Baptism and Salvation

Vindication will certainly come to all those who suffer for the sake of Christ, maintaining their trust in Him alone. This has been Peter’s point throughout 1 Peter 3:8–20, with Jesus Himself serving as the supreme example of the person who suffers for righteousness and is then vindicated, for He rose from the dead and ascended to God’s right hand. Peter has also given the patriarch Noah as a pattern. Ancient Jewish tradition said that Noah was mocked as he built the ark, but he continued to obey God and was even used by God to preach repentance to his generation. In the end, Noah was vindicated because the judgment he preached fell on the earth and he was saved from the floodwaters by the ark (vv. 18–20). Similarly, followers of Christ who persevere as they are mistreated, believing and obeying Him to the end, will receive the fullness of salvation in the new creation (see 2 Peter 3:13).

In today’s verse, Peter says that baptism, which corresponds to the rescue that Noah enjoyed, now saves us (1 Peter 3:21). As we consider this text, we must be clear on two matters. First, we must affirm that the rite of baptism in itself saves no one. Peter teaches as much when he says that baptism saves us “as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” In other words, baptism does not save anyone who does not exercise saving faith in Christ. Second, we must not so divorce the work of God from the moment of baptism that Peter’s statement that “baptism . . . now saves you” becomes meaningless.

Thus, there is an inseparable link between baptism and salvation. We do not mean that one cannot be saved if one is never baptized; rather, ordinarily in the application of Christ’s redemption by the Holy Spirit, God gives grace to His elect through baptism. We cannot say much more than that, for the Lord has not said much more than that. There is a “sacramental union,” as Westminster Confession of Faith 27.2 puts it, between the sign (baptism) and the thing signified (salvation) such that we can speak of being saved in baptism without meaning that every baptized person is saved at the moment the water is applied. One can receive the grace of regeneration before, during, or after the rite of baptism. Some who have been baptized in water never receive the grace. The sovereign work of the Holy Spirit determines when and to whom the grace signified in baptism is applied (John 3:1–8).