No work done, but I am feeling blessed...

This morning I had a long talk to a good friend of mine but the name of Kevin Bowman. Not just any kind of talk, a spiritual talk. We covered everything from salvation to gifts of the spirit. It was truly a good conversation. Little bit of venting and questions and answers. I am truly blessed to have such a great friend! Thanks Kevin.
Over the years I have found myself studying baptism and salvation. Over the years I had questioned the belief of the ‘church of Christ’ that baptism equals salvation. That you are not saved until you are dunked in the water. This never made sense to me, and when I started to really study The Word it became more unclear on how this was so. Christ states several times that you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So I continued to study…
Paul says in Ephesians 2:8&9 that "We are saved by GRACE through FAITH and not of ourselves, it is a GIFT of God, NOT as a result of WORKS, that no one should boast."
If you ever stand before Christ Jesus and He asks you why should He let you into Heaven... you had better say, "Because of what You did for me on the cross," not, "Because I was baptized".
Mark 16:16 says, "He who believes and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."
You notice that this verse does not say, "and he who has not been baptized shall be condemned,"
Now don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that a believer should not get baptized, unless there is positively no water available, or in the case of a death bed conversion. It is a command to us as Christians.
If you are not save unless you are baptized, you should tell that to the thief on the cross! He didn't have the opportunity to be water baptized and yet because he cried out to Jesus for mercy, Jesus promised him that he would be in Paradise that very day with Him!
Also Jesus was baptized, and I guarantee you it wasn't for the remission of sin... for He was the perfect, sinless Lamb of God! If it is for cleansing your sins away then why did Christ get baptized? He said it must be done. Why? It was him performing an act of giving his life to God. According to the book of Romans that you are literally buried with Christ through baptism. Noooo… baptism SYMBOLIZES Christ’s death. It SYMBOLIZES your death, burial and resurrection. It is a confirmation to God from you that you are giving your life to him. The Jews were baptized…ask yourself what John the baptizer was doing? Now, I realize that it can sometimes be hard to discern when something is to be taken literally as opposed to being a type or symbol. When it comes to baptism, though, there are simply too many Scriptures that give the plan of salvation...and leave the subject of baptism out altogether. Legalism kills! As with all issues of faith, the letter of the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life! (II Corinthians 3:6)
Again I must reiterate that no true believer should continue in an unbaptized state. Whereas we can see that God expects us to obey Him in this sacrament, nowhere do we see Him judge those without mercy, who have accepted His Son as their Savior. Bottom line? If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior...get baptized. It's the right thing to do!
Let go to Paul again, I Cor. 1:17, "Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel!" Now if baptism is the point of salvation, this statement would be utterly blasphemous. But in reality, it simply confirms what the rest of the Bible already teaches... that we are saved by grace, not works of any kind! As human beings, it is in our nature to want to earn our salvation. There is nothing wrong with wanting to please God. The problem comes in when the way we want to please God conflicts with the way He wants it. If we look at Romans 10:9-10, we see God giving us the plan of salvation in a very simple and straightforward way. The Apostle Paul says that we are saved by confessing that Jesus is (our) Lord! Now that can't be true, can it? We don't get saved by simply believing and confessing that Jesus is Lord, do we? That is just too easy. There must be more to it than that, isn't there? Don't we have to do something to earn it? According to human wisdom, we have to deserve such a great gift. But in issues of life and salvation, sometimes we have to set aside our earthly "wisdom" and simply accept God at His Word. Whether we understand God's Mercy and Grace or not, doesn't change His terms. He has made it simple so that anyone can be saved. But man comes along and tries to make it "better." But you cannot improve on perfection! God's ways are higher than our ways, and He says that salvation is a gift, that no one can earn. So my advice is to take God at his word and receive the greatest gift ever offered; Salvation by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ!