I Peter 3:21

…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 which now saves you also—

not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledgeof a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the

resurrection of Jesus Christ,

In the days of Noah, God looked down on the earth and was grieved at all the evil he saw upon the world (Genesis 6). Before Noah’s flood, the earth was filled with sin and corrupt. God used the waters of Noah’s flood to wipe out the old and bring about a new beginning. God “wiped the slate clean” and started all over again.

The phrase, “this water” is a reference to the water of Noah’s flood. The water of Noah’s flood is an illustration of baptism. God “cleansed” the earth with water and though this water a new beginning came about.

Understand there is nothing “magical” in actual water itself, nor is there any special property in the compound of water that has any ability to cleanse from sin. But when we obey God’s command to be immersed in water in order to have our sins forgiven, God is faithful and God cleanses our sins through the blood of Christ at this point of our obedience and faith.

New Thought:

“The Earth is pretty much a ‘closed system,’ like a terrarium. That means that the Earth neither, as a whole, gains nor

loses much matter, including water. Although some matter, such as meteors from outer space, are captured by Earth,

very little of Earth's substances escape into outer space. This is certainly true about water. This means that the same

water that existed on Earth eons ago is still here. Thanks to the water cycle, the same water is continually being recycled

all around the globe. It is entirely possible that the water you drank for lunch was once used by Mama Alosaurus to

give her baby a bath.” –United States Geological Survey

Now if water, in its various forms (vapor, ice, liquid), does not increase nor decrease in amount, but remains the same, recycling throughout the earth, then that means the very same water we are baptized in today, was at one time, long ago, a part of the same body of water that enveloped the earth during the time earth was flooded when Noah and his family were in the ark.

When Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5), we can understand that we are baptized in (an extremely small amount of) the very same water with which God used to “cleanse” the earth during Noah’s life--and also the very same water which was present in Genesis at creation.

God has always brought forth creation from His Spirit with water being present. It has been like this from the beginning:

Genesis 1:2

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

See also:

Water and Spirit, and baptism

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This page last updated: July 28, 2004