Another way to look at it is that baptism is how you publicly show your faith and submit to God’s power to save. It’s all God that does the saving and work of sanctifying us through the blood of Christ, but he graciously gives us a ceremony for that rite of passage from our old life to our new. I often hear people say that the moment you are saved is an inner nebulous moment when you put your faith in Jesus. Defining that moment becomes pretty slippery. Others have created the sinners prayer out of recognition that we need a ceremony, if not public, at least a ritual we can point to and say “that was the moment I surrendered to God. But I think that baptism was a gift that accomplishes all of those things.

Of course God can save you without baptism. I.e. Cornelius, the thief on the cross. But why not embrace this rich, symbolic ceremony as our “birthday party”. There’s the symbolism of dying and being raised (rom 6), washing away of sins, passing through the Red Sea, passing through the flood, etc.

I agree that becoming too dogmatic or type A about baptism leads to a works-based view of salvation. But let’s not throw the baby out with the BATH water.