The Hope of the Believer . . .

Restoration Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, February 1989

BAPTISM: ANSWER OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE 

There are many dimensions to baptism. In Tit. 3:5 it is described as "the washing of regeneration" - not regeneration itself, but the bath of regeneration, which indicates that baptism is the culmination of the regeneration (born again) process, which begins with and is rooted in faith. Baptism is also in some sense "for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38) - not in every sense and certainly not in an absolute sense, but in some sense, otherwise it would not be an apostolic injunction. Alexander Campbell, who championed the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins in a day when it was virtually ignored, said that one is actually saved at the point of his faith in Christ and formally saved when he is baptized. This would make baptism for the remission of sins in a formal or legal sense. But to Campbell this made baptism no less important and no less necessary, formally necessary, something like a wedding or a naturalization ceremony is necessary.

Other Scriptures definitely relate baptism to salvation, such as Christ's command in Mk. 16: 16, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved," and 1 Pet. 3:21, "baptism now saves you." Then there are those passages that relate baptism to purification, "Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling upon his name" (Acts 22:16); to identification with Christ, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27); to incorporation in the Body of Christ, "For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13); to the illumination of the Spirit, "those who were once enlightened" (14eb. 6:4). While this verse is less commonly related to baptism, it is probable that "once enlightened" alludes to the time when the people referred to were baptized. One reason for this is that baptism is conjoined to the receiving of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

One of the most remarkable dimensions of baptism is its description as the working of God after the order of the resurrection of Christ: "buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Col 2:12). Those who would minimize baptism (note that it is referred to as a burial in this passage) as a work performed by man should be persuaded by this passage that baptism is the work of God, which He does in reference to the faith of the believer. The same working of God that raised Christ from the dead raises the believer to a new life from his burial in baptism. This is evident by the reference in the preceding verse to "the circumcision of Christ" which is made without hands. Is not Paul saying that when a believer is baptized he is circumcised in his heart by Christ himself, which is the work of God? One can hardly have a more exalted view of baptism than this.

Equally impressive is that in the two documents where Paul says the most about justification by faith apart from works of the law he makes strong statements about baptism. Including himself, he writes in Rom. 6:4, "Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Then in Gal. 3:27 he says that we put Christ on in baptism, as quoted above. In verse 26 he explains that this is how we are saved through faith. It never occurred to Paul in writing these great documents on salvation by faith that baptism could possibly be viewed as a way of earning one's salvation. It is rather viewed as the way people are saved by faith.

There is a further dimension to baptism that I want us to consider in some detail, for it seems to tie all the others together in that it describes baptism in terms of the believer's response to God, as "the answer of a good conscience toward God (1 Pet. 3:21). It is an amazing figure of speech, likening baptism to a kind of "pick up the phone" response to God's call. The Greek word for answer is variously rendered as "pledge" (NIV), "request" (Sconfield), "appeal" (Phillips), "promise" (TEV). To see baptism as a pledge can mean either "a pledge of a good conscience" or "a pledge to maintain a good conscience." But "answer" in the sense of a response-baptism is our conscientious response or answer to God's grace - is probably closest to the meaning. In submitting to baptism we are answering God's call, we are making the response that He ordained for the purpose, for baptism is God's own decree.

Some scholars, such as G. R. Beasley-Murray in his Baptism in the New Testament, suggest that in 1 Peter we have a baptismal treatise that was composed as part of a baptismal service, which would mean that 1 Pet. 3:18-21 was read to those being baptized. They point to the words "Baptism now saves us" (present tense) as an indication that believers were being baptized even as the words were read. Other such references, such as Tit. 3:5 ("He saved us through the washing of regeneration"), is aorist tense, pointing to completed action.

However that may be, those words "baptism now saves us" are very difficult for anyone who sees no connection between baptism and salvation. There must be some important sense in which baptism saves or the apostle Peter would never have written those words. He makes it clear that he is not referring to the water itself as having cleansing or saving power, for he adds "not the removal of the filth of the flesh" — that is, one might go into the water with dirty feet and come out with dirty feet, but Still there is a cleansing, an inner cleansing. That is when he says baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God.

Why does he say that baptism saves? He sees baptism as an anti-type (an act that points back) of those who were saved in Noah's ark, eight souls. God's longsuffering waited patiently in those disobedient days when the ark was being prepared, he tells us in verse 20, "in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water." Again, we can only conclude that in some sense water saved those eight souls. It was through water that the ark delivered them from the sinful world. The type, pointing to Christian baptism, is easy enough to understand. If the water drowned the wicked, it saved the righteous. If one insists that it was the ark and not the water that saved Noah, he can argue his case with the apostle Peter. For the point that he had in mind, making Noah's salvation a type of baptism, the apostle saw Noah saved by or through water.

He goes on to say, "the like figure" or the anti-type "baptism now saves us." So Noah's salvation pointed to Christian baptism and Christian baptism points back to Noah. Noah was saved through water and we are saved by baptism! The language is undeniable. Those who have apoplexy at the thought of baptism saving in any sense will have to contend with what is written.

The apostle makes clear the sense in which baptism saves. It is "through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." The translators have properly used a parenthetical phrase after "baptism saves" and before "through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." That phrase is "(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God)." The parenthesis explains how baptism saves us through Jesus' resurrection. It is not in the water itself but in the response (answer) that the believer makes to God's call of grace. Does baptism then save? Yes, of course, that is what the apostle says. Baptism saves us in what it represents in the resurrection of Christ. In baptism we are buried with Christ in a death like his and are raised in a resurrection like his (Rom. 6:5). In doing this we "pick up the phone" and answer God as it were. He calls us by grace through faith. In baptism we answer the call. It is by faith that we hear the call and believe that God is on the line with His promise of salvation. But we must pick up the phone. We must answer with a good conscience. In fact that is how we make our pledge to God that we have a good conscience in His sight. That is what baptism is and that is how baptism saves.

There is no way in this context to make baptism a work whereby we "do something" to be saved. We have seen that baptism is the circumcision of Christ in our hearts and the working of God. We are saved by grace through faith, and only through faith, but it is a faith that responds to God with a good conscience. And an apostle of Christ assures us that this is what baptism is. Perhaps the way Beasley-Murray puts it will prove helpful. In explaining the meaning of baptism as the answer of a good conscience he writes:

It is a meeting of God and man in the Christ of the Cross and resurrection; it is faith assenting to God's grace and receiving that grace embodied in Christ. This is more important than Noah and the Flood and the disobedient spirits, but all together combine to magnify the greatness of the grace revealed in the suffering and exalted Lord who meets us in the Christian Baptisma. (Baptism in the New Testament, p. 262)