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, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him (1 Peter 3:21-22).
It is not the physical cleansing of water on the body in baptism that “saves,” but the appeal in faith to God for the cleansing of conscience. We are saved by grace received through faith; our salvation is not the result of works (Eph. 2:8–9).
Baptism is a tangible sign of the grace that brings us through the spiritual perils of this life, just as Noah’s family was brought through water to be saved by God’s mercy (1 Pet. 3:20–21). God delights to give this sign to those in his church who put their faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the means of washing away sins and purifying believers for God. When a church administers baptism, it indicates God’s pledge that the promises of grace secured by the risen Lord will apply when the condition of faith is met; the act does not accomplish salvation but rather indicates what God accomplishes through faith.
For the believers in Peter’s time, the significance of this pledge was the knowledge that they were made eternally secure by Christ’s work on their behalf. Faith linked them to the powerful working of Christ at God’s right hand, regardless of the trials and difficulties they faced in the world (v. 22). These same assurances secured by faith are indicated by our baptisms today.
Adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible
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