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,
Baptism is the "answer" (eperotema) of a good conscience. This word is not used as we use it today but "was used by the Greeks in a legal sense as a demand or appeal" (Vine, Vol. I 61). Through obedience in baptism, an individual has a good conscience; baptism is the basis of our "appeal" to God.