QUESTION: Is the purpose of water baptism to lead us to a “good conscience,” or is it “for the remission of sins?”
ANSWER: I Peter 3:21 teaches that “baptism doth also now save us” and that it is the answer of a “good conscience” toward God! Therefore, this passage teaches that obedience to God in baptism results from one previously having had a “good conscience.”
Mark 16:16 teaches that those who believe and are baptized shall be saved. Acts 2:38 teaches that baptism is “for (in order to) the remission of sins.” Acts 22:16 teaches that it “washes away sins.” I Peter 3:21 teaches that it “doth also now save us.” Those who would teach that one is saved before and without baptism wrest these (and other) passages to their own destruction. In spite of this, there are those who teach the exact opposite by adding one word to each of these passages; the word “not.” For example some falsely teach that: “those who believe and are [not] baptized shall be saved;” “baptism is [not] for the remission of sins;” “baptism does [not] wash away sin;” “baptism doth [not] also now save us.” By adding the word “not,” those who do so, follow in the steps of the Devil. God said that if Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree they would “surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The devil added one word; the word “not.” He said they would “[not] surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Adam and Eve sinned and were separated from God, because of the addition of this one word. If we today listen to, and accept, this one word [not] as a part of these passages, we, too, will sin and be separated from God! Any who accepts this false teaching does despite unto the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29), contradicting the words of our Lord; the very words by which they will one day be judged (John 12:48). We must be extremely careful that we allow the Bible to form our religious beliefs! We must never use the Bible to force, cause, or twist it to comply and conform to our preconceptions and desires. “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4)!
Every account of water baptism in the New Testament, including that of Cornelius and the Phillipian jailer, was an immersion for the remission of sins, and into the one body of our Lord; that is, the church of Christ! There is no other baptism that will save!