Baptism is the outward symbol of the inward washing of the blood. A puplic proclamation of a spiritual cleansing that has already taken place.
That is a stock reply. No offense to you CB, but it is. Baptism is easily one of THE most divisive Christian doctrines. Your simple explanation makes more sense than some, but others hold their explanation to be just as valid (though at odds with yours).
I have almost—not completely, as I still have flesh energy!—passed clamoring for easy answers to seeming Scriptural conundrums. I have observed, from the cults to the soundest of Christians, the dead-on sincerity of each, the smiles, the outward “fruit”. Scary thought: Whitewashed tombs that men walk over without knowing it!
I want Truth from THE truth...Jesus! I know this so far: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”