Baptism is when God works, not man. Jesus’ apostle wrote to the church at Colossae:

“…and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”, 2:11-12

The “circumcision made without hands”, the “removal of the body of the flesh”, being “buried with Christ”, being “raised with Christ through faith in the working of God” ….. All of this is done at baptism, but None of these things are done by the one being baptized. He is simply submitting in faith to what his Lord has taught.

Paul was simply teaching the same thing Peter preached on Pentecost:

“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”, Acts 2:38

Peter told them to “be baptized” which is passive in the English translation because it was passive in Greek. The clear instruction from Jesus’ apostle was to submit to being immersed (baptized) and to do so by Jesus’ authority. Forgiving sin & the giving of the Holy Spirit can only be done by God Almighty, but this is when we are told he does these things. We can only submit to being buried in water while God does the rest!

This is what Peter was commenting on in his first letter at 1:22-23:

“Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.”

Peter says these saints were born again because they obeyed the truth. There was something they had to obey, and when they obeyed it they were born anew, but they did not give birth to themselves. That was done for them.

No where does God teach that baptism is a work of man.