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Baptism is a free will sign of our repentance -- we wash away the old Self and come up new creatures in Christ. It's a symbol. And it's a public declaration of our faith. Not a requirement, and not some mystical, magical rite that is some secret method of sneaking into Heaven. God is a little bit smarter than to fall for that. He wants to know us and love us intimately, not put the Old Testament yoke of outward ritual back on our shoulders. That's why there is a new covenant and that's why the curtain in the Holiest of Holies was torn in half (NOT an easy feat) when Jesus died on the cross. It was a sign that the old covenant was no longer in force.

Baptism in the New Testament is this public declaration of an individual's free will submission to the Lord Jesus. It can never be done 'in proxy", by the way, and never for your dead relatives, who sealed their fate with God while they were alive. Once to live and once to judgment, wrote Paul.

And anyway, where is the free will in baptizing for dead people? Maybe they didn't want to be baptized.