Does baptism save us? (1 Peter 3:21)

When people read 1 Peter 3:21, they wonder if baptism is necessary for salvation. And this is indeed what 1 Peter 3:21 seems to say: There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21). So does baptism save us? Yes! According to Peter, it does. But hold on … Isn’t baptism a work? Isn’t baptism something we do? Yes, it is. So if baptism saves us, how can it be true that eternal life is received by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, apart from works? The solution is relatively simple, once you understand it. The solution to understanding 1 Peter 3:21 is to properly define the words “baptism” and “saves.” I define both of these terms in my online course, “The Gospel Dictionary (https://redeeminggod.com/courses/gosp...) .” This post will briefly summarize how to understand the words “baptism” and “save.” More detailed explanations are found inside the course. The meaning of the word “save” In Scripture, the word “save” (saved, salvation, Savior, etc) almost never means “gain eternal life so you can go to heaven when you die.” This is what most Christians think the word means, and this is how most Christians use this word, but the Bible does not support such a definition. The word “saved” simply means “deliverance” and context determines what kind of deliverance is in view. You can be delivered from enemies, sickness, drowning, premature death, and a variety of other disasters. Whenever you see the word “saved” in the Bible, stop and think about it. Substitute in the word “delivered” or “deliverance” and then look in the context to figure out what kind of deliverance is in view. Very rarely (if ever) will it refer to gaining eternal life and going to heaven when you die. This truth right here is going to help you understand 1 Peter 3:21 in a whole new way. While Peter does teach that baptism saves us, a careful study of the context reveals that Peter is not talking about gaining eternal life and going to heaven when we die. He has something else in view. But to see what Peter has in view, we first need to understand the meaning of the word “baptism.” The meaning of the word “baptism” in 1 Peter 3:21 The word baptism has caused inordinate amounts of disagreement over the years. There was even a time when certain Christians were drowning other Christians over the question of baptism. During the Reformation, one group of Christians got so upset that others were doing baptism wrong, that they decided to baptize those other people to death by drowning them. We don’t go this far today. Or do we? While we may not drown people because of their views on baptism, it is not uncommon for one group of Christians to condemn another group of Christians to everlasting hell because the other group has a different view on baptism. So we don’t drown them … but we do condemn them to everlasting punishment in hell. Yeah … maybe things haven’t changed as much as we think. So we argue and condemn people over the issue of infant baptism vs. adult baptism, baptism by sprinkling vs. baptism by immersion, and whether a person should be baptized in the name of Jesus vs. in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then we have this form of baptism which is almost child abuse … Most of these contentious issues can be cleared up simply by properly understanding and defining the word baptism.  Baptism is a Greek word which means “immersion” or “submersion.” Many Bible teachers stop right there and say that the debate between sprinkling vs. immersion is solved. They argue that if the word baptisma means immersion, then clearly, all baptisms must be by immersion. But it is not quite as simple as that. Although baptisma means immersion, this does not mean that every baptism requires immersion into water. When all the data is considered, the Bible describes several different kinds of baptisms, and only two of them involve water. Along with John’s baptism and new believer’s baptism (Acts 2:41; 8:36; 10:47-48; 18:8), there is baptism into Moses (1 Cor 10:2), baptism of the cup and crucifixion (Matt 20:22; Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50), baptism by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5; 11:16; Rom 6:3-4; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:26-28; Eph 4:5), and baptism with the fire of judgment (Matt 3:11; 13:25; Luke 3:16). If you were counting, there are seven different kinds of baptism. I have a handout in the Gospel Dictionary Lesson on Baptism (https://redeeminggod.com/courses/gosp...) which nicely summarizes these seven kinds of baptism. So it is a vast oversimplification to say that all baptism must be by immersion in water. In light of all this, while baptism means immersion, it does not necessarily imply water. One can get baptized, or immersed, into almost anyt...