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John 3:5, 22 - Born of the water and the Spirit
Titus 3:5 - Saved through the bath of rebirth and renewal by Holy Spirit
Acts 2:37-38 - repent and be baptized to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
Acts 22:16 - Baptism washes ones sins away
Romans 6:4 - Baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ
1 Peter 3:21 - Baptism now saved you.
Hebrews 10:22 - Washed through water.
2 Kings 5:14 - Foreshadows baptism
Isaiah 44:3 - Water and Spirit are connected to baptism
Ezek. 36:25-27 - Lord promises us that he will sprinkle our sins clean with water
Acts 8:12-13; 36; 10:47 - If baptism is only symbolic why is everyone immediately baptized?
Gal. 3:27 - In baptism we literally become new creatures.
Mark 16:16 - Baptism is normative, even if not absolutely necessary. Those who die before baptism that are saved, are saved by 'baptism by desire'. God is 'confined by a box', but as His children we follow his commands.

This transformation takes place principally through rebirth as sons of God. What is most important to understand about being born again is the setting it takes place in. By renouncing sin and evil and adhering to our faith we call upon God to receive us as His children. In order to accomplish this we know that through salvation history we must enter into a covenant with God. Unlike a contract a covenantal relationship with God allows us to become family again with God. Contractual relationships do not change family trees; they merely stipulate an exchange of goods or services between two parties. John Chrysostom tells us the nature of such a covenant with God: The words you pronounce are inscribed in heaven, the agreement spoken by your lips remains indelibly before God the priest instructs each one to pronounce those fearful and awesome words: I renounce you Satan. Unlike past covenants this covenant, rendered fully by the sacraments, cannot be broken. This is because the covenant relationship is no longer explicitly between God and man as the old covenants were. These are vassal covenants in which God has born the penalty or curses of the law and offers us the blessings of the covenant by faith. Thus as the Sacred Scriptures attest "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord." So long as we reside in Christ we are heirs to eternal life.

What then is the nature of such a conversion? How is it that we enter into this covenant with God? How is it that we are reborn? The familiar liturgical line I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit basically explains it all. It is through baptism that man is reborn as a child of God. His conversion begins with the inner workings of the Holy Spirit, is continued through his conviction and his yes to faith in Jesus Christ, and is culminated in his rebirth into the New Covenant as a member of God's family. After this anointing he takes you down into the sacred waters, at the same time burying the old nature and raising the new creature, which is being renewed after the image of the creator. Then by the words of the priest and by his hand the presence of the Holy Spirit flies down upon you and another man comes up out of the font, one washed from all the stain of his sins, who has put off the old garment of sin and is clothed in the royal robe." We are saved initially in baptism because the salvation that Christ won for us by bearing the curses of the old Mosaic law is applied to us when we "die with Christ" and then we are brought forth raised into the newness of life receiving the blessing of being children of God.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

1213 Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua),4 and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word."5

I. WHAT IS THIS SACRAMENT CALLED?

1214 This sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out: to baptize (Greek baptizein) means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into the water symbolizes the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as "a new creature."6

1215 This sacrament is also called "the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit," for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one "can enter the kingdom of God."7

1216 "This bath is called enlightenment, because those who receive this [catechetical] instruction are enlightened in their understanding . . . ."8 Having received in Baptism the Word, "the true light that enlightens every man," the person baptized has been "enlightened," he becomes a "son of light," indeed, he becomes "light" himself:9

Baptism is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift. . . .We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and most precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism because sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as are those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing since it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard and the sign of God's Lordship.10