Hi "One Faith" nice to meet you. It is interesting that what seems to be according to the Acts quote, on its face, is not what Paul taught in his letters to the Churches. In light of that, knowing all of Paul's teaching on salvation, that one would think that if we were to understand water baptism as washing away our sins that he too would have taught it that way. So if what, on its face, seems to be salvation by water baptism is true then all that Paul taught on the subject must be rejected as false or the reasonable conclusion would be that because of the overwhelming evidence of scripture by Jesus and Paul that we should not consider the words you quoted as meaning that it was water that saved. Acts is a transition book. Noting also that the father of faith, Abraham, as it is recorded in Scripture, believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness and all who believe, have faith in Christ are consider as he was "saved", justified in God's eyes and never any H2O to seal the deal. Due to the VAST number of passages in God's word that do not indicate that any works are necessary for salvation, it is only reasonable that we do not understand what you quote from Acts, as it reads on its face, as necessary for salvation, but the preponderance of evidence in the letters and by Jesus himself is evidence that water can't save, by God's Grace Alone Through Faith Alone, to God's Glory Alone. Blessing to you, we must respectfully disagree.