However baptism is only the beginning. Although baptism is a one-time event, its effect is ongoing and continual. True, “sins are drowned in baptism, and in place of sin, righteousness comes forth,” but the significance of baptism “is not fulfilled completely in this life.” Not until the Last Day will baptism’s significance—that is, the thing signified—reach its culmination. That which is signified—death and new life—is inaugurated with baptism but does not reach its finality until glorification. Until then, the “whole life is nothing else than a spiritual baptism which does not case till death, and he who is baptized is condemned to die.” (LW 35:30). (Matthew Barrett, The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy Catholic, and Apostolic Church [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2023], 426)
