Keeping a Clean Conscience (1 Peter 3:18-22)

 Christ also suffered when he died for our sins once for all time.  He never sinned, but he died for sinners that he might bring us safely home to God.  He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. 

So he went and preached to the spirits in prison---those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat.  Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood.  And this is a picture of baptism which now saves you by the power of Jesus Christ's resurrection.  Baptism is not the removal of dirt from your body; it is an appeal to God from a clean conscience.

Now Christ has gone to heaven.  He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers are bowing before him.

If you guessed that the solution to the quiz was Psalm 112, you are absolutely right.  I made it more difficult by not including the 3 first words: "Praise the Lord" which would have give it away as a psalm.

Back now in 1Peter, we are looking at one difficult passage that is hard to understand because we do not know everything there is to know about the Bible.  We only understand certain words, but when put together we get confused.

I think the word we must pay attention to is the word 'conscience' and as we concentrate on different words in this passage like any other passage, we end up with a different point of view.  Here, I want to focus on the word 'conscience' for the sake of explaining what is baptism.  This is one of the only passage that explain the word 'baptism' and yet leaves us more wondering than before.

I think that the work of Christ described at the onset of this passage was very important to the cleansing of our conscience in accordance to the resurrection.  The resurrection of Christ is what sets Christianity apart from any religion and cult in the world.  Every religion apart from Christianity faces a dilemma when it comes to resurrection, baptism and good conscience. There is simply outside of those no valuable answer.  The only outlet for recovery is religious works and sacrifices, but these can never cure the conscience through forgiveness.

The part in this passage that interest me right now is the appeal or the pledge to God from a clean conscience.  Terms that are used in courts.

Baptism is the promise we make to God from a clean conscience.  The promise I believe, that this is what it means.  We will endeavor to keep that conscience clean through the confession of our sins that might still be committed and asking for forgiveness until the work of Christ is accomplished in our lives.  None of us have arrived to the completion of that work, it's a process provided through the work of Christ and as long as we don't give up God who sees our hearts will keep us safe like he did for those eight on the ark of Noah. That is what I believe this all means, we should, therefore, value the importance of a clean conscience in our daily lives.

Have a great day you all!

Dear Lord, I pray for all the countries in the world that are represented here.  Heal the lands and we pray for a revival through this pandemic.  We lift up parts of the United States who have tornadoes and hurricanes going though them.  Thank you that you can stop the winds.  Please do so now! In Jesus's name, God with us!