Conscience

This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience.
– 1 Peter 3:21

Our baptism is more than a symbol of being born again. When Christ was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. In a similar fashion when we’re baptized, we too are dedicated to God and receive the Holy Spirit.

To have a clear conscience alludes to having no regrets, to have no worries regarding one’s actions. Our conscience revels what is right and acceptable and what is wrong and should be avoided. The tricky thing is that Peter says that a clear conscience comes from God; it’s not something that humans can achieve on their own.

Peter writes that our baptism is much more than just the cleansing of the physical body. When some one is baptized, they become a member of the family of Christ. As members of the Christ family, we each become partakers of the promises of Jesus (Ephesians 3:6). Saint Paul also tells us that we share in the sufferings and comfort of Christ (2 Corinthians 1:5-7). And if we share in the sufferings and comforts of Christ, we can rest assured that we will also share in His glory.

St. Paul tells us that our glory comes from the testimony of our conscience (2 Corinthians 1:12). The only way to have a clear conscience before God the Father, is to approach the Throne covered in the blood of Jesus. He is the final sacrifice of the world’s sins. Without the sacrifice of Christ, there would be no one who could possibly achieve a clear conscience before God. We would all still be under the Old Law; the law that is impossible to humans to uphold.

Jesus didn’t give His life for only you and me; He died for the entirety of the human race. At baptism we are born into the Family of Christ. The Holy Spirit leads us in the way we should go. It is up to each of us to make the decisions weather to follow the Spirt or follow the world. Choose wisely; for there is only one way to claim a clear conscience.