Acts 19:1-6

And they were right on those counts. Baptism cannot cleanse you of sin. Only Christ can do that. And there is no actual command anywhere in the Old Testament to baptize for the remission of sin. Now we do know, let us go to Acts 19, that the apostle Paul recognized that the baptism of John was a symbol. It was not effective. It was a precursor of what Jesus would have the church do.

So the baptism of John then was symbolic at the time. He was calling them, the people of Judea and Samaria, to repentance, but he did it looking forward to Jesus Christ when they could have true repentance and true baptism and a true receipt of the Holy Spirit. But John's baptism was not spiritually effective as it was not done in the name of Jesus Christ, and it was not done for the remission of sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So those who were baptized under John had to be rebaptized in the name of Jesus Christ and have hands laid on them in order to receive the Holy Spirit. So we could see John's baptism as a precursor to the true baptism of those called into the church.