Conscience

19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
-1 Peter 3:19-22

There is nothing more freeing than a clear conscience before God. Of course to have a clear conscience towards God you have to have a conscience towards God to begin with. Preaching the message of forgiveness--the path to a clear conscience-- will mean nothing to those who don't think they need it. Why make peace with God, I didn't know we were at war? How do you tell someone that they are at war with God and expect them to meet you for coffee again the next week? We can, I think, only point them to what a difference making peace with God has done for us. If they see the way it should be, maybe they will start to see it isn't that way for them. For statements like, "you are saved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" to be anything more than religious sentiment requires a major paradigm shift for the modern mind. It is difficult, I think, for it to make much sense apart from living in a community where the outworking of such salvation is evident at every turn.