What Peter Actually Meant by “Baptism Now Saves You”
When most evangelicals hear “baptism now saves you,” they assume Peter must be speaking loosely—or that he’s been mistranslated. But Peter means exactly what he says. We just need to understand how baptism saves.
The phrase comes from 1 Peter 3:21, where Peter calls baptism an “antitype which now saves us.” Just before this, he mentions Noah’s ark, which saved an entire family through water. That’s a freebie for the sacramental position, but it doesn’t really answer the question.
So how does baptism save us?
It places the baptized person into an objective, real relationship with the risen Christ. The Church is His Body, and baptized people—including infants—are grafted into that Body. This puts them into the place of salvation. Where do we go to get saved? To Christ! And where is Christ found? In His Church.
Paul says the same thing in Galatians 3:27: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Baptism does something. It clothes us with Christ. It joins us to Him.
Calvin understood this well:
“But because it is now our intention to discuss the visible church, let us learn even from the simple title ‘mother’ how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels… away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation.” (Institutes IV.1.4)
Salvation is normally found within the Church.
A Metaphor
I’ve adopted five children. When I adopted them, I gave them my name. I removed them from a life situation of future disaster (the realm of darkness, if you will) and brought them into a life situation of future blessing (the kingdom of light). I gave them an inheritance. I feed and clothe them. I teach them God’s Word and train them in righteousness.
The life they will experience is vastly different from their previously projected life. One could say that I “saved” them.
This is how baptism works. God adopts the baptized as His children and gives them an inheritance with future blessings. He invites them to eat at His table. He gives them His Word. He brings them under the care and guidance of Mother Church.
A Necessary Clarification
Now, this doesn’t mean all my adopted children—or my biological children, for that matter—will remain faithful all their days. The possibility of rogue children is real. The possibility of apostasy is real.
Baptism isn’t a magical incantation. Neither are the words of the Gospel. If you tell someone the Gospel (which Paul calls “the power of God unto salvation” Romans 1:16), they won’t automatically receive a new heart and persevere unto glory. The same is true of baptism. Both require true faith in Christ alone.
Baptism saves because it joins us to Christ and His Church—the ordinary place where God saves sinners. But like every means of grace, it must be received by faith.