The term translated as “appeal” is the common word for “request.” The advantage of being baptized is not an outward cleansing but a request to God for a good conscience. The outward picture of inner washing seeks from God a reassurance that sin in fact is gone, forgiven, washed away. Such an assurance is needed in the face of continuing demonic whispers that sin damn us.
21 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,