It's my belief that CARM pulled that verse from Romans ( in link #2 ) completely out of context and is using it to apply to the matter of Baptism. Before I dig into that more, let me go back to link #1.
Read the paragraph again from 1 Peter 3 "18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him."
The overall theme, if you will, is that ***God desires to bring us to Him "that he (Christ) might bring us to God"*** How? By suffering for our sins, his righteousness in exchange for my unrighteousness. The great exchange as it's called. When we're saved, Christ takes my sin, and we get his righteousness.
Now, if that is the overall theme, God saving (salvation) through Christ through this great exchange and he then goes on to talk about the salvation of Noah and his family, still talking God's desire to save and then says Baptism, which corresponds to this, NOW SAVES YOU.
But wait, before the reader of Peter's letter thinks it is the water that is saving us, he says, no, that the water is not removing dirt from the outside but the inside. The inside has to change before an appeal to God can be made.
On what grounds would a non-believer, without faith, have an appeal to God? Why say that baptism saves and NOT have an internal cleansing whereby we are then able to appeal to God? Without faith, there is no appeal to God. Faith must be transmitted in order to have ground to stand on for an appeal. Going before God's court for our sin, we have nothing of our own to stand on. But thanks be to God that we have the merits of Christ, his faithfulness, his suffering for my sin, as our appeal.
To me it looks like pre-baptism, no appeal, post baptism, we have an appeal, we have grounds to stand on because of what Christ has done for us.
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