In [the ark] only a few people, eight in all, were saved. (1 Peter 3:20, NIV)
When the ark was ready, God told Noah to get inside. Noah must have felt rather foolish loading the ark with all the animals when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
“What are you doing Noah?”
“A great judgment from God is coming. God told me to build an ark. I’m going to get in there with my family. Will you come with us? I wish that you would.”
Noah got in the ark and God closed the door. Then the rain came. Rain from the sky and springs of water coming up from the earth. The ship Noah built in the desert slowly rose, and Noah and his family were lifted in the ark through the judgment and carried safely into a new world.
The ark is a wonderful picture of Jesus Christ. The Bible describes a Christian as someone who is “in Christ.” Just as Noah was brought safely through the first judgment in the ark, so all who are in Christ will be brought safely through the final judgment in Christ. We will be lifted in him into the presence of God.
We are saved because we are in Christ. That’s why Peter mentions baptism here, because it is the sign of a person identifying fully with Christ. It is the mark of the person who is in Christ.
It is not the act of baptism that saves you. Baptism is the sign of being in Christ and being in Christ saves you because he has risen and “has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him” (3:22). Whatever happens, you are safe for eternity in the hands of Jesus.
Do you believe that?
