Read slowly and try to understand!! 1 Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
"""NOT the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:""" =THAT SAVES YOU NOT WATER!!
Let me go through this carefully and then you might understand
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 clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (RSV).
Note the parts I have emboldened. This is the core statement
Baptism, ……., now saves you, ….., through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The parts I have omitted are extra clarifiction. I will come back to them later
The Council of Trent defined 5 causes of our initial justification (salvation). Here are two of them:
a) the meritorious cause is His most beloved only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when we were enemies, for the exceeding charity wherewith he loved us, merited Justification for us by His most holy Passion on the wood of the cross, and made satisfaction for us unto God the Father.
Jesus by his passion, death and resurrection merited salvation for us.
This is what Peter says: - we are saved "
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ".
But not every on is saved. There is something else that has to happen before Jesus applied that salvation to us.
b) the instrumental cause is the sacrament of baptism, which is the sacrament of faith, without which (faith) no man was ever justified.
The instrument that Jesus uses to apply his saving grace is baptism. This is what Peter means when he says
Baptism, …….,
now saves you.
Now for the addition clarification
a)
Baptism, which corresponds to this,
Which corresponds to this. To what? Well to what Peter has been referring to in the previous verse, namely the salvation of 8 persons through water. Baptism corresponds because we are saved through (by means of) water just as those 8 persons were saved (by means of) water. Water was the instrument that God used to save them and it is the instrument he uses to save us. But whereas in the case of Noah it was physical salvation. In our case it is spiritual salvation.
b)
not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience.
Water is normally used for physical cleansing but here Peter is saying it is used for spiritual cleansing - an appeal to God for a clear conscience because God forgives us our sins
.
This is what Peter says in Acts 2:38
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins"
Of course you might say that the 8 people in Noahs time were saved by the Ark not by the water. The water drowned people. But that is to misunderstand what God was doing in Noah's time.
Immediately before God tells Noah to build the Ark he explains what he is doing:
“
In the eyes of God the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness. When God saw how corrupt the earth had become, since all mortals led depraved lives on earth, he said to Noah: “I have decided to put an end to all mortals on earth; the earth is full of lawlessness because of them. So I will destroy them and all life on earth.” (Gen 6:11-13)
The water (the flood) destroyed the world with all it’s sin and iniquity. It was this that those in the Ark were saved from by means of water. And it saves us in a similar but spiritual way, by clearing out the sin and iniquity in us. As Peter goes on to say it is an appeal to God for a clear conscience - because our sins are forgiven.
