Peter says the common element between Noah’s salvation and our salvation is water.
Water was the means or instrument by which Noah was saved. Water is the means or instrument by which we are saved.
Does this mean that salvation is OUR doing? Something we can brag about? Can we say, “I don’t need Jesus, I saved myself by having someone dunk me!”?
No, not in the least. After all, Noah built the ark by faith (Heb. 11:7), and so God saved him by water. We are baptized by faith, and so God saves us by water.
That is exactly what you are doing...You do not, you can not receive the Holy Spirit by being baptized in water...
Peter says the common element between Noah’s salvation and our salvation is water.
Wrong again...
1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
1Pe 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Noah was not promised a life in heaven when the rain came down...His human life was saved from drowning...
And then some might notice that this saving of Noah's life was a 'like figure' of the baptism we go thru...
And then Peter is careful and precise to tell you there is no water in this baptism:
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh
No...Our saving baptism is a spiritual baptism:
but the answer of a good conscience toward God
If you read the entire chapter and epistle, it's about deliverance. And like any good preacher Peter showed how Noah and family were delivered through the water as in baptism the symbol of our sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ. Noah was being delivered from the flood by Grace, not delivered by the water. The object representing Christ's atoning Work is baptism. Baptism is not the atoning work of salvation. If the act of baptism truly washes our sins away then why did Christ have to suffer and die on the cross and rise up three days later?
No in Noah's situation the water (flood) was sent as a means of judgement against sinners. The ark is what saved Noah and his faith in the design God gave him to build the ark. The ark represents Christ. That is what Peter wants us to understand. Because water baptism represents Christ's death and resurrection. When we are baptized in water we share in Christ's death and resurrection. That is the taking up one's cross to become His follower.