Christian Baptism

Introduction

First Peter 3:19–21 speaks about Christian baptism. We believe in believers’ baptism by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe it should be administered only to those who truly believe in Jesus Christ—in his death, burial, and resurrection in our place, for our salvation—and who confess “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 6:3–4; Col. 3:12) to live in obedience to Jesus all of life (1 Pet. 2:24), as taught in the holy Scriptures.

Baptism does not regenerate anyone. Those whom God alone regenerates and who therefore truly repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ to live a Christ-centered life should be baptized. Christian baptism is a sign and seal of our salvation. It is a means of grace, one of the two sacraments Jesus himself instituted.

In our previous study, we found the heart of the gospel in 1 Peter 3:18 and 22. These verses can be paraphrased as follows: “Because Christ also suffered and died to atone for sins, the righteous one in behalf of unrighteous elect sinners, for the purpose of reconciling you to God, this one was put to death in the flesh but was raised to life by the Holy Spirit . . . . and who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”

In 1 Peter 3:19–21, Peter digresses from Christ’s substitutionary death, resurrection, ascension, and session to speak of what Christian baptism symbolizes: our salvation in Christ. First Peter 3:19–21 is one of the most difficult passages in the entire Bible. I agree, in the main, with St. Augustine’s interpretation of this passage. These verses speak of the significance of Christian water baptism for true believers. Let us, then, consider these three difficult verses. 

Christ Preaches (v. 19)

Paraphrasing verse 19, we read, “In the Holy Spirit, the pre-incarnate Christ (as we read in Gen. 18:10, 22) went and preached the gospel through Noah to the antediluvian wicked people.” He did so that they could repent of their wicked sins and believe the gospel, and thus escape the destruction that God would bring upon the whole world through the flood. Those who repented of their sins would be saved from eternal destruction by fleeing into the huge ark, which was being built, and staying in there safely until the flood was over.

The Bible speaks about this in Genesis 6:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.” (Gen. 6:5–14)

The wicked antediluvians, who lived before the flood of Genesis 6–8, refused to repent and believe the gospel, which Christ preached to them by the Spirit through Noah. When Peter wrote this epistle, the spirits of the disobedient people of Noah’s day, who perished in the flood, were kept in prison in divine judgment.

Peter is not saying that Christ, before his resurrection but after his death, visited the spirits of the antediluvian disobedient people in Hades to preach the gospel to them, giving them a second chance to repent and be saved, as some scholars claim. For example, in the commentary series by J. P. Lange, G. F. C. Fronmüller says that Christ after crucifixion descended into Hades and preached the gospel to the spirits of those who perished in the great flood, giving them a second chance to be saved.[1]

There is no second chance for anyone, according to the Bible. Paul writes, “For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). We must believe on the Lord Jesus now. We must make our calling and election sure now, when we hear the gospel preached by the minister of God. There is no second chance after death.

Luke 16 speaks about a rich man who died and his spirit went to hell. He was in fire, in agony, and in torment. There was no escape possible for him from there, as we read, “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us” (Luke 16:26). In other words, once we die, we cannot go from hell to heaven or from heaven to hell. That is why we must ask the question now: Have you trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your eternal salvation?

Jesus did not give the rich man a second chance. The spirit of the rich man went to hell, but the spirit of Lazarus went to paradise. The writer to the Hebrews says, “It is appointed for man once to die and then face judgment” (Heb. 9:27). There is no purgatory. There is no second chance. Our spirits at death go to hell or to heaven forever.

Concerning verse 19, St. Augustine said around 400 AD that the pre-incarnate Christ proclaimed salvation through Noah, who lived before the flood, by the Spirit.[2] So Peter is not speaking about what Christ did between his death and resurrection, but what he did through the Spirit at the time of Noah. Through Noah, Christ by the Spirit preached the gospel. Peter writes, “For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead” (1 Pet. 4:6). That is what we are doing now, while you are still living.

Christ, before his incarnation, before the flood, by the Spirit, through Noah, preached the gospel, urging the wicked people to repent. But they did not, and now their spirits are experiencing God’s judgment. But Christ did not preach to the spirits. He preached through Noah to the wicked people of Noah’s time. Similarly, the pre-incarnate Christ came to visit Abraham with two angels. At that time, he told Abraham, “Nothing is impossible with God” (see Gen. 18).

Elsewhere Peter says Noah was a preacher of righteousness, that is, a preacher of salvation. He writes, “[God] did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others” (2 Pet. 2:5).

The Old Testament prophets also prophesied by the Holy Spirit of Christ. Peter writes that they were “trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Pet. 1:11). The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ. Paul writes, “You, however, are controlled not by the [flesh] but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Rom. 8:9).

Noah was a prophet who prophesied by the Spirit of Christ. In other words, the pre-incarnate Christ, the Word, the only begotten Son, preached the gospel by the Spirit through the prophet Noah to the wicked people of his day. What about now? Paul writes, “[Christ] came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near” (Eph. 2:17). Dr. Gordon H. Clark says of this verse “that it was Christ, through his missionaries, that preached the gospel in Ephesus.”[3] In the same way, it is Christ who is preaching to you through me. If a minister is preaching the truth of the gospel, Christ is preaching through him.

Thus, we can say with St. Augustine, Theodore Beza, Matthew Henry, and many others that Christ preached by the Spirit the gospel through Noah to the antediluvian sinners. So also today, through his true ministers, Christ is preaching the gospel to the whole world. We tend to think the minister is just a man and one who is somewhat incompetent. He may be incompetent, but God makes us competent. As servants of Christ, through the competency of the Spirit, we can preach the gospel to you. But it is really Christ preaching to you because he cares for your eternal salvation. Jesus has received all authority and now is sending his true ministers with his authority to preach the gospel in his mighty resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. This Christ is with us always.

Through his true Spirit-filled ministers, God commands all people everywhere, first, to repent. We read, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Second, he commands all people everywhere to believe and love: “This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23).

However, many ministers are not sent by Christ. Such people are ministers of the devil. We find proof of this in Jesus’ own words: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:21–23). My translation is, “Go to hell, you evildoers, workers of anomia (lawlessness).”

Paul also speaks of false ministers: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:8). How, then, can we know that a preacher is sent by Christ? He will preach the truth of the word of God. Paul also says, “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. . . . For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (2 Cor. 11:4, 13–15).

True ministers who preach the gospel are gifts of Christ to his holy church throughout the world. Paul writes, “It was [the ascended Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–13). Paul also says, “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). He also writes,

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him [the gospel]. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit [watering it down, antinomianism, believe in Jesus and go and sin more. In this church, we don’t say that. You can go to any church. You are free. But I counsel you to go to the church where the word is preached, that you may be saved]. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. (2 Cor. 2:14–17)

The Disobedient People (v. 20)

In verse 20, Peter speaks about the wicked people of Noah’s day to whom Christ preached the gospel by the Spirit through Noah. Peter describes them as being disobedient to the gospel they heard from Christ through Noah. They refused to repent and believe and be saved. So their spirits are now in prison, experiencing divine, unending judgment.

Noah preached for many years when God was waiting with great patience, while the ark was being built. During that time, God in mercy did not bring in the flood to destroy the disobedient. Thousands of workers were building the huge ark. Yet even they actively rebelled against the gospel. They did not believe in God’s judgment by a great flood that would last one hundred and fifty days and would kill all except eight who believed and entered the ark and were saved. As Professor John Murray often said, the essence of sin is enmity toward God.

The ark points to Jesus Christ, who was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (Rom. 4:25). Paul writes, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. . . . For the wages of sin is [eternal] death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 3:23; 6:23).

In Genesis 7 we read, “Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood” (Gen. 7:7). They did so to escape the waters of judgment. What should we do to escape judgment? We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died in our place for our sins. We also read, “On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark” (Gen. 7:13). That is equal to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. We also read, “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark” (Gen. 7:23).

The vast majority of people in the world at that time stubbornly refused to repent; thus, God destroyed all of them, except the eight who entered the ark. Later, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their evil. Although Lot had preached the gospel to them, only three were saved from the destruction by fire. So I must ask you again: What about you? Have you believed in Jesus Christ alone for your eternal salvation?

Jesus tells us many will be destroyed and only a few will be saved. He said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:13–14). Eight alone were saved from the flood, and three alone were saved from the fire. Few will be saved. That is why we all must make certain that we are among the few going through the narrow gate and walking on the narrow way, following Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jesus also said, “For many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14). It is my prayer that you will be among the few who are chosen to eternal life.

Do you think you are not a sinner? The Bible tells us, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We are conceived in sin, born as sinners, and practice sin all of life, until God regenerates us. Have you repented of your sins and believed in Jesus? God is waiting. Soon we will die. Thank God, the gospel is being preached to you by a God-sent minister. We are still living and hearing the gospel.

The waters of judgment killed almost all. (PGM) But the same waters saved a few, those who entered the ark, which floated safely upon the waters that had killed the many.

We must pay heed to what is written in the Scriptures, for it is written for our warning and for our comfort. Paul says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). He also says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4), the hope of eternal life. That is why we must repent and believe in Jesus.

Water Baptism (v. 21)

Verse 21 can be paraphrased as follows: “And this water of judgment symbolizes (that is, it is a prefiguration of) water baptism which now saves you, but not by getting rid of dirt from the body, which is ritualism, ceremonialism, but a pledge of a good conscience unto God. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

The great flood symbolizes water baptism. This Christian water baptism symbolizes salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, in his substitutionary death and resurrection. It is not the washing away of physical dirt by a plenitude of water into which one is immersed; it signifies the washing away of all our sins.

The apostle Paul was told, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16). The external rite of water baptism symbolizes the internal reality of washing away all our sins. It signifies our justification and the forgiveness of all our sins, past, present, and future. Peter declared, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Christian baptism does not magically, automatically, ex opere operato, effect regeneration, as many believe. God alone regenerates us and gives us the gift of repentance and saving faith in Jesus.

John writes, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12–13). Jesus said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). And Paul writes,

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Eph. 2:1–5)

In Ezekiel’s prophecy the Lord tells us, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek. 36:25–27).

Regeneration is a monergistic, powerful divine work in which we are passive while God alone is active. Water baptism does not regenerate us. It is not magic.

In this church, we baptize only believers. We find several examples of such believers’ baptism in the book of Acts:

• Acts 2:38: “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’’
• Acts 2:41: “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
• Acts 8:12: “But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
• Acts 16:14–15: “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message . . . [and] she and the members of her household were baptized.”
• Acts 16:32–33: “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.”
• Acts 8:36–38 (KJV): “And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?’ And Philip said, ‘If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”

Only believers should be baptized, and the mode of baptism should be immersion. Those who died with Christ by faith are buried in water and brought up, made alive in Christ, to live a new life, as Paul tells us: “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom. 6:3–4). He also says we have been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through [our] faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12).

We must understand theology. When Christ died, the elect died with him. When he was buried, we were buried with him. When he was raised, we were raised with him to live a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. This truth is dramatized by being immersed in water and by being raised up from the water in Christian baptism.

The judgment that was against us, the wrath that was against us was poured out upon Christ, not upon us. Thank God for salvation by the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Paul writes, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Cor. 5:19a).  Our sin must be counted against someone, but not against us. Paul explains how this happens: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). This is called double transaction. Christ took all our sins, guilt, punishment, and wrath, and gave us his perfect, unimpeachable righteousness. Clothed in it, we can now live in God’s presence forever. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

As the eight were saved through the waters of judgment by going into the ark, so also we who believe in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection are, in Jesus, buried and raised up in the waters of baptism. So water baptism symbolizes our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ by going down (being fully immersed) and coming up in the water of baptism.

In Christ, we are safe evermore. We are raised to live eternal life. Believers in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in their behalf will be baptized. The resurrection of Jesus proves that God has accepted his atoning sacrifice in behalf of us. It proves that Jesus was without sin, that he was God/man, and that he can never die again. And it is this Jesus who promises us, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John 10:28). When we die, we will go into the very presence of God to live with him forever.

Every believer in Jesus is saved forever, even as Noah and his family were saved through the waters of judgment. As the eight entered the ark and were saved, we who believe in Jesus are saved. Our baptism symbolizes our salvation in Christ. He died our death, and because he lives and never dies again, we shall live forever. Jesus himself said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19b).

Yes, in this world, we all will die. But if we have trusted in Christ, we will go straight to heaven to enjoy the second installment of our eternal salvation. Jesus said, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev. 1:18). Christ is risen, and in him, we are risen forever.

When a candidate is baptized, he appeals to God for forgiveness of all sins and therefore receives a good conscience, a clean conscience, cleansed by the blood of Christ. All his sins are forgiven, and he commits himself to follow Jesus Christ all of life. He pledges to live out his confession, “Jesus is Lord,” until death. He commits himself to be faithful till death to Christ and to his holy church, that he may receive a crown of life. He pledges to die to sins and to live for righteousness. Peter writes, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24). Paul says the same thing, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14–15).

If you are saved, may you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Christ has defeated all our enemies, putting them under his feet. He has defeated even death itself. But if you are outside of Christ, or if you are baptized but living in disobedience, I plead with you to repent and believe in Christ and be saved. Be like the publican, who said, “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” and he went home saved, justified. I pray none of us would go out without praying that prayer.

[1] G. F. C. Fronmüller, The Epistles General of Peter, vol. 9 of J. P. Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures  (New York: Scribner, 1867), 64 (https://archive.org/stream/CommentaryOnTheHolyScripturesCriticalDoctrinalAndHomilectical.Lange
/25.ComHScrip.CritDocHom.NT.v9.James.Pet.John.Jude.Lange.Schaff.1867.#page/n227/mode/2up)

[2] Simon J. Kistemaker, The First Epistle of Peter, New Testament Commentary series (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002 reprint),144; see also Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000 ed.), 591.

[3] Gordon H. Clark, I & II Peter (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1982 reprint), 128.