there and fester and ask God to heal you rather than be so legalistic as to believe that God would actually require you to go look at that snake on a pole.
How was Naaman cleansed of his leprosy in
2nd Kings 5:1-14?He dipped 7 times in the Jordan river like he was told to do.Was it the Jordan that cleansed him?Of course we know it was God who cleansed him. But God only cleansed him when he went to the water and dipped like he was told.Why did God have him cleansed in this fashion and why did he have the record of it written down and preserved for us to read today?
Go wash in the pool of Siloam to get my sight back (
John 9)? No way. That would be a work, right? Jesus already put the mud on my eyes so I'll just wait here for his work to give me my sight. Besides, he knows there are plenty of good water sources around Jerusalem and I could wash anywhere I wanted besides the pool of Siloam, that is if I were going to wash at all. But I'm not going to wash, even though he told me to go wash, because that would be trying to earn my sight myself and not depending on Jesus and the work that he has already done.
I digress.
God still does the washing away of sin. He has explained several times and in various ways, however, that he does it when we get to the water having faith in Jesus.
