Jesus answered, "Most assuredly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God!
But if the actual ceremony does not change the nature of the convert, what does it do?  (1) It is the last of the preconditions of salvation to be fulfilled by the sinner, the others being: believing, repenting, and confessing Christ; and upon compliance with all of them by the sinner, God forgives all previous sin of the sinner and confers upon him a state of absolute innocence.  The fulfilling of the preconditions by the sinner does not merit or earn God's forgiveness, nor provide any class of works that could place God under any obligation other than his own gracious and merciful promise.  However, such is the importance of this ceremonial element in the new birth, that it may be dogmatically affirmed that in the history of Christianity there has never been an exception to the proposition that every true believer who repented and was baptized was then and there forgiven of all past sin and endowed with a status of absolute innocence in God's sight.  This is accomplished not by the ceremony but by God WHEN the ceremony is obeyed, and not otherwise.  This is clear from "Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16).