with its “interrogation,” margin “inquiry,” “appeal,” addressed to God by us. This is taken to mean that we ask God for a good conscience in the act of baptism, or that by obeying the command to be baptized we have a good conscience because of this our act of obedience and the answer we thereby make to God in baptism. See Thayer in regard to the way in which this is understood; he interprets it as the vow to have a good conscience in regard to God. This word is forensic; the whole expression is parallel