1 Peter 3:18-22 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand-with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Some Biblical scholars have posited that 1 Peter 3:18 is a summary of Scripture. It is certainly the main message God wants to make known in His Word. The death and resurrection of Jesus is critical. You are given salvation as a gift from God by believing this message. It is not about what you do, but about what God has done for you.

This passage is also the only place in Scripture that addresses what we speak of in the Apostle’s Creed: “He descended into hell.”  Jesus went to Hell after His death on the cross and before His resurrection on the third day. But don’t make the mistake of thinking He went there to suffer. On the cross, before He died, He declared “It is finished.” The payment for sin was complete. No further suffering was needed. And this passage tells us that He “preached” or “proclaimed” to those who were in hell. He went there to announce His victory over death and the devil. It was a celebration of His conquest over sin, death and devil.

Peter speaks of “baptism that now saves you.” A few years ago I attended worship at a Bible Church and three people were being baptized that day. As an introduction, the officiating pastor gave a talk about baptism being a symbol of repentance and a statement of faith by those being baptized. Then he said, “Baptism does not save you.” I was stunned by those words, especially when I read in 1 Peter that it does!

The problem some of our brothers and sisters in Christ have with this topic is that they understand baptism to be something man does. Scripture speaks of it being something God does. He puts His name on us. He makes us His children. He uses baptism to connect us to what Jesus did for us through His life and death and resurrection. Peter affirms this here by saying “It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Paul teaches this same truth in Romans 6:

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.” (Romans 6:3-5)

Baptism is not something we do, but a means God uses to connect us to what Jesus did for us on the cross and by rising again. Baptism does not give us anything that we don’t already have through faith in Jesus as our Savior. Instead, it is an extra added assurance that we have, by God’s grace, become the beneficiaries of what Jesus did for us. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”