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…