As much as you stick to your absolute perfectionism of not wanting to include baptism as part of God's Grace, your seemingly lack of enthusiasm in presenting baptism as our next step of transitioning from Grace to obedience seems odd to me. And as much as I know you hate for me to include the "C" word here...and no I don't mean cancer. Those that lean more to Calvinism seem to focus only at what opens the door of heaven, and very, very, little on what else is taken in with us, that will reward us for eternity. For whatever good we did on earth is as though we did for Christ who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:42
And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
Of course as christians, we read the above scripture and know that not just anyone that gives a cup of cold water to a little one is given a free pass to heaven. Only those (disciples) who already believe and accept the free gift of salvation will go to heaven and then receive an extra reward for doing such a good thing(s).
Getting back to baptism...Now it may seem that the thief on the cross got by with not having to go through baptism, but we have to remember that he died a martyr's death next to Christ, once he believed.
Romans 6:3...Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,…
We can be certain that the thief on the cross has a special place in heaven as a martyr and had a greater symbolic/physical baptism than most of us will ever have.
Now we know why in Revelation, Christ gives special honor to the martyrs and raised them to rule and reign with Him in the millennium.