Question:
Dr. Hank. Can you explain to us 1Peter 3: 18-22. What is the Baptism that Peter is speaking of in verse 21? I was told that this is water baptism. It was being used to show that we need to be baptized, before we can be saved. Thanks, Wally
Answer:
1pe 3:18 “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:” 1pe 3:19 “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;” 1pe 3:20 “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.” 1pe 3:21 “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:” Peter is talking about the Spirit baptism that places us into the body of Christ as mentioned in I Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Verse 21 talks about the “like figure”. This is the death, burial and resurrection by the Spirit of God takes us in a like figure through the baptism of the Spirit, we have been crucified, buried and resurrection because God sees us in the body of Christ.