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"EVEN BAPTISM DOTH ALSO NOW SAVE US" “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:” (I Peter 3:21) As the reader can see, the verse begins with the words “The like figure,” which makes water baptism a figure (a type or symbol), not the actual saving agency itself. The “like” in the verse refers to the waters of Noah’s flood that were mentioned in the preceding verse: “. . . the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” By Peter saying, “The like figure,” he is saying that baptism is a figure “like” the saving waters of Noah’s flood were a figure. In other words, Peter is saying that THIS is a figure “like” THAT was a figure. Like WHAT was a figure? Verse 20: “eight souls were saved by water.” That’s only a figure, since we all know that those eight souls were saved by building an ark and getting inside: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, PREPARED AN ARK TO THE SAVING OF HIS HOUSE; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Heb. 11:7; emphasis added) The waters of Noah’s flood saved only in the sense that they bore up the ark, the real means of salvation. By submitting to believer’s baptism, the new believer is publicly displaying a good conscience by bearing-up, exalting, or lifting-up Jesus Christ and identifying with the saving power of His death, burial and resurrection. In fact, that exact connection is made in John 3 and Genesis 7: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be LIFTED UP” (John 3:14; emphasis added)“And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was LIFT UP above the earth.” (Gen. 7:17; emphasis added) Noah’s family was saved by having the faith to build the ark and to get inside, but God used the waters to lift the ark up above the world that was to perish and to save those inside. The waters were only an incidental counterpart, not the means of salvation itself. After all, those same waters damned far more people than they saved. No one was told to trust in the water. Baptism is a “figure,” and it’s a figure “like” the waters of Noah’s flood which lifted up the ark just as we lift up Christ when we submit to believer’s baptism. This is called “the answer of a good conscience toward God,” and it points to the actual “resurrection of Jesus Christ” where the real saving power lies. The dying thief had HIS “answer of a good conscience toward God” WITHOUT being baptized, because it came when he publicly rebuked the unrepentant thief and when he publicly called upon Jesus for salvation (Luke 23:40-43). Baptism wasn’t even mentioned, much less performed, but the thing that baptism pictures WAS being performed in real time, so salvation came to the man that very day WITHOUT baptism. Just as no one in the Bible made a habit of stressing the saving power of the waters of Noah (since it was clearly the ark that saved), no one today should stress baptism as a saving agent, since baptism is only a “figure” “like” the waters that lifted-up the ark. Baptism is “the answer of a good conscience toward God,” but salvation itself comes “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” of which baptism is a “figure.” Peter is not saying that baptism is a perfect and complete figure, as that would credit salvation to everyone who was immersed (drowned) in the water of Noah's flood, and modern baptism would drown all believers! He is saying that baptism is a limited figure where the water saved, not by immersion or getting anyone wet, but by LIFTING UP THE ARK, which just happened to be a great type of Christ. Christ is lifted up and exalted among men every time a believer is publicly baptized, and this is the answer of a good conscience before God. Failure to appreciate the symbolism (“like figure”) renders one incapable of understanding the passage. John Adams said that, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Likewise, the Bible was written for a spiritually-minded people who understand God’s use of symbols, types and figures. It is “wholly inadequate” in the hands of any other.