The Sign of Baptism
1 Peter 3:18-22 (Pew Bible 858)
"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. "
Introduction
Sin had reached the point in Noah's day that God called his good creation into question. A fracture had occurred between the Creator and the created. With a broken heart God sends judgment upon the earth by overwhelming it with water. Creation was plunged into death, later to arise to new life when the waters receded! God covenanted with the sign of the rainbow never to judge the world this way again. Instead, God will build up creation.
Sin Continues
But sin continues. The fracture is renewed. Peter tells us that Christ died because of, and as remedy for our sins today. In fact, the effectiveness of Christ's death even reaches back to those whose sin brought on God's judgment in Noah's day, as well as forward to those sinners generations from now!
Peter compares Noah's flood and God's covenant with the sacrament of baptism, and then links this with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the ultimate victory of God. In so doing, baptim is compared with judgment and salvation. The flood meant the death of the wicked. Baptism represented the death of Christ and the believer. Yet, through both, hope is born anew. The earth sprang forth with new life before Noah's eyes. Jesus was raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death.
The waters of baptism continue to symbolize the judgment and the grace of God to this day. Now, when believers are put under the waters of baptism, and then removed from it, they are identified with Christ's death, burial and resurrection. It is this death and resurrection that saves us, and which baptism symbolizes... and that mends the fracture created by our sin.
One Bible commentator wrote, “The act of baptism is a commitment on the part of believers in all good conscience to make sure that what baptism symbolizes will become a reality in their lives.” (NIV Study Bible).