Commenting
on how water baptism is not a mere symbol, Protestant Peter J. Leithart wrote:
Peter tells the crowd at Pentecost that they
should “repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”
(Acts 2:38). Paul says virtually the same later in Acts, recounting his own
conversion: Ananias said to him, “And now why do you delay? Arise, and be
baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name” (22:16). The link
between baptism and forgiveness of sins is not merely sequential. According to
Peter, the repentant are to be baptized unto (Greek, eis) the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Spirit follow on
that baptismal cleansing (cf. Ezek. 36:25-27). Ananias’s words to Paul imply,
as G.R. Beasley-Murray says, “his sins will be washed away in his baptism
accompanied by prayer" (A number of times in Acts, the gift of the Spirit is more directly associated with the apostles laying on hands [8:14-17; 19:1-7]. Important as these passages are, they shouldn't be allowed to rob Peter's statement at Pentecost or Ananias's promise to Paul of their force. Besides, the notion that the Spirit is communicated by the hands is no easier to accept than the idea that the Spirit is communicated by water).
Similarly, in Romans 6, Paul appeals to
baptism as evidence that the Romans have been joined to Jesus’ death and
resurrection: “do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” (v. 3). Verse 4 is even
stronger, emphasizing the “instrumental” character of baptism: “we have been
buried with Him through (Greek, dia) baptism into death,” and this
burial-through-baptism is done “in order that Christ was raised from the dead .
. . so we too might walk in newness of life.” We die and are buried in baptism
so that we can participate in new life in Christ.
First Corinthians 6:11 also describes the
efficacy of baptism in striking terms. Having reminded the Corinthians of their
lives prior to conversion. Paul says that they have now been changed: “but you
were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 6:11). “Washing” might refer
to a “spiritual” or metaphorical cleansing, but there are good reasons to think
this a baptism text. The only other use of the verb “wash” in the New Testament
is Acts 22:16, which records Ananias’s words about Paul’s baptism. Further, the
washing (along with sanctification and justification) is done “in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ,” language that echoes baptismal formulas in Acts. A
reference to washing “in the Spirit of our God” also brings up baptismal
associations, especially in light of Paul’s later statement about baptism in 1
Corinthians 6:11 is a baptismal reference, it is a very striking one, because
it links the washing of baptism with justification and sanctification (note the
string of parallel “but you were’s”). First Corinthians 12:13 is further
evidence of Paul’s strong view of baptismal efficacy, indicating that through
the Spirit we are baptized into Christ’s body.
Peter crowns this rend with the statement
that “baptism now saves you” (1 Pet. 3:21). The qualification Peter introduces (“not
the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience”)
does not, as often though, diminish the efficacy he attributes to baptism. It
is not as if Peter says “baptism now saves you” and then adds, as a slight nuance,
“but baptism doesn’t really save you.” On the contrary, the clause strengthens
Peter’s point about baptismal efficacy. The qualification makes no sense if
Peter is merely contrasting baptism to a daily bath. Would anyone be tempted to
believe baptism was a bath to remove dirt? If not, why does Peter make the
point? As is clear from Hebrews, the contrast of “flesh” and “conscience” is
one way of stating the contrast of Old and New Covenants (cf. Heb. 9:13-14;
10:22). And this is what Peter is talking about: Baptism, Peter says, does not
remove fleshly defilement, as did the cleansing rites of the Old Covenant (cf.
Lev. 15; Heb. 9). Rather, Christian baptism cleanses so that the baptized has “an
appeal to God for a good conscience.” The New Covenant washing has a power greater than the power of the Old
Covenant sacraments. Christian baptism penetrates beyond flesh and its
defilements to cleanse the conscience. (Peter J. Leithart, The Baptized Body [Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2007], 29-31)
On 1 Pet
3:21, Leithart has a useful note further supporting the verse teaching the
salvific efficacy of water baptism:
This interpretation is supported by an
investigation of the word Peter uses for “dirt,” hrupos. The verb form of this word, “to be filthy,” is used in Revelation
22:11 to describe those who are excluded from the New Jerusalem. Filth in this
context doesn’t’ refer to dirt per se
but to ceremonial and moral defilement. In Job 14:4 and Isaiah 4:4, two places
where the Septuagint uses the word hrupos,
the word also has the connotation of “defilement.” (Ibid., 31 n. 6)