Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you–not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him. 1 Peter 3:18-22
The Titanic
On April 10, 1912 a great ship left the harbor of Belfast on her maiden voyage. Her name was Titanic. Less than one week later she would lay at the bottom of the ocean having taken less than three hours to sink. Since she was considered “practically unsinkable” few lifeboats were aboard, and those that were aboard were sent away with much fewer people than capacity allowed. Most of the passengers and crew were left no option but to jump overboard with a life ring as their only hope of survival in the frigid ice choked waters of the north Atlantic. Two-thirds of the passengers would die within the next two hours.
Before the Titanic rushed to the sea floor a distress call had gone out to all sea traffic in the area. The Carpathia, a ship of the Cunard line, and one of the vessels the Titanic was built to compete against, took the call for help and responded as quickly as she could. She arrived about one hour and twenty minutes later; a lifetime if you are floating in freezing salt water; and just a little over seven-hundred living souls were brought aboard.
I want you to imagine yourself now as a survivor of the Titanic. It is clear the ship is sinking and to stay with it is a sure death within minutes. Off in the distance you see lifeboats but they are very far away and swimming to them is impossible. In true Hollywood fashion, you climb the back railing of the ship and jump into the icy water below. Someone you don’t even know throws a life ring into the water near you. You swim to it and hold on tightly as you watch the propellers disappear beneath the water. Your only hope now of a continued life is to wait for another vessel to pull you to safety. There is nothing you can do to save yourself except wait, hope…and pray. As your legs become rigid you realize that if you did not have the life ring you would be dead in minutes and would simply slip silently and unnoticed into the deep. With the life ring, you have possibly a few hours remaining in your life, but not much more as hypothermia sets in and your organs shut down. Soon your heart will stop and your life will be over. Any effort to swim or tread water only decreases the time you have left to live as it expends vital energy needed to survive. You are truly helpless at this point and your only hope is to wait for salvation in the form of another ship to pluck you from the icy water. To make things worse, you were actually a stowaway fleeing prosecution for a crime you did not commit. Most would regard your life as worthless now, and not worth saving, but all of that will be forgotten when you are found. Technically, since you did not pay a fare for passage, the White Star line doesn’t even recognize you as a passenger on the manifest and holds no legal obligation to assist you.
Unbeknownst to you, and far beyond your sight, another steamship, the Carpathia, is at this moment racing to come to your aid at full speed. In your heart you believe you will be saved, and find your way home, but you have no tangible proof, and it is only your faith in the goodness of your fellow man to help the lost and dying that gives you hope. The Carpathia, under 1912 maritime law, is under no legal obligation to come to your aid but by the grace and good pleasure of the captain, and his decision to go out of his way to find you, you are about to be truly, and finally, saved from the certain death of the Atlantic. You are as good as dead but the life ring is preserving your life at this moment. It is the captain of the Carpathia and his vessel that will finally bring you safely home and completely save you from this disaster. The Carpathia is a Cunard line ship and the captain never asks if you paid a fare for passage. Instead, he gives you safe passage to a sheltered harbor, free of charge.
We are all survivors of the great shipwreck “Adam and Eve” and there is absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves. Nothing! “For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves lest anyone should have a reason to boast.” Only the grace of God through Christ can pluck us from the icy waters of death and give us eternal life.
Noah
Noah was instructed by God on exactly how to build an ark. He spent many years counting cubits and, before the world knew what happened, he had himself an ark. If you ask nearly anyone how Noah was saved, they will tell you he was saved by an ark. They would be wrong. Noah was not saved by an ark, he was saved by water. Read 1 Peter 3 again–“In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you”. The eight souls were saved by water, and so are we!
But what does it mean to be saved? Saved from what? Noah was rescued from the wickedness that pervaded earth by the water that separated him from this wickedness and left just eight souls (plus the animals he had aboard) on the earth. It was as if he were reborn on the earth and all things were made new. He was not, however, saved for all of eternity by the water. For that he relied solely on the grace of God through his act of faith, the building of an ark with his own hands. God had warned Noah ahead of time about the disaster that was to follow, and through his actions and obedience to God’s specific ark-building instructions he exhibited tangible proof of his faith. That was counted to him as righteousness and gained him an eternal salvation. Noah, in fact was saved by the exact same faith through grace we rely on today. God does not change.
By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Hebrews 11:7
But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10
Back to the Titanic
To stay with the Titanic (the present world) is certain death. The only route to the Carpathia (eternal salvation) is to jump into the icy waters of the North Atlantic (water baptism) and wait for salvation to come in the form of a ship. Your journey may have begun on the Titanic, but now it is clearly a vessel of death and no longer worth your faith. A change occurs in your thinking (repentance) and a shift of faith also occurs.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17
As you watch the once stable deck of the Titanic buck and heave and drop ever closer to the water it begins to looks much less inviting than the frigid water far below. A choice is made to put your complete faith in an unseen, unproven salvation that is to come, and so…you jump. After you jump into the water, someone you’ve just seen for the first time (Christ) throws you a life ring (the Holy Spirit) which will help you get to the permanent salvation which is steaming your way. The life ring is a free gift you did not even ask for and after receiving this life ring there is no longer a need to tread water and you can rest. You then simply wait for the Carpathia (God’s eternal salvation through His grace and mercy) to come and pull you aboard. There is no tangible proof of this salvation but by faith and hope you are certain a complete salvation is on its way. It is!
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:4-12
-More on circumcision in my next post..
