Through baptism, the church receives new life, new blood, and this assures its continued existence. The purpose of baptism is not for salvation, as some suppose. Indeed, you cannot have scriptural baptism until the person to be baptized has been saved. If the candidate for baptism has not been saved when he enters the baptistry, he goes into the water a dry sinner, and comes up out of the water a wet sinner. In this case scriptural baptism has not taken place.
Baptism is a picture, type, figure and symbol of our salvation.
A picture or figure is not the same as the real thing. A man does not marry the picture of his bride, but he marries the bride. The picture os the bride is fine, but what man would settle for the picture only. You do not eat the picture of a loaf of bread, but you eat the bread. The above scripture plainly tells us that baptism does not put away the filth of the flesh.