which figure also now saves you, [even] baptism, not a putting away of [the] filth of flesh, but [the] demand as before God of a good conscience, by [the] resurrection of Jesus Christ,
Peter has just spoken of the flood. Then he says something that has troubled readers ever since: baptism "now saves you." Two questions follow — saved from what, and how can water do anything at all?
Peter links the flood to baptism with a word often translated "antitype." One writer says that word does not make baptism the reality itself.
The word plainly means, as in Hebrews, "figure," or, more fully, "answering figure." Older versions give it as "like figure." Its simple force seems to be a figure that answers to the facts. So we can understand why the apostle says that baptism, as such a figure, "saves." Baptism expresses the thing that does save — a matching reality in the soul.
The flood carried Noah out of a doomed world into a new one. Commentators read baptism the same way for Peter's first readers.
The flood cut off that little remnant of the age before it. Through the waters of death they left the old world behind and entered the new. The converted Jews to whom Peter wrote were in exactly that position. They too were only a small remnant. Their baptism separated them from the mass of their nation, which lay under wrath and judgment, so that they might come under the authority of their risen and glorified Messiah. Baptism is, in figure, separation by means of death, and in that sense it saves.
The same picture reaches past those first readers:
The baptism of the flood cut all Noah's links with the old world. For us Gentiles baptism has the same meaning. It separates us — if we understand it and are true to it in practice — from the world which is rushing on to judgment. Are we true to what baptism means?
Peter blocks the misuse of his own sentence. He adds that this is not about washing dirt off the body.
Peter is careful here, to guard against a superstitious twisting of his words. He says "not the putting away the filth of the flesh" — washing dirt away was all that water could do. What a good conscience asks God for is salvation by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For He was given up for our sins and raised again for our justification. So we have acceptance in Him.
Whatever baptism pictures, it does not give new life.
Baptism has its place of deep interest and importance. But Scripture never credits it with giving life. That is a very old and stubborn error in the Christian world.
Older versions read "answer of a good conscience." Writers here take the word the other way round: the conscience asks God for something, rather than answering Him.
The word is a little difficult, but I believe its force is this: it is what the conscience wants and asks God for. Now, when the Holy Spirit touches a conscience, what satisfies it? Nothing less than acceptance in righteousness before God. And that is the very position baptism sets out.
Another writer keeps the distinction practical. Baptism voices the demand; it does not supply the answer.
It expressed the desire or demand of a good conscience — it does not itself give a good conscience, but since baptism is "unto Christ," it points to Him who does give a good conscience.
The verse does not stop at conscience. It ends with the resurrection of Jesus.
We never see salvation stated in its real force apart from resurrection. You may find in death what meets guilt, but salvation is never less than the power of resurrection, and never separable from it. Peter did not mean the mere outward act of baptism. That could save nobody. But what baptism represents does save. It declares that the Christian has a new place and standing — not in the first Adam at all, but in the Second, in the presence of God — as man without sin, accepted according to the acceptance of Christ before God.
Notice too whom Peter is addressing.
Salvation does not work apart from faith. Peter may tell us that baptism "now saves you" (1 Peter 3:21), but note the word "you" — and the "you" are believers.
- Figure — the word behind "corresponds to this" means an answering figure, not the reality. Baptism pictures what saves.
- Separation — the flood cut Noah's every link with the old world. Baptism marks a person off from a world under judgment.
- Not water — Peter's own words rule out any power in the washing. Scripture never traces new life to baptism.
- Request — baptism asks God for a good conscience; it does not produce one. It points to the One who gives it.
- Resurrection — salvation is never stated apart from the risen Christ. That is where the verse lands.
who is at [the] right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him.
Peter has traced Christ from the cross to the resurrection, and now one step further — into heaven, to the place of highest authority. The verse answers the question that presses on anyone who suffers for doing right: where is Jesus now, and what does that mean for me?
The verse is the last link in a chain Peter has been building since verse 18. One writer traces the whole line.
The Apostle had been writing of Christ suffering once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Then he sees Him "made alive in the Spirit." Then he sees Him in the place of supreme authority, with all the great beings of heaven subject to Him. Such is the greatness and glory of the One Peter knew on earth as a lowly Man, who died to put away our sins.
What does the right hand of God mean? One writer answers with a picture from business.
Christ is not only risen. He has gone into heaven and is already at the right hand of God. That means He is the appointed Administrator of all God's will. A businessman who has a very able person acting for him and carrying out his wishes will often call him "my right-hand man." The Lord Jesus is indeed the "man of your right hand" of whom the Psalmist spoke (Ps. 80:17), and we have been baptized to Him and come under His authority.
Peter's first readers were Jews who had expected their Messiah to reign in Jerusalem. The verse redirects their hope upward without cancelling the older promise.
He "has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." In due time He will certainly sit as David's Son on David's throne in Zion, and in that day all Israel will repent, believe and be saved. But the Jews, and the Gentiles too, who see Him now by faith have a better portion, because He has gone up into a higher glory. If He sits there, as Psalm 110 assures us, then angels and authorities and powers are not disobedient like the Jews on earth; subjected to Him, they break out in glad and loud praise. And Christians even here and now worship in the Spirit the One who is exalted above.
One writer names the lesson the Jews had to learn.
The Christ had gone up to heaven, and all powers and rulers were made subject to Him. He is at the right hand of God. We have therefore not a Messiah on earth, but a good conscience and a heavenly Christ.
The striking thing here is the reversal. The Man who once ranked below the angels now stands above them.
He Who was made a little lower than the angels so that He could suffer death is now exalted, with "angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him."
This subjection began at the ascension. One writer draws a wider conclusion from it.
Besides that, He has His own personal supremacy, as 1 Peter 3:22 says: He "has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." This took effect when He ascended. It is a blessing to see that no purpose of God fails to reach its full end. Man fails, and has failed, in every position God ever set him up in. Yet all of it will be found made good and upheld in Christ as man, to God's everlasting glory.
One writer draws out the encouragement in this for people who suffer.
How great an encouragement for us! Remember, all these verses (15-22) grew out of the thought that we may have to suffer for righteousness' sake. The converted Jew suffered exactly when his baptism cut his links with Judaism. But he was baptized to the Lord Jesus, and so came under the authority of the One who sat in the place of supreme authority and administration. And since all powers were subject to Him, no power could touch them without His permission.
One writer puts it in the first person, as Peter looking up.
I look up, Peter says, and see Christ raised from the dead, and gone into heaven, angels being made subject to Him. There was a beautiful touch for the believing Jew. I have a good conscience, and a seated Christ in glory, and I am on the other side of death and judgment, seated in Christ at God's right hand.
- Suffered — the line starts with Christ suffering for sins, the just for the unjust. This glory is where that line ends.
- Seated — at the right hand of God, Christ is the appointed Administrator of all God's will — the "man of your right hand" of Psalm 80.
- Subjected — the Man once made lower than the angels now has angels, authorities and powers under Him. This took effect when He ascended.
- Shifted — hope moves from a Messiah on earth to a heavenly Christ. His throne in Zion is still to come.
- Sheltered — every power is subject to Him. So no power can touch the believer who suffers for righteousness without His permission.