This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you-- not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
The Holy Spirit affirms, through Peter, that those saved in the ark were "saved by water" and that in a like figure the water of baptism saves in the Christian age. The "true likeness" or antitype of Noah and his family is manifest in the deliverance that a penitent sinner receives in passing through the water of baptism. Baptism is the antitype of the figure. "Baptism doth also now save us"; baptism is the reality that was symbolized by the salvation of Noah. In what way did the water of the flood symbolize or prefigure our salvation? The "true likeness" is seen in the following: