Our quote will include verses 18-22 of 1 Peter chapter 3, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 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: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him."
There are some who contend that because Peter, in the above quote, said, "eight souls were saved by water", and "baptism doth also now save us", one MUST be "baptized" (immersed) in water to attain eternal salvation. That contention is not, in any way, supported by the New Testament gospel as it concerns both "baptism" and eternal salvation.
Does "baptism" save the souls of those who accept it? Absolutely!! However, the soul saving "baptism" is that same "baptism" Jesus said He was about to endure in Luke 12:50, which says, "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" Jesus was referring to the, at that time, soon to come sacrificial ordeal He would undergo to accomplish remission of sins for all who would place their faith in Him. That "baptism", in no way, exemplifies, a water "baptism".
One is saved by immersing oneself, by faith, into that "baptism" that Jesus afforded with His death, burial, and resurrection.
The term "baptism" as it appears in 1 Peter 3:21 refers to the immersion of Jesus Christ into His sin remitting sacrifice for all who will place their faith in Him unto the redemption of the eternal soul. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit", that act is the "baptism" that saves.~
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