An Excerpt from Remembering Your Baptism: A Watery Fortress

This is an excerpt from Remembering Your Baptism: A Sinner Saint Devotional (1517 Publishing, 2025) by Kathy Morales, pgs 6-9.

“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.” (1 Peter 3:21).

The vessel the carpenter had built with his own hands withstood the waters of God’s judgment. For forty days and forty nights, the earth drowned in the rains of God’s judgment. The wickedness of the earth was swallowed up in the waves of a watery death.

Noah had built this ark of salvation at the Lord’s command. As the storm raged around the ark, Noah’s family of eight, who had taken refuge inside its gopher wood embrace remained safe. The floodwaters that brought death to every congregation of eight.

After forty days and forty nights the floodwaters lifted this ark of faith high above the earth. The Lord had blotted out sinful mankind and all living things in the floodwaters below this floating church. All that remained was Noah, his family, and all living creatures on the ark.

The Lord remembered his promise to his saints and sent a wind to dry up the floodwaters. As the waters began to subside, the ark came to rest on a mountain. In time, as the waters receded and vegetation appeared, a dove sent by Noah returned with a fresh olive leaf.

In his first epistle, the apostle Peter draws a straight line between this account of the flood in Genesis to baptism. This account in Genesis is saturated with baptismal imagery. The floodwaters that brought death to a sinful world and life to those sheltered in the ark illustrate the true saving power of Christ in baptism.

Jesus is our greater Noah. He is sent by God to prepare for us a refuge from the storm. Our carpenter builds for us a watery fortress with his own nail pierced hands. As God’s judgment for our sin rested on Mount Calvary, water flowed from the side of our watery refuge (John 19:34). We remain safe from God’s righteous judgment within the ark of Christ.

Jesus took the fullness of God’s wrath for our sin, and we, who reside in Christ, are saved from those waves of judgment. Our deliverance comes by water connected with God’s word.

Just as Noah found favor with God, we also find peace and favor through the work of Christ for us. Baptism now saves you, writes Peter, “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” (1 Peter 3:21).

In the watery grave of baptism, our Old Adam is drowned and dies. Just as the Lord blotted out every living thing from the earth, so too he blots out our sins. They are no more. Our transgressions were swallowed up in Christ’s death and buried in his tomb. The Lord says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isa. 43:25).

Baptism now saves us, but not because of any work on our part. Peter can speak of the saving work of baptism because it is solely the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for us. The waves of God’s judgment cannot harm us in Christ. We are carried on the waves of baptism, cradled by the ark of Christ Himself to the shores of the resurrection.

The Holy Spirit is given as an assurance of our new life in Christ. Just as the dove brought back a fresh olive leaf to Noah, confirming that new life had emerged from death, so the Holy Spirit, like the dove, reassures us with the promise of eternal life in Christ our Lord.

As we remember our baptism, we remember the God who remembers us. In the merciful God in whom Noah found favor, we too find favor through the work of Christ. Our sins are washed away in the floodwaters of baptism. Our transgressions are blotted out as we remain secure in the watery fortress of Christ. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have the assurance that in Christ, we have received eternal life through his death for us.

Heavenly Father, through your word you created all things. We give you thanks that through water and your word in Holy Baptism, you have created new life in us through your Son. Graciously keep us in your baptized family, that we may daily die to sin and rise to the new life you have given us in Christ, that we may love and serve our neighbors. Amen.

For Further Reflection, Read Genesis 8:1-19.

An Excerpt from Remembering Your Baptism: A Watery Fortress