What are we saying when we are baptized? Discussions about baptism often focus on who should receive it or how much water should be used. Those are important questions, but they depend in part on a more basic question: What does baptism mean? If baptism includes a personal profession of faith and repentance, that has direct implications for whom we should baptize.

One of the most helpful passages for answering that question is also one that can make Baptists uncomfortable. In 1 Peter 3:21, Peter says that baptism saves. Yet the explanation he gives helps us understand both the nature of baptism and the personal response it involves. Rather than avoiding this passage, we should pay close attention to how Peter defines his terms.

Baptism and a Good Conscience

Some scholars have identified 1 Peter 3:21 as the closest thing we have to a biblical definition of baptism.[1] Although Peter’s statement that baptism saves is sometimes used to support baptismal regeneration, his qualifying words are essential to understanding his point.

Peter clarifies that the salvation associated with baptism is not due to “removal of dirt from the body.” In other words, we should not understand the application of water itself as bringing salvation. Instead, Peter describes baptism as “an appeal to God for a good conscience.” He also connects salvation with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The saving power lies in Christ, and Peter’s description of baptism directs our attention to the person’s response to God.

This raises an important interpretive question. What does Peter mean by an appeal for a good conscience? Answering that question helps us see why baptism cannot be separated from a personal response of faith.

An Appeal or a Pledge

There are two main ways to understand the word translated as “appeal.”[2] The ESV and NASB use “appeal,” while the CSB, NET, and NIV use “pledge.” The Greek word is ἐπερώτημα, and the choice between these translations affects how we understand the relationship between baptism and the conscience.

The word is related to the verb ἐπερωτάω, which means to ask a question. If we understand the noun through its related verb, a translation such as “ask,” “request,” or “appeal” would be appropriate.[3] Following this understanding, baptism expresses a request directed to God.

Alternatively, evidence also supports a more technical meaning. In Greek papyri from the same general period as the New Testament, ἐπερώτημα was used in connection with formal agreements between two parties.[4] In that setting, the term included both the question and the answer given when making a pledge or commitment.[5] If Peter uses the word in this sense, “pledge” would be an appropriate translation.

Both meanings are possible, but we must also consider how each relates to the conscience. If the word means a request, (1) baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience. If it means a pledge, two further possibilities arise: (2a) a pledge to maintain a good conscience before God, or (2b) a pledge that flows from a good conscience. The following table summarizes these options.

Viewpoint	Translation	Meaning	Application
1	“an appeal to God for a good conscience” (ESV)	A request	Baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience.
2a	“the pledge of a good conscience toward God” (CSB)	A pledge for a good conscience	Baptism is a pledge by the believer to maintain a good conscience before God.
2b	“the pledge of a good conscience toward God” (CSB)	A pledge from a good conscience	Baptism is a pledge by the believer made from a good conscience to live in accordance with baptismal vows.

Why the Distinction Matters for Infant Baptism

Most interpreters prefer either view 1, an appeal for a good conscience, or view 2a, a pledge to maintain a good conscience. I believe view 2a is slightly preferable.[6] However, the argument for believer’s baptism does not depend on choosing between them. None of these options fits well with the idea that infants can be baptized.

As Thomas Schreiner explains, “What is said here does not fit with infant baptism, for infants cannot appeal to God for a good conscience or pledge to maintain a good conscience before God.”[7] The difficulty concerns the nature of the act Peter describes. An appeal or a pledge requires a personal response from the one being baptized.

Whichever interpretation one takes, baptism is presented as a voluntary act of repentance and confession.[8] If baptism is an appeal for a good conscience, the person being baptized is asking God for something that necessarily involves repentance of sin. If baptism is a pledge to live with a good conscience, it likewise involves the confession and forsaking of sin. And if the pledge flows from a good conscience, it still expresses the believer’s own commitment to God.

The differences among these interpretations are worth studying, but they do not erase this shared implication. In one of Scripture’s most explicit explanations of baptism, Peter describes an act that involves the conscious response of the person being baptized. That strongly supports understanding baptism as a voluntary confession of faith.

Baptism as a Public Confession

Interestingly, describing baptism as a confession of faith is not unique to Baptists. John Calvin, a prominent Reformed defender of infant baptism, also emphasized this aspect of baptism. He writes:

“But baptism serves as our confession before men. Indeed, it is the mark by which we publicly profess that we wish to be reckoned God’s people; by which we testify that we agree in worshiping the same God, in one religion with all Christians; by which finally we openly affirm our faith.”[9]

Calvin’s statement does not mean he rejected infant baptism (although one might be able to argue he should have). It does, however, show that the confessional character of baptism is recognized even by those who disagree with the Baptist position. The question is how that description applies to an infant who cannot yet make such a profession. Peter’s language gives us good reason to connect baptism with the personal faith of the one receiving it.

Taking Our Baptism Seriously

First Peter 3:21 should encourage us to think carefully about what we are doing in baptism. Whether we understand Peter’s language as an appeal or a pledge, baptism involves a personal response to God. It expresses repentance and faith, and it publicly identifies the believer as one who belongs to Christ. This is why I believe the passage provides strong support for believer’s baptism.

There is also a practical implication for those of us who have been baptized. Our profession should shape the way we live. If we have publicly confessed our faith in Christ and our desire to belong to him, we should take seriously the call to turn from sin and maintain a good conscience before God. Baptism points us to the risen Christ who saves us, and the faith we profess in baptism should continue to be evident in our daily obedience (cf. Rom 6:4).

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[1] Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, 219; Waymeyer, A Biblical Critique of Infant Baptism, 104.

[2] The word ἐπερώτημα is related to the verbal form ἐπερωτάω, which means “to ask a question.”

[3] Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, 196.

[4] Ibid.; D. Edmond Hiebert, First Peter (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1997), 249.

[5] Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, 196.

[6] Achtemeier notes, “The close association of the aorist form of the verb (ἐπερωτηθείς) with the verb meaning “acknowledge” or “confess” (ὡμολόγησα), and the fact that the baptismal liturgy of the early church included a confession of faith in response to a corresponding question, would support such a view” (Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter: A Commentary on First Peter, Hermeneia [Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996], 271). Additionally, the Jewish community at Qumran also required a pledge as part of their ritual admission (cf. 1QS 1.16; 5.7–8).

[7] Schreiner, “Baptism in the Epistles,” 71.

[8] Waymeyer notes, “In the end, regardless of whether Peter is characterizing baptism as a ‘pledge’ or an ‘appeal,’ he clearly views it as an act direct from sinners to God, rather than from God to sinners” (Waymeyer, A Biblical Critique of Infant Baptism, 107).

[9] Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1313–14. In a similar statement, Luther writes in 1519, “For in baptism we all make one and the same vow: to slay sin and to become holy through the work and grace of God, to whom we yield and offer ourselves, as clay to the potter.… It is true, then, that there is no vow higher, better, or greater than the vow of baptism” (Martin Luther, “The Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism, 1519,” in Luther’s Works: Volume 35 Word and Sacrament I, trans. Charles M. Jacobs and E. Theodore Bachmann [Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1960], 41).