Baptism is such a beautiful reminder of three things that are true for us through faith in Christ – our death to our flesh, our resurrection in the Spirit of Christ to new life, and the cleansing of our conscience from the dead works of our past. While we often speak of baptism as death and resurrection, we don’t often examine the cleansing aspect. Yet Peter points out this cleansing of conscience as a fundamental benefit conveyed through Christ and symbolized in baptism. He therefore calls on Christians to maintain a clean conscience – even if it requires suffering for the good that we do in the process.
