0:00 Of all of the baptism passages in the Bible, one of the most interesting ones is 1 Peter 3, 21, and I saw a John Piper explanation of this, and it's fascinating. You've got to see this. Tonight, I'll be moderating a debate between Aaron Gallagher and Alex Soren of the Orthodox Church on Apostolic Succession. The link is in the description below for that scheduled live stream on my live test. Does baptism save? ...were rescued by God and brought safely through water, and that triggers... in Peter's mind that this is a type, we might call it, or a foreshadowing or a preview or a pointer to baptism. And he says, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.
0:49 Now, what does that mean, that baptism saves you? And if you isolated that away from its context, you could go into all kinds of heretical notions and say, well, it's the water that saves, or it's the priestly application of the water. That's the sacramental effectiveness of grace, which takes away sin, regardless of whether there's faith or not, or anything like that. So I appreciate what he said again here too. If you isolate this from his context, you can get into all kinds of heretical notions. That's his claim here. Now, I think that that totally backfires on him for reasons that you'll see right now in this explanation. You could go in those directions, but look, baptism saves you.
1:34 And then he, as if listening in on our doubts and conversations, he says, not as a removal of dirt from the body, Now, he could have followed that by, but as a removal of sin from the soul. So it sounds like, well, maybe he's saying it is the water and the baptism which saves you effectively, but the effect of the water going over your body is not to take away the dirt of the body, it's to take away the sin of the soul. And that's not what he says. So the same logic that he's using here, that the verse doesn't directly say this, it doesn't restate itself in a much more literal sense. He's saying, therefore, the idea that
2:24 it says that is not true. And that's just a mistake that he's making. plainly. Just because the verse doesn't restate itself in more literal terms, it doesn't mean that therefore that can't be what this verse means here. He's writing a lot here, but one thing that he's missing is the fact that for $5 a month, you can support the channel on Patreon. You get extended versions of this in every video that I do and other perks as well. You can help the channel run, function. It costs money to run the channel for subscriptions and things like that that I need, like StreamYard to do live streams, like the debates that I'm going to do tonight. So if you want to support the channel, I would be greatly appreciative of that. The page Patreon link is in the description below. God bless you. So what does this phrase mean? Not as a removal of dirt from the body. The simple meaning is it's not like because it's a bath or something like that, in that sense, because it's a bath that it saves you. Not like a physical bath. That's not
3:11 what baptism is. Baptism is, and this is what he's about to get into, an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So notice how he tries to lay this out. He doesn't go in that direction. He says, but... as an appeal to God for a good conscience, or some translations say as a response to God from a good conscience. In either case, what's being focused on here is not how the water is effective, but rather what the baptism through water signifies. And what it signifies is an act of the heart, an appeal to God or a response to God. So the baptismal
4:01 act is expressing an act of the soul that is praying. It's looking to God for God to cleanse the conscience or from a good conscience for God to save the soul in some other expression that is. Look at that. For God to save the soul in some other expression. Now, let me let him lay this out a little bit more. For God to save the soul in some other expression, that is, through the forgiveness of sins. It could have gone in any one of several directions for how God is going to do it. All that he's focusing on here is that the act of baptism is not being thought of as
4:49 water doing its work, but rather water representing an act of faith from the soul that does its work. In other words, the instrument of salvation is not the water, not the water, but we could say faith That is, the response of the soul expressing itself in a prayer to or a response to God. So this is where we diverge completely here. He started off in using language that I could agree with, that baptism is an act of faith or something like that. Yes, I can agree with that language that someone who possesses faith in God is getting baptized. Like this is where maybe we can unite in our disagreement, the
5:38 idea of the baptismal regeneration of infants or something like that. Sure, yeah, we can agree on that kind of stuff maybe. But baptism is an act of faith, right? It's something that we do in faith by God. If we don't do it by faith, then it's not going to have any meaning. If someone just randomly gets baptized not having any faith in God, then what will that do for them, right? That's why I don't believe in infant baptism. We don't practice infant baptism in the churches of Christ. But this is where he kind of sneaks in this idea here that It's not about water, but it's about faith. So baptism refers to your salvation by faith. Baptism is not the instrument or something that is used by which you can be saved, but baptism simply just refers to your salvation by faith. And that is where this becomes a real problem, because in as much as this is supposed
6:24 to be connected with the flood, with the Noahic flood, that's where... he begins to greatly diverge from the context of the flood itself. He's going to talk about this in just a second. What did the water really mean in the flood? The water was death, right? You're in the water. That is the death to sin. That is a death just in the physical sense. The whole world is killed except for the eight souls, the people that were on the ark here. So he's saying here that it's about your faith. It's not about the water as an instrument of something that refers to your salvation by faith. That does not now cohere with the flood, which is through... through baptism, through the water, eight souls were saved. That's what he says
7:10 here. So now he's diverging from that language, eight souls were saved through water, and instead it is eight souls are saved not to do with the water, but because of their initial faith. You see, I can say yes and, right, faith, baptism coincide with one another, but now he's making this critical mistake where he separates faith and baptism and says one saves, the other doesn't. And again, the That's the primary error that he's making here, and I think you'll see that as this lays out a little bit more. And then he clarifies further how the baptism saves. He says it's through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I think the point there is that he has in mind that baptism, I'm looking at Romans 6,
7:55 4, the picture of baptism as you go into the water we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the act by which we are saved from the death which baptism signifies Wait, wait, but notice that. He tries to say that baptism just refers to the resurrection of Jesus that we are saved by in 1 Peter 3.21, but it's not just that. When you read Romans 6, verse number 4, when do you access that? You access that by baptism. We were
8:45 buried, therefore, with him by baptism. And it notices, by baptism into death... in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. When does this occur according to Romans 6, 4 here? According to this passage in general, it occurs in the moment of baptism. There is no indication here that it is simply referred to in the moment of baptism simply. Here you see that not only is it referred to, but this is when it takes place. You notice how this language is not used about faith. that the old life or the burial, the death of the old life, occurs at the point of faith, and then therefore also we are raised to
9:32 the new life at the point of faith, and baptism refers to that. There is no indication of that at all. You see, the only difference is, he was saying 1 Peter 3.21 doesn't simplify in more obvious terms the idea that baptism saves, and so I'm going to say that it means something else. You see here, the only thing that is said, the only thing that is said, is that baptism is the moment when these things happen, that it is through baptism we are buried. Notice that. Buried therefore with him by through baptism into death. Not that it's been referred to, but this is when it happens. And just as you are raised out, this is also mirroring when Jesus was raised from the tomb to live in newness of life. So when does the newness of life begin? This passage doesn't say at the
10:19 point of faith. It says at the point of baptism, which is mirroring here the newness of life that Jesus experienced in his resurrection from the dead. We are raised to live in newness of life. A good helpful cross-reference, Colossians 2, 11 and onwards, especially verse number 12, will help out with seeing this from a more full picture as well. You notice that baptism is being emphasized there also. Which baptism signifies? So when he says here, baptism by being an appeal to God or an act of faith of the soul that rests in God's cleansing power, baptism saves us through the resurrection. He means In this act, we are united to Christ so that his resurrection saves us from
11:05 death. It's not the waters of Noah that are threatening us, it's death that is threatening us, and therefore it's through the resurrection that we come through death into newness of life and into resurrection. See, that last language here was a little confused here in terms of how it coheres with 1 Peter 3.21 and Romans 6 here. He says, not the waters of Noah. Again, what did the water do? It killed the sinners on the earth. And in that sense, if you parallel that to what baptism is now, and especially with Romans 6.4, when you are buried in baptism, you die to the old life. You die to the sin because the water kills the sinner, kills the sin, and you're raised
11:50 to live this new life. In that sense, you are saved through water, you're saved from the sin here. So he's saying it's not the waters of Noah or something like that. Again, the water is where the death occurs and the raising is where the new life begins. That is the plain comparison of Romans 6.4. And this passage right here, through the resurrection, that's when the salvation truly is occurring. When we are raised, when we are resurrected, just like Jesus was resurrected from the tomb, we are resurrected in the waters of baptism to live in, again, a newness of life. The rubber meets the road here at this point, and this is where the true divergence is. He is saying all this to say that baptism is that, that saving moment by faith, right? It's not water, but it is faith. So
12:37 he's saying baptism simply refers to that. That's what baptism does, and that's the beauty of baptism. It refers to your salvation by faith. It signifies that. I am saying that baptism does not simply refer to salvation, but it is the moment of salvation. And so therefore, baptism in connection with faith is what is needed for us to be saved here. And that is I think very easily the much more coherent reading of this, where I am not minimizing the saving nature of baptism, not as something that refers to when I was saved by some other exclusive means only through faith, but as something that is the means through which I was saved as an act of faith. This is the fundamental difference here, and I think where people
13:24 like John Piper have gotten this wrong so much of the time. Baptism now saves you, not as a reminder, removal of dirt from the body, or not as a bath, but because of what baptism is. It is an appeal to God for a good conscience. It is in connection with your faith, this expression, this desire to be made right with God. That's why in Acts chapter 2, they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And he said, well, you've already done it. You've expressed faith. No, he said, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. All of that coheres perfectly. perfectly with this without any retconning or anything like that that has to be done. But I'm very curious to
14:09 hear what you have to say. Let me know your thoughts on this. Like the video, subscribe to the channel, consider supporting on Patreon. Again, if you're watching this on Thursday, my debate is tonight. Oh, not my debate, the one that I'm moderating between Aaron and Alex Soren is tonight. So be there for that. I'll also do a follow-up debate review live stream on Friday with Aaron Gallagher to discuss how everything went. I love you all so much. God bless you. Lord willing, I will talk to you soon. Take care. Goodbye.
