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Brownson claims that baptism does not bring assurance in the sense of answering the question "How can I know if I really have true faith that relies on Christ alone?" That experience of assurance only comes through "the existential act of reliance upon God's grace in Christ, rather than upon ourselves."
Yet, baptism does assure in the sense of answering the question, "How can I be sure that God intends the gracious promises of the gospel for me in particular?" It was in answering this question that Luther said that "the assertion 'I am baptized' was his final assurance of salvation. He did not mean that the church had the power to perform sacraments that were automatically effective. Rather, he was saying that the promise of God, signified in baptism, had come to him from beyond himself, delivering him from his own anxious subjectivity. It was his trust in the promise, delivered to him by the church, that was the final ground of his assurance."
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 08:44 AM
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A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
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