[LearsFool]

I see what you're saying now. Okay, let's read it without the commentary (vv. 20-21):

"who long before in the days of Noah had been disobedient, when God’s patience waited during the building of the ark in which a few, actually eight in number, were saved through water. And baptism, which is a figure, does now also save you, not by the removing of outward body filth, but by the answer of a good and clear conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

Now we can note the resemblances between Noah's salvation and the salvation of the sinner from sin:

1. There is salvation in both cases - Noah from drowning, and the sinner from sin and condemnation.

2. Water is used in both cases.

3. In each case, the water is the means or instrument of the salvation.

[BlackAdderess]

The figure means that the water baptism which we do undertake is a representation of something else which is beyond our power which is through the resurrection of Christ. The water baptism then appears to be more a way to show which team we are on, the symbolism is less important than the faith behind it in accepting the gift of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice. Those people in the Ark were saved by an absence of water which underscores that it is not the symbol that saves us, it is the acceptance that what God says is true in spite of any appearance to the contrary.

Numbers 21 contains another Old Testament illustration of this principle.