Objection 25

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

1 Peter 3:21, "baptism doth also now save us.

Peter answers the objection inside his own sentence: "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God." Baptism saves precisely as the ark's flood figure saves, "the like figure whereunto", declaratively, not causally. It saves the believer from a bad conscience, from disobedience, from the disorder of an unconfessed Christ; it is the regenerate soul's answer, and only a living soul can answer. Dead men give no answers.