1 Peter 3:21 states, "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."
This verse indicates that baptism is not a means of physical cleansing but rather a symbol of spiritual regeneration and purification. Baptism signifies a commitment to follow Christ and a promise of a clean conscience before God. However, it does not save in the sense that water itself has saving power. Water baptism is a symbolic action that represents the forgiveness of sins and the new life received through faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection, not through water baptism itself.
like. Rom_5:14, 1Co_4:6, *Heb_9:24 g. *Heb_11:19.
figure. or, antitype. R. L. Keeler asks, "What saves us? Peter says ’the antitype baptism now saves us.’ What is this antitype baptism, and how does it save us? By examining the type or figure we will better understand the antitype. Water and the ark together saved Noah’s family in the type. In the antitype it is the blood of Christ (of which water is the type), and Christ himself (of which the ark is the type), by which we are saved—saved from sin and everlasting death" (Christian Baptism, p. 285). Rom_5:14, 1Co_10:6, Heb_8:5; Heb_9:9; *Heb_9:24 g.
baptism. Gr. baptisma (S# G908, Mat_3:7). FS101, +Deu_32:42, This is a reference to real, not ritual baptism, for ritual baptism does not save us, it being only a humanly administered ordinance, and Peter’s parenthetical words seem expressly given to guard against such a misapplication of his words to the ritual ordinance.
Real baptism accomplished by the Holy Spirit saves us, placing us in the body of Christ, and applying the cleansing blood of Christ to our hearts (+*Act_1:5 note. +*Act_22:16, 1Co_12:13, Tit_3:5, Heb_10:22, Rev_1:5) upon our calling upon Christ (Rom_10:13) and placing faith in his resurrection (Rom_10:9). Mat_3:6; Mat_3:11; Mat_3:16; +*Mat_28:19, Mar_10:38-39; **Mar_16:16, *Luk_12:50, **Act_2:38; Act_8:12; Act_16:33; +*Act_22:16, **Rom_6:3-6, +*1Co_6:11; **1Co_12:13, **Gal_3:27, Eph_4:5; *Eph_5:26, **Col_2:12, **Tit_3:5-7, +*Heb_6:2; +*Heb_10:22, Jas_4:8, 2Pe_1:9, 1Jn_5:6; 1Jn_5:8.
save us. Dr. Francis Nigel Lee in a work titled From Circumcision to Baptism, page 3, states "But fallen man constantly sins, even from his very birth onward. So God renewed His transgressed Covenant – with Noah and his family (Gen_6:18). Then, Noah and all his covenanted household were baptized by rainwater from above. However, the wicked outside the ark were non-baptismally drowned to death by total submersion from beneath. Gen_6:18; Gen_7:1-23 cf. 1Pe_3:20 f." 1Sa_4:3, +*Tit_3:5.
J.