I mean no disrespect to you good sir, but I'd also like to share my thoughts on the subject. You say I'm legalistic, but does not that very word imply one who goes by law? And whose law does it refer to? Isn't it God's law/covenant? (respectfully speaking). For example, if God says in 2 Thesalonians 1:8 that He will punish those who know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, would it be legalistic of me to say that we must obey the gospel, if someone says you just have to know God?
My thoughts are, good sir, that 1 Corinthians 15 says that the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact that He died, was buried, and rose again are all facts. How then do you obey a fact? It appears to me that you obey it by doing the same. I believe that you die to self, are buried in the watery grave of baptism, and are raised a new creature alive with the Holy Spirit. Romans 6:3 says that when we are baptized we are buried with Christ so that just as He was raised from the dead, we too will live a new life.
Would you agree that the gospel saves us? How then would it make sense that baptism saves us (1 peter 3:21) if baptism is not the gospel? Baptism is our reenactment of the gospel- which wouldn't work if Christ hadn't done it first. In Luke 12:50 Jesus said He had a baptism to undergo when referring to His death. Baptism is how we join Him in His death where He shed His blood that washes away sin.
Admitting, or dying to our ability to save ourselves is the proper attitude, but it is not what saves us. Many people think that baptism is a work on our part, but it is a spiritual work, not a physical one. We obey the gospel, but God does the work, not us. And what work does He do during baptism? He performs a circumsision of the heart WHEN we are buried with Him in baptism according to Colossians 2:11,12. If we are saved before baptism, wouldnt that mean that baptism does not save? And if that's the case, wouldnt that make God out to be a liar when He says in 1Peter 3:21 that baptism does saves us?
...with all due respect