How important is water baptism to the salvation process?

One might wonder if baptism is essential for salvation, what happens if one is 'born again' yet not baptized?  Is a believer walking in disobedience if he or she is not baptized?  Should we be encouraging believers to get baptized or is this an act of faith that must be done completely on their own?  Is there an age where a believer is too young to make this great decision of baptism or do we simply look at the fruit of ones life and baptize despite the age of the believer?

The greatest place to start looking for this information would surely be when Jesus' disciples first began to head out and walk in the ways which the Master had taught them.  These accounts would primarily be found in the book of Acts.  The word "baptism" in various forms (plural, singular etc.) is found twenty-one times in the book of Acts.  It is clear that this subject is not only essential but emphasized greatly in the early days of the church.  In Acts 2:38 Peter commands the multitude before him to get baptized.  In Acts 8 we see a beautiful story of an eunuch not understanding the contents of the book of Isaiah and Phillip overhearing.  Phillip joined the eunuch on his chariot and explained the gospel to him.  Once the eunuch heard and believed he exclaimed "Look, here is water.  What can stand in the way of my being baptized?"  Phillip then immediately baptized him and disappeared.  Saul, in Acts 9, three days after his conversion was baptized once receiving his sight back.  It is important to note that though Saul was believing and understanding the gospel he had not walked out his faith for even a week prior to being baptized.  Length of time prior to baptism does not seem to be essential in the book of Acts.

My final conclusion would be that water baptism is clearly essential and important in the salvation process, yet not needed.  We see other examples in scripture where believers did not have the chance to be baptized.  For an example the thief whom died on the cross next to Jesus.  This thief stood up for Jesus against the mockery of the other thief and the audience before them.  The thief asked Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom."  Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."  It is clear in this example that the thief was not baptized and did not get baptized prior to entering paradise.  How great it would've been for this thief to experience baptism and the glory of living this life with the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of him, yet scripture is clear that baptism was not needed for this thief's salvation.

As far as age it is hard to tell biblically when a child, yet alone an adult is ready to get baptized.  From the examples we have in scripture we know that people understood the gospel prior to being baptized and they confessed faith in this gospel.  Aside from this two pre-requisitions it does not seem like anything else is needed to become baptized.  In Acts 16:15 we see an entire household getting baptized.  It is hard to tell if this household consisted of infants as well as other ages or if possibly all were old enough to confess with their mouths and believe the gospel.  There are more examples throughout the scriptures where we see entire households getting baptized which causes me to believe that there is no minimum age as long as the child can confess with their mouth that they too believe in the gospel and understand the depth of their conversion.