I thank God that I baptized none of you,
— 1 Corinthians 1:14 —
Ephesians 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Water baptism was never necessary. I will have been a believer fifty years this coming Spring. I had been reading the gospels for about a week when I came to realize it was true. Sitting on top of a mountain the day I believed, I prayed to God confessing my belief in His Son and asking for His Holy Spirit to come in to me. The moment I believed and received the Holy Spirit was the moment I was baptized. Adding water to that wouldn't make me any more baptized than I was at that moment. The real baptism is the Holy Spirit in you. The water then becomes pointless. There is nothing wrong with being baptized, but since the Holy Spirit has been given, the water has no more purpose. I am baptized, but it is with the baptism that actually does something.
Mark 1:7-8 …, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. 8I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
The two key words in this passage are “with” and “but", ”with" denoting “by what method” and "but" showing “exception”. Consider it written this way, “I indeed have baptized you using water, however, He shall baptize you using the Holy Ghost."
John 7:38-39 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow, rivers of living water. 39(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified).
This Water is not water, it is Spirit.
Romans 8:9-11 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you
John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
All you have to do is ask.
Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Baptism received!
The apostles continued water baptizing because they didn't yet understand everything in the beginning. Peter didn't understand about the saving of the Gentiles until God gave him a vision. They didn't all agree about the law until they came together to debate it in Acts 15. Paul later understood about baptism.
But Jesus and John the baptist explained it from the beginning. Water baptism was symbolic, pointing to the Holy Spirit, which hadn't been sent yet. Once the Spirit was given, the symbol had no more purpose. We now have the real thing. There are no rituals in Christianity. None of the people who were baptized before Jesus died were saved by it.
Water baptism has no power any more than the animal sacrifices had any power. They were a stand in, a place holder until the real thing came. You must be baptized to be saved. But "baptize" doesn't define the method. It is "with the Holy Spirit" that you must be baptized. Ask and you shall receive. "Repent and be baptized" means to repent and receive the Holy Spirit. The problem is not in the words, the problem is in the understanding.
John 3:30-31 He must increase, but I must decrease. 31He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.
The only baptism that counts doesn't use water. Jesus is the only one who can truly baptize. Paul told us precisely why he didn't baptize. He even thanked God for it.
1 Corinthians 1:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you,
1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.