Commenting on the problematic nature of the purely”symbolic” understanding of water baptism that is rather prevalent in many Evangelical Protestant circles, David Pawson wrote:
Symbols are pictures which point beyond themselves to something else—but do no more than that. Road signs make much use of them, warning about sharp bends, railway crossings, or obstructions ahead. Then there are symbolic actions, such as the international gesture for hitchhiking a lift, waving the hand with the thumb pointing in the desired question.
Many think that baptism is no more than a symbol, a re-enacted ritual that says a lot, but actually does nothing. It represents a great deal, but reproduces nothing. It only looks like a bath and a burial, but in neither case is it the real thing. It reminds us of certain realities in the Christian experience, but does not bring these abut. It is simply a dramatic demonstration.
Three important consequences following this understanding:
First, the symbol becomes separated in time from the reality to which it corresponds. When a believer is baptised, this portrays an event which it is believed has already happened in the spiritual realm. When a baby is baptised, the time-warp is even greater since this portrays and even which may not take place for many years to come.
Second, the symbol becomes quite secondary to the reality it represents—and therefore not really necessary. The really essential part of baptism becomes the ‘spiritual’ bath and burial, not the outward act. Baptism is then in danger of becoming an optional extra, however helpful or desirable it may appear to be. This apparent devaluation of baptism is sometimes compensated for in the following manner:
Third, the emphasis shifts from what the Lord does for us in baptism to what we do for him. It is only ‘necessary’ as an act of obedience to him (or of testimony to others). It does something for him, but nothing for us. It is a human, rather than a divine, act.
However, the New Testament does not talk like this at all. The language about baptism is instrumental rather than symbolic. It is for the forgiveness of sins, it is a washing of regeneration, it is a burial and resurrection with Christ (Acts 2:38; Titus 3:5; Romans 6:3f). Saul, later Paul, was told to delay his baptism no longer but get into the water and have his sins washed away (Acts 22:16).
This is the language of divine action, not human acting. The emphasis is on what baptism does—or rather, what the Lord does in baptism. The effects of baptism are expected at the time of baptism. Symbol and reality are simultaneous, because the one communicates the other. The visible enactment does not point to a past or future event; it is a present event, taking place before the eyes of the beholder.
This is what is meant by calling it a ‘sacrament’. The word originally meant an oath of allegiance (taken by a Roman soldier to his Emperor, called the ‘sacramentum’); but in the church it is used of those actions which mediate the grace of God. One well-known definition runs: ‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace’. However, even this definition could be misunderstood as ‘only symbolic’. So let us be more specific: a sacrament is ‘a physical action with a spiritual effect’. (David Pawson, Explaining Water Baptism [Tonbridge, England: Sovereign World Limited, 1992], 49-50)
On the charge that this doctrine is "works-based salvation," Pawson answered this rather ably:
Some protest that this introduces the ‘heresy’ of salvation by works, by our efforts rather than by his grace. But in telling us that we need to repent (and prove that by our deeds), that we need to believe (and show that in our actions) and that we need to be baptised (in water and Spirit), the apostles were not telling us that we could save ourselves, much less earn our salvation by our good deeds. They were telling us that this is the way to be ‘saved by grace’. When Paul exhorted his hearers to ‘be saved from this corrupt generation’ (Acts 2:40; the translation ‘save yourselves’ is inaccurate and misleading), he told them they must ‘repent and be baptised’ (Acts 2:38). A drowning man who grabs and holds on to a life-line thrown to him is under no illusion that he has saved himself!
The apostles never hesitated to ascribe ‘saving’ effects to baptism. The title of his chapter (‘Baptism saves you now’) comes from the pen of Peter (1 Peter 3:21). Baptism brings forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38), washing them away (Acts 22:16). Baptism frees from sin (Romans 6:4-7), cleanses the church (Ephesians 5:26), buries and raises with Christ (Colossians 2:12) and enables us to draw near to God (Hebrews 10:22). It is the bath of regeneration, the washing of rebirth (Titus 3:5). (Ibid, 57)
For more, see, for e.g.: