Does baptism actually wash away sin and give new birth, or is it a symbol of a salvation already received? And may infants be baptized?
23 verses are cited on this page. Each one links to its chapter in the Greek text.
Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.Acts 2:38
Peter's answer to "what shall we do." Baptism is commanded for the remission of sins, and the Spirit is given with it.
...be baptized, and wash away thy sins, invoking his name.Acts 22:16
Ananias to Saul. Not a symbol of washing, but wash away thy sins.
...he saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost.Titus 3:5
Salvation is tied to a washing that regenerates.
We are buried together with him by baptism into death, that as Christ is risen from the dead, so we also may walk in newness of life.Romans 6:3-4
Paul does not say baptism pictures the death and rising. He says we were buried by it. The sacrament is where the union happens, not a sign pointing at it.
Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also.1 Peter 3:21
The plainest statement of all, guarded at once by Peter's own qualification that it is not the removal of bodily filth but the pledge of a good conscience.
Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.John 3:5
Water and Spirit joined in one new birth.
For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are far off.Acts 2:39
Peter extends the promise of the gift just named, in the context of baptism, to the children of his hearers.
...circumcised with circumcision not made by hand... buried with him in baptism.Colossians 2:11-12
Paul makes baptism the fulfillment of circumcision, which was given to infants at eight days as the covenant sign.
And when she was baptized, and her household...Acts 16:15
Lydia's whole household baptized on her faith.
...and himself was baptized, and all his house immediately.Acts 16:33
The jailer's entire house baptized the same night.
Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me: for the kingdom of heaven is for such.Matthew 19:14
Christ rebukes those who would keep small children from him.
The New Testament speaks of baptism in verbs that do things: wash away thy sins (Acts 22:16), for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38), the laver of regeneration (Titus 3:5), baptism now saveth you (1 Peter 3:21), born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). It never describes baptism as a mere token of a grace already complete. As to infants, honesty grants that no verse records an infant being baptized. But four households are baptized on the faith of their head, the promise is declared to be "to you and to your children" (Acts 2:39), baptism is called the circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11-12), and circumcision was given to infants; and the early Church baptized infants without any record of the practice ever being introduced. Above all, if baptism is God's work rather than ours, there is no reason to withhold it from those least able to earn it. The Council of Trent (Session 7) defined that baptism truly confers the grace it signifies and that infants are rightly baptized. The child brought to the font is not making a promise to God; God is making one to the child.