Baptism & Conscience

[blackheart]

1 Peter Ch 3 speaks of conscience in the context of baptism

My question - Whose conscience?

[steve]

I have always assumed it is talking about the conscience of the saved individual, and that Peter is saying that it is not actually the water of baptism that brings about salvation, but the inward cleansing of the conscience by the blood of Christ (Heb.9:14; 10:22).

[SamIam]

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 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, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1 Peter 3:18-22, ESV)

The sentence reads:

"Baptism ... now saves you ... as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ ..."

Peter is not discounting the waters of baptism. There is a sense in which baptism saves us. But it saves not by virtue of mechanical, or even ceremonial cleansing. Baptism saves because through baptism we "appeal to God" for cleansing, and the cleansing is accomplished through the work of Christ who "suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God," and was ressurected.