By Christ’s work, I assume you mean his D,B &R. Baptism is very much an integral part of his work.
Baptism is how we die with Christ:
Rom. 6:3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Water baptism is not how we die with Christ.
Baptism represents how a believer equates his life with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Our old person is to die and be buried with Jesus through baptism into death. We are buried with the water, and raised out of the water, raised to live a new life through Jesus.
Picture how baptism looks…the believer comes to make the pledge to God, to die to the sins of the world; so now standing in the water the believer falls back, as if dead; then, the believer goes under the water, buried; then, the believer rises up out of the water, raises up to live a new life.
Romans explain this perfectly.
Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
It’s how we are resurrected with Christ:
God resurrects us with Christ.
God does that when He gives us the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
There are people who received the Holy Spirit before a water baptism, and there are people who did NOT receive the Holy Spirit when they were water baptized.