The like figure whereunto [even] baptism doth also now
save
us
The ark, and deliverance by it, as it was a type of Christ, and
salvation by him, so it was a figure of baptism, and baptism was
the antitype of that; or there is something in these which
correspond, and answer to, and bear a resemblance to each other:
as the ark was God's ordinance, and not man's invention, so is
baptism, it is of heaven, and not of men; and as the ark, while
it was preparing, was the scorn and derision of men, so is this
ordinance of the Gospel; it was rejected with disdain by the
Scribes and Pharisees, as it still is by many; and as the ark,
when Noah and his family were shut up in it by God, represented a
burial, and they seemed, as it were, to be buried in it, it was a
lively emblem of baptism, which is expressed by a burial, (
Romans 6:4 ) (
Colossians 2:12 ) and
as they in the ark had the great deep broke up under them, and
the windows of heaven opened over them, pouring out waters upon
them, they were, as it were, immersed in, and were covered with
water, this fitly figured baptism by immersion; nor were there
any but adult persons that entered into the ark, nor should any
be baptized but believers; to which may be added, that as the one
saved by water, so does the other; for it is water baptism which
is here designed, which John practised, Christ gave a commission
for, and his disciples administered: it saves not as a cause, for
it has no causal influence on, nor is it essential to salvation.
Christ only is the cause and author of eternal salvation; and as
those only that were in the ark were saved by water, so those
only that are in Christ, and that are baptized into Christ, and
into his death, are saved by baptism; not everyone that is
baptized, but he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved,
( Mark
16:16 ) , for baptism
is not the putting away of the filth of the
flesh;
the design of it is not to take off the sordid flesh, as
circumcision did; or in a ceremonious way, outwardly, to sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh, as the Jewish baptisms did; see (
Hebrews
9:10 Hebrews 9:13
) , or to take away either original or actual sin; this only the
blood of Christ can do; and it is not a mere external cleansing
of the body:
but the answer of a good conscience towards
God;
the Vulgate Latin renders it, "the interrogation of a good
conscience"; referring, it may be, to the interrogations that
used to be put to those who desired baptism; as, dost thou
renounce Satan? dost thou believe in Christ? see ( Acts 8:36 Acts 8:37 ) ,
others render it, "the stipulation of a good conscience";
alluding also to the ancient custom of obliging those that were
baptized to covenant and agree to live an holy life and
conversation, to renounce the devil and all his works, and the
pomps and vanities of this world; and baptism does certainly lay
an obligation on men to walk in newness of life; see ( Romans 6:4 Romans 6:5 ) , the
Ethiopic version renders it, "confession of God"; and to this the
Syriac version agrees, rendering it, "confessing God with a pure
conscience"; for, to baptism, profession of faith in Christ, and
of the doctrine of Christ in a pure conscience, is requisite; and
in baptism persons make a public confession of God, and openly
put on Christ before men: the sense seems plainly this; that then
is baptism rightly performed, and its end answered, when a
person, conscious to himself of its being an ordinance of Christ,
and of his duty to submit to it, does do so upon profession of
his faith in Christ, in obedience to his command, and "with" a
view to his glory; in doing which he discharges a good conscience
towards God: and being thus performed, it saves,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;
being a means of leading the faith of the baptized person, as to
the blood of Christ, for pardon and cleansing, so to the
resurrection of Christ, to justification; see ( Acts 2:38 ) ( 22:16 ) ( Romans 4:25 ) ,
moreover, the sense of the passage may be this, that baptism is a
like figure as the ark of Noah was; that as the entrance of Noah
and his family into the ark was an emblem of a burial, so their
coming out of it was a figure of the resurrection; and just such
a figure is baptism, performed by immersion, both of the
resurrection of Christ from the dead, and of the resurrection of
saints to walk in newness of life. The Arabic version renders the
whole verse thus; "of which thing baptism is now a type saving
us, not by removing the filth of the flesh only, but by
exhilarating a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ".