NOTES for Pe1 3:21

Baptism, according to these words of the apostle Peter, is the event in which we become participants in Christ's resurrection. To us, deprived of life and having no salvation, this saving gift comes precisely through the faith expressed in baptism. Therefore it is important to hear the apostle's words about what our baptism is. The stereotypes in our consciousness make us treat baptism, how shall we put it... in different ways. Sometimes it is for us a rite of initiation, or something like an inoculation against illnesses and misfortunes.

That is why it is so important to hear what the apostle Peter says: baptism, according to him, is not the washing away of bodily uncleanness, that is, it has nothing to do with ritual purity. The apostle affirms that the main thing in baptism is the promise to God of a good conscience. The Greek word here means not simply a promise but a promise made solemnly, a vow. For various reasons, for most of us this very event, the making of baptismal vows, passes unnoticed. In part this is why we do not keep these vows in mind, the "promise to God of a good conscience." And the apostle Peter says that precisely such baptism, a promise or oath to Christ, saves us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is no less important that everything else, apart from a good conscience, remains outside the frame. Salvation is given by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by nothing else. To receive it, one must promise God to have a good conscience and fulfill that promise. First, this Christ-centeredness is important in itself, because everything that claims the central place in our life apart from the Son of God Himself is an idol. Second, this view of the apostle contains within it all the countless variety of forms of Christian calling.

In this connection it is also important that the apostle speaks about our fate. The apostle speaks of the persecutions that fall to Christians with remarkable calm, as something quite understandable to him. He explains this by saying that a good conscience before God draws every Christian onto the way of the Cross, the way also walked by the Head of the Church. But, following the Teacher and Lord, the apostle Peter tells us: do not be afraid; this is the way of life.