6 Sailing safely through the waters

1 Peter 3: 20 to those who were disobedient 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, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.[e] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 We are all called to be baptised. Yet the baptism itself is not enough to save us, it is merely an outward show of cleansing from our sin. A recognition of Jesus as our substitute on the cross taking our sin. In this scripture Peter follows on talking about Jesus preaching to the dead, to mentioning of the Ark. Noah had been ordered to build an Ark to save his family and many animals from the coming floodwaters. Everyone else died, you could say it was a baptism of judgement on sinners as they all died within the expanse of the waters. Interesting then that Peter refers to Noah and his family being saved "through" the water. Peter goes on to describe this salvation as being symbolic of a baptism which saved the eight from death because of them pledging a clear conscience towards God. 

But as they never went into the water, we see that the water in itself is not what cleanses mankind, rather God allows them to sail through the waters of death and saves them by His own grace.God protected Noah and his family as of His own. There is a couple of important things in this passage. One is that Noah first had to obey God by building the Ark, which showed trust and faith in God's word. The second thing is the Ark itself. God equips us for all good works (2 Timothy 3:17) but that does not mean we can sit back and let God do all the work. Who would drive a car without brakes?, or try to take honey from the comb without using gloves? God prepares us for the work but he provides all we need to do the job. As James in chapter 2 of his writings pointed out, without works (or) deeds, our faith is dead. Had Noah not built the Ark it would have showed his faith as devoid of any real trust.

Without the warning from God Noah would not have built the Ark, without the Ark Noah and his family would have drowned. In the same way we need to listen to what God is saying to us. If then we wish to remain in the protective arms of God, we need to put on our spiritual armour, or perhaps never take it off. Even doing all that we will likely sin again, but we have a saviour who knows that and who was big enough to deliver us from our sins. It is our pledge of a good conscience towards him and a willingness to not only repent, but learn from our past mistakes. 

Our baptisms were not to buy our way into Heaven, but us saying to God, I hear you, I understand I am a sinner and I accept the substitution of Jesus' death for mine. My life is yours and may my conscience bear witness to that fact. Without God we would drift and sink in the waters of judgement and our own sin. Pledging our lives to Him means we can sail sometimes in stormy waters, but always with the guarantee of reaching the shores of Heaven.