Does adult baptism seem strange to you? As a former Catholic, I understood that infants were baptized to wash away original sin, so watching adult Christians be dunked in water seemed odd and overly-dramatic to me. Then again, it never occurred to me to compare Catholic sacraments to the Word of God.
1 Peter 3:18-21 sums things up:
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ...
Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God, which means being "born again" after your first birth. This is another concept I was not comfortable with as a Catholic, but it's undeniable in the scripture. Jesus says:
“…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” -John 3:3
Being born again means we've repented of sin and have put all faith in Christ alone.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” -Romans 3:23
Baptism is an outward profession of God's saving grace and our rebirth in Jesus Christ.
“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." -Colossians 2:12
The ordinance of "believers baptism" does not preclude infants from being saved because salvation is always dependent upon God's sovereign election. The act of baptism is not what cleanses or saves a soul, but it is required of us once we are saved.
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” -Acts 2:38
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