One of the criminals beside Jesus who were also crucified started to repent just before it was over, so there was no possibility for a Baptism before he died.Nevertheless Jesus Christ promised him he will be with him in paradise (Luke 23:42-43).
To be serious, for me that's a sensitive theme, because just the statement "You can be saved without Baptism too" (Ephesians 2:8-9) can to demean this important action, when you not explain why it's so important nevertheless.All of us should never forget, to be baptized is a crucial step of obedience, which was important enough in the opinion of Jesus Christ to chose the Baptism for themself and to demand from his followers to do the same!
Of course there's no possibility to "earn" our hail through own actions, "Ephesians 2:8-9" is very clear by this, but our obedience decides about the nearness between us and God.When we made this step of obedience (Baptism), we will to benefit for that "in this world", then there's more vicinity between us and the Lord, we're more protected when Satan, the "God of this world" (Luke 4:5-7) and his "Rulers of this world" (Ephesians 6:12) start their attacks on us, because followers of Jesus Christ are their most important target group.All of this are reasons, why it's so important to mention these facts as opposed to say just "You're saved without Baptism too" (Newcomer would to underrate Baptism when that's all what you say about this theme).
There's a further point too, which you should think about!Although humans can be saved without Baptism, the rewards for saved people will be different, so good deeds with the right attitude don't decide if you're saved or not, but they're important for rewards which saved people get for eternity or not (1. Corinthians 3:12-15).Don't forget, there's a difference if a human gets salvation in his last moments and didn't understand what's important before, or if he knew for some years it's important in Jesus Christs opinion and he decided to deny Baptism nevertheless, both people will get a different assessment when Judgement comes (Notes:step of obedience).
I tell this, because I've got this short answer (you're saved without Baptism too) when I was a young Christian, what was the reason why I've underrated this action for a long time, before I researched more about this and learnt a lot of important things about this step of obedience, the additional protection against the "loss of hail" and so on, so I try to prevent other new sisters and brothers in faith to underrate this procedure too when they get a too short answer by this complex theme.
