1 Peter 3.21 once more
A couple of readers complained that my remarks on 1 Peter 3:21 shed
more shadow than light. Could I summarise? I’m good at making simple
things complex so the complaint is legitimate no doubt.
Peter obviously believes that baptism is part of the saving process
in which God brings people to himself in Jesus Christ. Because that’s
true, he says "baptism saves you."
Peter says that baptism saves people "by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ." Saving power and virtue lie only in the once dead and now
living and glorified Jesus Christ. It’s him and that power that baptism
links believers to.
Peter says baptism saves (there’s no denying that) but it doesn’t
save in the way some might think. It doesn’t save by taking away "the
filth of the flesh." What did he mean by that? That’s where my smoke was
especially dense, apparently.
The physical descendants of Abraham through Jacob were the elect of God.
They were Abraham’s heirs "after the flesh" (see 1 Corinthians 10:18, KJV and other versions, Romans 9:1-5 and elsewhere).
They consistently polluted themselves and violated the covenant.
God brought that covenant to an end and re-defined "the elect," bringing judgement and an end to a fleshly standing before God.
John came baptizing, aiming to bring Israel after the flesh back to
God on terms of the existing Mosaic covenant. (See Malachi chapter 4.)
That’s not how baptism in the name of Jesus Christ functions in
faith. Those who were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ were baptized
into someone who was the end of "the flesh" (see Romans 6 and early 7).
NT baptism didn’t cleanse "the flesh" and make it acceptable as flesh.
It proclaimed the end of it because Christ was put to death in the flesh
and resurrected in Spirit. So NT baptism was nothing like John’s
baptism (hence Paul re-baptized Ephesians in Acts 19).
"The flesh" and "the Spirit" are two ways of relating to God.
Israel’s profound need wasn’t met by cleansing the flesh in some baptism
that kept the Old Covenant structure alive. As in the "baptism" of
Noah, God ended "all flesh" so in NT baptism, which proclaims God’s work
in Jesus Christ, God brought an end to "the flesh".
Peter is writing to Jews and reminding them that their life with God
didn’t rest in their being born after the flesh. They were not baptized
to purge them as a fleshly nation of their apostasies. They were born again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).
That’s the best I can do. It might be no improvement.
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