The power and effect of baptism must also be set against its present tense. Baptismal regeneration cannot be referred entirely to the moment of administration. The regeneration which baptism effects and the dying and rising which baptism signifies are one and the same in this: Baptismal regeneration not only stands behind the Christian as fact—it also stands before him as call.
Jonathan D. Trigg
Baptism in the Theology of Martin Luther
