Bonhoeffer's Discipleship Part II - Reflections (9)

 

 

“It is we who are crucified with him and who die with him…Jesus thus brings humanity not only into death with him, but also into the resurrection” (page 196).

 

“How then do we come to participate in this body of Christ who did all this for us? For this much is certain: there is no community with Jesus Christ other than the community with his body!” (page 196).

 

Bonhoeffer then writes that we share in the koinonia of the Body of Christ through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and makes the statement that, “Sacraments exist only because there is a Body of Christ” (page 197). Baptism brings us into the Body and the communion table keeps us in relationship with the Body.

 

I want to again caution us to be patient with Bonhoeffer, for until we have traversed the ground on which he is taking us, we are not likely to begin to understand what he is saying, his vision is farther and deeper and broader than most of us have experienced. If we have a nonsacramental view of baptism and communion, it is just possible that we have much to learn. If we have a sacramental view of communion and baptism, it is also possible that we have much to learn. In both instances our cut and dried positions may be our prisons. I think I can say with assurance that if we think we see the entire picture regarding baptism and communion that we have a lot to learn; I doubt that it is possible to see the entire picture of either one, for to see the entire picture is to see the entire Christ. We can swim in this ocean, but we cannot comprehend this ocean.

 

If we will read the Bible passages that Bonhoeffer quotes and references, if we will read all of the passages in context that reference and allude to baptism and the Lord’s Table (and I think we have the opportunity to continually discover these texts on this pilgrimage), then I think we will see…if we are honest…that there is indeed great mystery in Christ in these sacraments, paradigms, dimensions of koinonia. For sure this honesty will create heartburn in those who insist on neat and tidy propositional and doctrinal statements that are limiting rather than liberating (and doctrine should be liberating!), but we can trust Christ and His Spriit to care for us on this pilgrimage. Yes? I think so.

 

Bonhoeffer wants us to understand that as we “receive the community of the body of Christ” (page 197) that the terms “with Christ,” “in Christ,” and “Christ in us,” will have clear meaning for us. I would add that these terms and the reality within them become our Way of Life in Christ Jesus and with one another.

 

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are seen as events which “involve all human beings (Rom. 5:18ff; 1 Cor. 15:22; 2 Cor. 5:14)” (page 197).

 

Here is a list of passages that Bonhoeffer quotes and lists on the bottom of page 197 and the top of 198:

 

Rom. 6:8; Col. 2:20; Rom. 6:6; Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12; Rom. 6:5; Rom. 6:8; Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:12 (again); 2 Tim. 2:11; 2 Cor. 7:3; Rom. 2:12; 3:19; 7:5; 8:3, 8, 9; 2 Cor. 10:3; 1 Cor. 15:22.

 

He writes of those who know Christ, “With their entire existence and throughout all expressions of their life they are henceforth “in Christ”” (page 198).

 

I hope we see that Bonhoeffer is grounding his message in the Bible. As foreign as what he writes may be to us, he is not saying anything that isn’t grounded in the Word of God. Note that he is viewing Scripture as a whole, he is not basing his message on a verse here or there, but rather on an integrated vision of Jesus Christ and His Body as seen through many facets of the Bible.

 

Bonhoeffer shows us the forest first, and then the trees. He shows us how the patterns of trees and groups of trees make up the forest. Let us not be so foolish as to think our patches of woodland are all there is; the Body is expansive, transcendent, and ever growing up into Him.

 

“Everything we have said thus far may be summed up in the phrase: Christ is “for us” (page 198). This is what Bonhoeffer wants us to know, that Jesus Christ came for us, lived for us, died for us – bearing not only our sins, but ourselves, bearing us as individuals and us as humanity – that he died for us, was buried for us, and that He rose and ascended for us – and that we were with Him in all of this.

 

Is this not what Paul writes in Romans 8:31? “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

 

“Paul can describe the miracle of Christ’s incarnation in an almost infinite variety of perspectives” (page 198).

 

As I read this statement, I want to emblazon it in the mind of every Christian, print it in every small group booklet, and paste it on every pulpit. One difference between an infant in Christ and an adult is that an adult realizes the truth of Bonhoeffer’s statement, while an infant or adolescent is convinced that its parochial perspective is all there is to know, and most certainly all there is to believe, teach, and preach.

 

Not only is there an almost infinite variety of Biblical perspectives on the incarnation, but when we understand the comprehensiveness of the Incarnation, the same is true of the Cross, the Atonement, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the Church of Jesus Christ. Now for sure, all of these perspectives radiate from Jesus Christ, display Jesus Christ, and glorify Jesus Christ; they are all from, through, and to Jesus Christ.

 

If Jesus Christ is God, which He is, and if God is infinite, then knowing Him and growing in Him, as individuals and as His People, is never-ending. The nature of the Bible is divinely infinite. The Bible displays Jesus Christ in unending dimensions, showing forth His beauty, drawing us deeper into Him – as individuals and as His People – if we will look for Him, seek Him, and allow Him.

 

Jesus says that what the Father has is His, and that the Holy Spirit will disclose to us what the Father has given Him. What the Father has belongs to Jesus, what Jesus has belongs to us (John 16:12 – 15), we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17, 32). Surely this is a never-ending experience.

 

Bonhoeffer is illustrating, with his many Biblical references, what he means when he writes of Paul’s “almost infinite variety of perspectives.” This can be uncomfortable for those of us who are accustomed to narrow views and rote statements on the Incarnation and Atonement.

 

I would love to ask a small group, “Please share some facets of the Incarnation. Please share some dimensions of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. How do you participate in the Incarnation on a daily basis? How do you participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as a way of life?” (You might want to mediate on Galatians 2:20 and 6:14).

 

If our people can’t respond to these questions, what does that say?

 

What is my answer to these questions?

 

What is your answer?

 

How would our congregations respond to these questions?

 

Editorial Note: If you are carefully reading Bonhoeffer, I will mention that there are some things I do not quite see as Bonhoeffer does, however I very much agree with his central thrust, vision, and message. I would love to chat with him about a statement or two to better understand what he means, but alas he isn’t available. Any quotes are statements I endorse, unless I make qualifying comments. I have chosen not to draw attention, as a rule, to the occasional point on which we may differ in order not to distract from the beauty of Bonhoeffer’s message of Christ and the Body, the Church, the Bride, the Temple. After all, the material is dense enough without me adding tangents.

"Ask"

 

“In that day you will not ask Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

 

“These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father” (John 16:23 – 27). (See also John 14:13 – 13; 15:7, 16).

 

Since in previous Upper Room reflections we pondered initial elements of asking in prayer, we’ll consider additional facets of the diamond in our current passage, for here we are transitioning into the Holy of Holies of Chapter 17.

 

“In that day” of verse 23 points us to the birthing of verse 21 and the going to the Father of verse 5. One reason it is vital to meditate on the entire Upper Room passage (chapters 13 – 17) is to retain, and hold in tension, the themes found throughout the passage. We must not look at verses and paragraphs in isolation.

 

The Upper Room begins with, “Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). In 16:28 we have an inclusio when Jesus says, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and gong to the Father.” While we will devote much more thought to this, I point it out now to draw our attention to the unity of the Upper Room and the importance of the theme of Jesus coming and going – not just in an immediate sense, but in a cosmic missional sense.

 

Compare:

 

“After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also” (14:19).

 

“A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while and you will see Me” (16:16).

 

Then compare:

 

“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (14:20).

 

“In that day you will not ask Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you…for the Father Himself loves you” (16:23, 27).

 

The “day” that Jesus speaks of will soon be upon the disciples, though this new reality will take a while to dawn on them (isn’t that the way days come about?) On the Day of His Resurrection Jesus will say, “Go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’” (John 20:17). Yet, the disciples will not immediately grasp the import of these words, even though Jesus spent the entire Upper Room speaking to them about this glorious New Day! Indeed, Jesus had spent His entire ministry revealing the Father to His brothers and sisters, and yet they had not come to see this, or had they? In some measure did they know more than they realized? We will look at this in future reflections.

 

In John 16:23 – 27 Jesus speaks of the intimacy that His disciples will have with the Father “in that day,” a Day which dawns on Easter morning. This is a penumbra to the Holy of Holies of Chapter 17 in which the fulness of this intimacy comes into view.

 

Isn’t there a sense in which Jesus has been teaching and modeling intimacy with the Father throughout His ministry? Consider that the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 – 7) is Jesus’ first extended recorded teaching. How does the Son of God teach us to approach His Father?

 

“Pray to your Father…your Father knows what you seek before you ask Him…pray, then, in this way: Our Father who is in heaven…” (see Matthew 6:6 – 9).

 

From the beginning of His ministry to its earthly conclusion, Jesus Christ is bringing us into a relationship with His Father and our Father, with His God and our God.

 

Paul teaches that we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). James reminds us that our Father is the “Father of lights” (James 1:17). Peter writes that our Father has chosen us and that we are to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:2 - 3, 14 – 16). John shares that he and his brethren have koinonia with the Father and Son (1 John 1:3). Jude tells the recipients of his letter that they are “beloved in God the Father” (Jude 1:1). The author of Hebrews writes that Jesus and His brethren are all of one Father (Heb. 2:10 – 11).

 

And yet, so many of us view God as distant and unapproachable. We pray “Our Father” not with a sense of love, affection, security, and intimacy, but with a sense of distance. In light of all that Jesus has taught and done, how can this be?

 

Well, many of us have a lot of baggage to overcome when trying to see God as our Father. I can think of no better healing ointment than the reassuring words of Jesus Christ. I am convinced we can trust what Jesus says. I am convinced that the Father loves you and me just as He loves Jesus (John 17:23). I think this is pretty amazing!

 

What do you think?

Bonhoeffer's Discipleship Part II - Reflections (8)

 

 

“The incarnate Son of God was thus both an individual self and the new humanity. Whatever he did was at the same time also done on behalf of the new humanity which he bore in his body” (page 195).

 

Let us work our way through this chapter and its strange (to most of us) perspectives and see where our journey takes us.

 

On the bottom of page 195 Bonhoeffer points us to Romans Chapter 5 and 1 Corinthians Chapter 15 (which I’ve previously asked us to ponder). In Romans Chapter 5 we see the juxtaposition of Adam and Christ.

 

In 5:12, through one man (Adam) “sin entered the world, and death through sin.”

 

In 5:14 we note that Adam “is a type (foreshadowing) of Him who was to come,” our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In 5:15 we see that while many died by Adam’s transgression, that the grace of God and the “gift by grace” abundantly come to many through one Man, Jesus Christ.

 

In 5:17 we see the importance of receiving God’s abundant grace and gift of righteousness.

 

We have a summing up in 5:18 – 19: “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One [Jesus Christ] the many will be made righteous.”

 

If we keep in mind that Adam was a “type of Him who was to come,” meaning an image of Christ, it will remind us that what we see in Adam we can expect to see fully in Christ. We were born in Adam, as Adam’s descendant’s, the question is whether we will continue to live in Adam or come to live in Christ. Adam has transmitted death to us, Christ has transmitted life to us – will we “receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness…and reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (5:17)?

 

There are now two humanities on earth, Adam and Christ.

 

This is why the next section of Romans (Chapter 6) deals with our baptism into Christ, “We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (6:4). 

In baptism we come out of Adam and into Christ, perhaps we could say baptism actualizes our reception of “the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.” I mean this in a conceptual sense, not in a rigid sense – after all, we live by the Holy Spirit and in the freedom of grace; so while I don’t want folks to make more of this than what I am saying, I most certainly want us to make a great deal over the glory of our salvation in Jesus – in Him and His death we come out of Adam and into Him – we leave a dead humanity and come into the life-giving Body of Jesus Christ. We are raised to newness of life in Jesus Christ.

 

Bonhoeffer also takes us to 1 Corinthians 15:45 and 47.

 

“The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

 

“The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.”

 

Can we see the parallel between this passage and Romans 5? While the emphasis may be different between Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, the framework of Adam – Christ is the same. In both passages we have what we might term two humanities.

 

“For Adam too was both an individual self and at the same time the whole of humanity…In him all of humanity has fallen…Christ is the second human being (1 Cor. 15:47) in whom the new humanity is created. He is the “new human being” (page 195, italics mine).

 

Have you ever thought about there being two humanities on earth? Have you ever thought of yourself, as a Christian, as belonging to the New Humanity of Jesus Christ?

 

Do you realize that in Christ you are no longer a member of Adam’s humanity, of his fallen race?

 

While this is an integral element of the Gospel (for example Romans 5:11 – 8:39 and beyond), it is seldom taught. This is basic, it has to do with our core identity, and yet we seldom approach it.

 

“The incarnate Son of God who took on human flesh does need a community of followers who not only participate in his teaching but also in his body. It is thus in the body of Christ that the disciples have community” (page 196, italics mine).

 

In the ensuing pages Bonhoeffer will explore how we participate in His Body, for it is indeed an organic Body, a living Body - this is not a metaphor, it is an eternal reality. For now, let’s ponder what Jesus says to Paul on the road to Damascus.

 

“As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting”” (Acts 9:3 - 5).

 

What is Jesus saying to Paul?

 

Yes, of course, Jesus is asking a question, but what is Jesus saying in the question He is asking? The answer to this question is, we might say, the key to understanding not only what Bonhoeffer is writing, but it is the cornerstone of Paul’s ministry.

 

Let’s note what Jesus is not saying, He is not asking, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting My people?” While this is what we might expect Jesus to ask, He does not ask this question, for the question Jesus asks, He asks as the Head of His Body.

 

As the Head of His Body Jesus asks, “Why do you persecute Me?” In asking this question Jesus is saying that He is One with His Body, that the Head and the Body are an organic whole, they cannot be separated. To touch the Body of Christ is to touch Jesus Christ, the Head. To persecute the Body of Christ is to persecute Jesus. To inflict pain and suffering on the Body of Christ is to inflict pain on Jesus.

 

(“If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). How foolish we are when we inflict pain on members of the Body of Christ, whether in our congregations or outside them. How foolish we are to withhold good from others when we can make a difference in their lives. Matthew 25:31 – 46 is an indictment of the professing church in America. The least of our brethren is Jesus.)

 

As Bonhoeffer writes, we participate in His body, and in His body we have community. His body becomes His Body. “Christ is the second human being.”

 

When Jesus spoke to Paul, He sowed the seed of Paul’s ministry, for Paul not only preached Jesus Christ, but he preached Jesus Christ as the Head of the Body, the Bridegroom, the cornerstone of the Living Temple, and so much more. Paul “saw” the Divine organic unity of Jesus Christ and His Body and could write, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12). Paul was stating an organic reality, a realty which Jesus revealed to him on the road to Damascus.

 

Bonhoeffer writes of this organic reality, we participate in the body of Christ, we become the Body of Christ, we have community with Jesus and with one another in this Body. This is our core identity…or it should be.

 

Is it?

"A Little While"

 

“A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me” (John 16:16).

 

Now we come to our next “movement” in the Upper Room, John 16:16 – 22. As we ponder this passage, we may recall John 13:33 – 36 and 14:18 – 19, which is to say that the theme of Jesus going and coming, of not being seen and then being seen, is a theme of the Upper Room.

 

In our passage we see the uncertainty of Jesus not being seen and then seen again, and also of a coming season of weeping and lamentation and anguish, which will be followed by joy. Jesus says, “You too have grief now; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (John 16:22). Note that “joy” Is a theme of Upper Room, as is the peace which Jesus gives to us. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (15:11; see also 16:24, 17:13).

 

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27; see also 16:33).

 

John 16:16 - 22 is nestled in the context of Sonship. In 16:12 – 15 we see our inheritance in the Son, and in 16:23 – 33 this glorious inheritance and life in the Trinity is reaffirmed in a striking manner. This in turn leads us into the Holy of Holies of Chapter 17, in the Father’s House, in His Heart, with the Eternal Son our Elder Brother, in the Holy Spirit.

 

Note the similarity between John 16:21 – 22 and Romans 8:22 – 23, the working of the Son comes through anguish and travail – but O how the childbirth is worth it, how the suffering and apparent uncertainty are worth it – to see the Son of God come forth from the bonds of death bringing His brothers and sisters with Him. We hear this cry from Paul when he writes, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19).  In other words, what we see in Gethsemane, on the Cross, and on Easter morning is produced over and over again in the Church, in the brothers and sisters of Jesus, until the consummation of the ages. The Way of the Cross is our Way of Life, not the way of pleasure and selfishness and materialism, but rather of denying ourselves and losing our lives for Jesus Christ and others.  

 

When Jesus says, “Your grief will be turned into joy” (16:20), isn’t He showing us the Way of the Cross? Tolkien invented the word “eucatastrophe” (good catastrophe) to refer to an apparent disaster that produces wonderful and glorious results. Is not the Cross the ultimate and eternal eucatastrophe? Is it not the catastrophe from which all that is truly living and good and truthful and beautiful flows?

 

Just as the disciples had questions earlier in the Upper Room (John 14:5, 22), so they have questions now (16:17 – 18), “What is He saying? What does this mean?” I rather think that Jesus likes our questions, and perhaps He is sad that we don’t ask more questions of Him. Some of my most precious moments as a pastor have been when people have asked me questions during my Sunday morning sermons. Rather than become irritated by the interruptions, I welcomed the participation. After all, not only did it show that folks felt safe with me and with Christ, but it indicated that they were paying attention and pondering the Word of God and wanted to learn and grow in Jesus Christ.

 

In one sense, much of the Christian life is a “now I see Him, now I don’t” experience with Jesus. While He is always with us, we don’t always see Him clearly, and sometimes we may not see Him at all. This is not necessarily due to anything we have done or not done, it is often by His design to strengthen us, our vision, our faith, and our trust in Him. Too frequently we are like airplane pilots who can only fly visually, rather than by instrumentation; if we can’t visually see where we are going, we panic and need to land – Jesus wants us to trust Him and His Word, He wants us to learn to “live by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). The Holy Spirit and God’s Word will always bring us home.

 

Jesus is telling the disciples that turbulence is imminent, that grief and sorrow await them. They have no real idea what He means, and that is to be expected. Jesus sees what is coming, He has oriented His entire life toward Calvary, His followers can’t really conceive what is about to transpire.  

 

Throughout the Upper Room Jesus calls His friends to intimacy, He challenges them, He warns them, He reassures them. Jesus speaks of the immediate and also of the eternal. He warns of the storm, including the ongoing storm of persecution, and He also speaks of joy and comfort and peace and love.

 

Isn’t there a sense in which John 16:16 - 22 is the Christian life? Following Jesus means crucifixion, death, and resurrection as our Way of Life (Mark 8:34 – 38; Galatians 2:20; 2Cor. 4:7 – 12). Furthermore, just as Jesus prepared His disciples for sorrow, pain, and joy, so we are called to prepare His followers for the same – we are not to be as the false teachers who teach a Christianity without the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. To follow Jesus is to share in the sufferings of Jesus, any message to the contrary is of the enemy (Matthew 17:21 – 23).

 

Note also the pattern of trial and persecution (John 15:18 – 16:4), vision and consolation (16:5 – 15), trial, suffering, and vision and consolation (16:16 – 22), and then vision and consolation with an element of trial (16:23 – 33). We see the glory of God in the midst of, out of, birthed from, suffering. This motif is similar to Romans 8:9 – 38 in which we see that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (8:17).

 

I think we might term John 16:16 – 22 a little primer in spiritual formation.

 

I hope one thing we’ll see in our passage is that it is normal for us to clearly see Jesus one moment, and not to see Him so clearly the next. When this occurs, which it likely will, it need not mean that there is anything wrong with us, what it often means is that Jesus loves us and wants us to grow in Him, to see Him in new ways and in new situations. We can always be assured that Jesus is with us…always, always, always. He is with us to the end of the age, and He will never leave us or forsake us (Mathew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).

 

To be sure times of darkness can be excruciating, we may be as Paul and “despair of life,” feeling that we have “the sentence of death within ourselves,” but we can be assured that this is a lesson in “not trusting ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (see 2 Cor. 1:3 – 11).

 

The pathway into the Holy of Holies is not only a way of Living Bread and glorious Light, it is also a way of sacrifice, it is the Way of the Lamb, and O what glory to know the Lamb in the koinonia of His sufferings, that we might also know Him in the power of His Resurrection (Phil. 3:10)!

 

Have there been times in your life when you have seen Jesus, and then you haven’t, and then you have?

 

What can we learn from John 16:16 – 22?

 

How can we share this passage with our brothers and sisters?

 

Bonhoeffer's Discipleship Part II - Reflections (7)

 

 

Now we come to deep waters, dropping off the continental shelf. As we work through the next four chapters, which conclude Discipleship, please keep in mind that they constitute a whole and that to appreciate what Bonhoeffer sees that we ought to keep refreshing our minds with what we’re reading. The tapestry Bonhoeffer weaves is intricate, Biblical, challenging, and densely woven.

 

Let’s remember that Bonhoeffer does not write in an academic or ecclesiastical vacuum, but in the midst of chaos and darkness and uncertainty within the German church and society. What Bonhoeffer writes is, for him, supremely practical – for the more heavenly a thing is the more value it will be on earth, consider the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. (This puts the lie to the saying that we can be so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good. To be truly heavenly minded is to be incarnationally essential to those living on earth – once again, consider Jesus Christ.)

 

If we, the Body of Christ, do not know who we are, if we do not know who we belong to (Jesus Christ and one another), then we will not live as citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20). We will instead exchange our identity in Christ for earthly identities; economic, political, national, social, racial, even religious. This is, of course, what the German church was doing when Bonhoeffer wrote Discipleship, it is, of course, what the American church is doing as you read this.

 

Bonhoeffer begins Chapter 10 with writing that just as the first disciples lived in the “bodily presence of and in community with Jesus,” that so do we who have been baptized into the Body of Christ. We have already seen this theme in our reflections, the first disciples do not have an advantage over us who have come after them, in fact, if there is any advantage it belongs to us who are experiencing the inner Presence of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father as the Body of Christ, in the communion of saints.

 

On page 193 Bonhoeffer writes that, “We live in full community with the bodily presence of the glorified Lord.” Bonhoeffer wants us to become “fully aware of the magnitude of this gift” (page 193).

 

Now to be sure, Bonhoeffer realizes that the idea of us being baptized into the Body of Christ is “very strange and incomprehensible to us,” (page 193), and therefore he is going to escort us through the mysteries of our union with Christ and with one another, mysteries that can be experienced, and glimpsed, but which (I think) cannot be fully comprehended (you be the judge please). After all, we can experience the Incarnation, but we can hardly explain it. We can experience baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but we can hardly explain them. We can experience the glorious Trinity, but we can hardly explain God.

 

Now if what Bonhoeffer writes about the Presence of Christ in our lives is true, then we have much to experience and learn and share. If what he writes is true, then most of us have missed much during our time on earth. If what he writes is true, we have much to share with others.  

 

On page 194 Bonhoeffer terms the Incarnation as “the miracle of all miracles,” and he writes of the Son of God shouldering and carrying “all of humanity.” He continues his focus on the Incarnation into page 195, insisting (as does the Bible) that “God became human.” Bonhoeffer tells us that, “The body of Jesus Christ, in which we together with all of humanity are accepted by God, has now become the foundation of our salvation.”

 

Now this thinking may be a surprise to most of us, for we tend to limit our focus on the Incarnation to Advent, to the historical birth of Jesus Christ.

 

(Yes, as some readers may realize, there is a major Christian tradition that emphasizes the Incarnation in, what I’ll term, a holistic sense. However, what I find puzzling is that this tradition confines its definition of the true Church to its own group, insisting that its faith is the true faith – thus, in my view, fragmenting the Body of Christ and doing violence to the very Incarnation they emphasize. It seems we all have a propensity to fragment the Body of Christ, in the face of our protestations to the contrary.)

 

Then in the second half of page 195 we have this, “The incarnate Son of God was thus both an individual self and the new humanity. Whatever he did was at the same time also done on behalf of the new humanity which he bore in his body.”

 

What is Bonhoeffer talking about!? Where is he taking us? Did he have some bad mushrooms for dinner? Too much fine German wine?

 

Well, seriously, he is taking us to some beautiful places in the Scriptures and in Christ, but they are places that may be new to us, places we may have skipped over in the past, places that were considered too challenging for us by our teachers, or places that we refused to enter because they required too much effort.

 

Whatever the reason, most of us are unfamiliar with where Bonhoeffer is taking us, into the depths of Jesus Christ and His Body.

 

But before we move further along the path, we have some homework in two parts. The first part is to read the Biblical references to the Son of God and the Incarnation that Bonhoeffer lists on pages 194 - 195:

 

1 Cor. 8:6; 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:6ff; Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:16; John 1:1ff; Heb. 1:1ff; Rom. 8:3; Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:6ff; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15.  

 

The second part is to read Romans 5:12 – 21, and 1 Corinthians 15:42 – 49 in its context. This second part has to do with Bonhoeffer’s discussion of the “new humanity,” so as you read these two passages ask yourself how they might relate to this idea. Bonhoeffer cites both passages on page 195 and we’ll explore them when we continue, but I think it is better if we read them first to give us some background.

 

Do you recall that I wrote that this is “dense” territory?

 

One last comment before we close this reflection, a plea I suppose. Please stay with Bonhoeffer, work through this journey with him (and with me). Obtain a copy of Discipleship and mark it up, underline it, highlight it, make comments, ask questions. I’m not certain that anything more beautiful has ever been written about our life in the Body of Christ than what Bonhoeffer wrote in Discipleship. We likely have to return to the Fathers to find comparable beauty, and even then I’m not certain that we will discover anything as dense as what we have in these few chapters.

 

My sense is that it is only when we have worked through all that Bonhoeffer writes that we can begin to truly appreciate the parts that he has written.

 

Also, be patient with Bonhoeffer’s concepts and terms. These things take time to grow in our understanding and in our hearts and souls. Ponder the Scriptures Bonhoeffer points us to, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through this journey.

 

Bonhoeffer is on a journey as he writes, let’s see where he takes us.

 

God bless you…much love…Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Holy Spirit - Revealing and Convicting (16)

  

Adoption (VII)

 

“Now I say, as long as the heir is a [minor] child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything…So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son…that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons [and daughters], God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave [functionally], but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (See Galatians 4:1 – 7).

 

It is the trajectory that especially matters, the story of adoption, of the placing of sons and daughters. This is, in many respects, the story of Genesis through Revelation. When God made mankind in His image He did not intend for us to remain children, anymore than when a parent holds a newborn baby, he or she intends for that baby to remain in its current state of being.

 

When we ponder the grand Incarnational passage of Hebrews 2:9 – 18, we see the Father “bringing many sons to glory,” and the Father perfecting Jesus (in a mysterious Incarnational sense) through sufferings (also see Hebrews 5:8 – 9). We also see (do we not?) that the one who sanctifies (Jesus) and those who are sanctified (us) are all from one Father, “For which reason He is not ashamed to call us brethren.”

 

The message from the Messiah in Hebrews Chapter 2 is clear, “I will proclaim Your Name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.” In a reversal of the story of the Prodigal Son, in the Incarnation the Elder Brother leaves His Father’s House to come and save His brothers and sisters in the pig pen.

 

We read in Galatians 4:6, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!””

 

Now for sure Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 is a dense passage with many nuances, but if we don’t see the contour of the forest, if we don’t major on the forest, but rather focus on a few trees, we will miss the glory of our adoption, of our call to maturity in Jesus Christ.

 

Ronald Y. K. Fung acknowledges this when he writes concerning Galatians Chapter 4, “We have consistently understood the references to the status of sons in vv. 5 – 7 in the sense of full-grown sonship, because this appears to be the sense required by Paul’s argument in 3:26, and it is reasonable to suppose that this is also the sense intended in the present passage” (The Epistle to the Galatians, page 186).

 

While Ronald Fung and I may see some trees in this forest differently, we both see the trajectory of full-grown sonship and this is, I think, what is critical. To teach adoption without teaching full-grown sonship is to teach something other than what the Bible sets forth.

 

Of course, if we teach full-grown sonship then we must change the way we teach and preach and pastor and lead, for we must move ourselves and our people out of the nursery, out of primary school, even out of secondary school…and move them into adulthood.

 

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

 

“Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 5:12 – 6:2).

 

Now I don’t think most people would stand for actual discipleship, for being expected to enter into sonship, for being expected to live as Christ in our generation. Nor are our institutions geared to encourage or accommodate this, there is too much risk in terms of losing control – we don’t really want Jesus to be the Head of His Body. Perhaps acknowledging our barriers is a step in working towards sonship?

 

What I do know is that we have no warrant for not preaching the Word of Sonship which has been given to us and for which Christ came and died and rose again. This Word begins in Genesis and it culminates in Revelation. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son” (Revelation 21:7).

 

We have been considering Biblical adoption because we’ve been in the Upper Room and we’ve come to John 16:12 – 15 in which we see that all that the Father has belongs to Jesus and that all that Jesus has belongs to us. This leads us to the idea of inheritance and inheritance is found in “the placing of a son,” which is Biblical adoption.

 

Few professing Christians, including pastors, really believe that they are joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), therefore few of us can conceive that all that Jesus has is ours in Him. We are afraid of John Chapter 17 which portrays us as being given the glory of Jesus Christ and as being One in the Trinity – we fail to see and testify to the glorious love and grace and work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. We insist on sewing up the veil to the Holy of Holies every Sunday morning, and woe to the woman or man who believes that she or he can live beyond the veil in intimacy with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

 

Woe to the pastor who desires to move his people on from the elementary principles of Hebrews 6:1 – 2. We would rather go back to Egypt, and as a consequence many of us die in the Wilderness. We would rather travel in circles, year after year, than enter Canaan and face the giants…giants which are nothing in the Presence of Jesus Christ. We would rather exchange our glory for that of the ox, a beast of burden (Psalm 106:19 – 20).

 

Well, let us be encouraged, for Jesus says that the gate is narrow and small that leads to life (Matthew 7:13 – 14). On the one hand we want to bring as many people with us as possible, on the other hand we must follow Jesus, and that includes “going outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:11 – 14).

 

Isn’t it time we lived as grown-ups in Jesus Christ?

 

Isn’t it time we lived as those who have been placed as His sons and daughters?

Isn't it time we lived in the glory of Adoption?

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (6)

 

 

Since Part II of Discipleship concerns the Church of Jesus Christ, it makes sense that Bonhoeffer begins with baptism, for baptism is our portal into the Church. (Let’s recall that baptism has many facets and is a sacramental mystery.) While we may not resonate with all that Bonhoeffer writes about baptism, I hope we will come to see that his central thrust is Biblical with its call to die with Jesus and rise with Him, living life in the community (fellowship) of His death and resurrection. Baptism is indeed our Way of Life in Christ, it is all encompassing in Christ, it is at the core of our identity in Jesus Christ.

 

“In order to be freed from their sin, sinners must die” (page 186). We see this in Romans Chapter 6 and elsewhere in the Bible. This is a critical element of the Gospel. The Cross of Jesus Christ deals with both our sins and our sin, both with the things we have done and the people we are. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, and our death with Jesus Christ brings our old self to an end; in His resurrection we are raised to newness of life in Him.

 

Forgiveness of sins is well and good, but I still have the problem of my sin nature, my wicked self with its rebellion against God, I am still spiritually dead – without New Life I will continue to sin, and sin, and sin more and more. I am not a sinner because I sin, I sin because I am a sinner.

 

We have then the mysterious transformation that occurs when we are buried and raised with Christ in baptism, in fact, as Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ.” We die on the Cross with Christ, we are buried with Christ, we are raised with Christ, and we ascend with Christ. We see facets of this throughout the Bible, and in passages such as Romans Chapter 6 we have extended treatments of elements of this grand mystery.

 

Bonhoeffer writes that “This death is suffered in communion with the death of Christ” (page 186).

 

On pages 186 and 187 Bonhoeffer lists a number of manifestations of the Holy Spirit in baptism (I’ll leave it to you to explore them). At the top of 187 he writes, “It is through the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ remains present with us.”

 

He goes on the make the point that since His ascension to the Father that Jesus remains with us with intimate certainty, a certainty that is increased and strengthened.

 

At the bottom of page 187 Bonhoeffer writes of baptism being a “visible act of obedience” and that in baptism we follow Jesus publicly, we are incorporated into the visible church community, and our break with the world is made visible. He also notes (top of page 188) that what this all means will be examined in the next two chapters. (Please note, the while Bonhoeffer holds that baptism is a visible act of obedience, he also holds that it is more than an outward visible act, this is clear from what he writes and the Scriptures he quotes.)

 

“All those who are baptized are participating in Christ’s death. Through his death, they have received their death sentence and have died…The daily dying of the Christian is now merely a consequence of the one death that has already taken place in baptism, just as a tree dies whose roots have been cut off” (page 188).

 

Bonhoeffer concludes the chapter with, “Having taken their life from them, he now sought to give them a life that was full and complete. And so he gave them his cross. That was the gift of baptism to the first disciples” (page 189).

 

Allow me to note two sections of the chapter that, I think, may divert our attention from the main theme. On page 186 Bonhoeffer links baptism with “justification away from sin.” He writes that “Whoever has died is justified from sin.” Viewed narrowly, I don’t see what our author is talking about. Perhaps this is because of my own background, I don’t know. I have always seen Romans 1:1 – 5:11 as dealing with justification, and 5:12 – 8:39 as dealing with sanctification, our transformation into the image of Jesus Christ, which includes our death and resurrection in Chapter 6. (Yes, I am aware of Romans 4:25 and Jesus being “raised because of our justification.”)

 

In essence, I see the blood of Jesus as procuring our cleansing and forgiveness and justification, and the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus dealing with our own death and resurrection to newness of life. In other words, I am not inclined to see justification in Romans Chapter 6. Now I may be missing something, and I only mention this because Bonhoeffer devotes a paragraph to it, and it is beyond the scope of this series of reflections to go any deeper into the matter. It doesn’t, as far as I can see, affect the main thrust of the chapter – that we share in the death and life of Jesus Christ, we have community with Him and with one another in the Cross, burial, and resurrection.

 

The second section I’ll note is the bottom paragraph of page 188 that extends onto page 189 regarding infant baptism. I suppose Bonhoeffer made this digression because much of his audience practiced infant baptism (Lutheran and Reformed). I don’t know what Bonhoeffer believed about infant baptism, and I don’t understand all that he says in this paragraph, and I won’t try to explain what I think I know for two reasons; one is that I may be wrong and the other is that I don’t think this paragraph is integral to the thrust of the chapter. I simply don’t have the background to try to interact with what Bonhoeffer writes in the paragraph.

 

Having said that, if you don’t hold to infant baptism I have a word of caution. As I’ve previously written, I think we can all learn from one another, including those with whom we disagree. It may be that there are elements in another perspective that may help us see things more clearly – even if we don’t reach the same final conclusions. There are various perspectives on infant baptism, and even within the same traditions we can find differing nuances – the beliefs of others are generally not as cut and dry as we like to think, and when we are outsiders looking in, we tend to adopt simplistic caricatures of others. Furthermore, when we actually have conversations with others who we think differ from us, it isn’t unusual to find more common ground than we anticipated.

 

Isn’t Christ to be our center of gravity? Aren’t we to meet one another in Christ?

 

I don’t know that I’ve ever read a comprehensive treatment of baptism, and I don’t know that it is possible. It is like the Stable in The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, the inside is far larger than the outside. I suppose you could begin with Genesis and conclude with Revelation and then go back and begin again and still not exhaust the images and practices and sacramental infusion of baptism – for its nexus is the Cross, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our participation with Him, as individuals and as His People. (Note Peter’s connection of Noah and the Ark with baptism in 1 Peter 3:18 – 22).

 

What Bonhoeffer has written about baptism, and the Scripture he has quoted and referenced, ought to be second nature to us…or better…ought to be our primary nature. I realize that this is new territory for most of us. I ask you to please work with it, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten you so that you may see the treasures of Jesus Christ in baptism, so that you may see that baptism is more multifaceted that what we have been led to believe.

 

Perhaps there is a sense in which the waters of baptism lead to the “river of the water of life” that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1). Perhaps the water is one and the same?

 

 

The Holy Spirit - Revealing and Convicting (15)

 

Adoption (VI)

                                                             

Now we come to Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 in our consideration of Biblical adoption. As with our reflections on Romans 8, we want to ask, “What is the storyline? The trajectory?” If this were a play, how would we storyboard it? If we were teaching children, how would we explain it? We also want to be mindful of its context, for our passage does not stand alone anymore than Romans 8 stands alone.

 

Let’s note that in Galatians 3:1 – 22 we see a contrast between the Law and faith in which “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law” (3:13), that “no one is justified by the Law” (3:11), and that our inheritance is not based on law (3:18).

 

Then in 3:22 we see that we’ve been “shut up under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe,” and in 3:23 that, “Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.”

 

In Romans these same elements appear. “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19 – 20).

 

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

 

In Romans chapters 3, 4, and 7 we see that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law” (Galatians 3:13) and in Romans 4 and 8 we see that our inheritance is not based on law (Galatians 3:18) but on God’s grace and mercy.

 

In other words, the building materials of Romans and Galatians are much the same, though arranged somewhat differently; the unity of Scripture is one of its many beauties, as is how Scripture dances with Scripture, refracting the glory of God in Jesus Christ and drawing us to Him.

 

It is in the context of the above trajectories of Romans and Galatians that we see Biblical adoption in Romans Chapter 8 and Galatians Chapter 4. We cannot appreciate Biblical adoption without seeing, in some measure, the storyline in which it is placed. Folks who “see” the storyline but miss understanding some of its details can have a fuller vision of adoption, can participate more fully in adoption, that those who major on the details but who miss the storyline. (I will return to this.)

 

The story of Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 is that we were children under tutors, guardians, and managers, that we were children held in bondage, but that the Son of God came to redeem us from the Law so that we could “receive the adoption as sons,” and no longer be in the functional position of a slave (though “heirs of all things”) but rather “an heir through God." To receive the adoption as sons, to be placed as sons, is to receive our inheritance. To receive our inheritance is to live in our inheritance, to function as adults in the family of our Father, to be conformed to the image of His Only Begotten so that He might truly be the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).

 

To receive our Biblical adoption is to “be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), it is to grow up into the Head in all things as His Body (Ephesians 4:14 – 16). And let’s recall from Romans 8, that until we enter into the fulness of our adoption in Jesus Christ, until we are fully manifested, the creation will remain in bondage. Shame on us if we do not take seriously our growth, individually and collectively, in Jesus Christ.

 

Infants and children take their cues from news headlines; adults follow Jesus Christ. It is not the image of Daniel Chapter Two that matters, it is the Stone cut without hands.

 

The story of Galatians 3:23 – 4:7 is that we were once children under guardians, but we have matured and been placed as sons and daughters in our Father’s Family. Once again, only those who are already children can be adopted. We are born into the Family of God and then adopted, “placed,” as sons and daughters, receiving our inheritance in Jesus Christ.

 

 Academic commentators can come to the conclusion that mirrors that of Ronald Y. K. Fung in his commentary on Galatians (NICNT), “It is not certain whether Paul’s analogy about the state of the minor lasting until the time fixed by his father is drawn from the practice of Roman law or Hellenistic law or from some other legal procedure” (The Epistle to the Galatians, page 180). Fung is honestly saying that we just don’t know what specific cultural or legal practice Paul was drawing from in developing the idea of “the placing of a son.”

 

However, we can say that Paul was using a general Greco-Roman backdrop of adoption as it relates to inheritance, and this is the important point in our passages. My own sense is that we can also look to the Old Testament and God’s relationship with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the People of Israel to see the God’s desire for bringing His People into the fulness of sonship among the nations (see Romans 9:4 where Paul also uses the term “adoption,” the placing of sons).

 

The critical point in all of this is how Paul uses the term, for how Paul uses the term is how the Holy Spirit uses the term, and how the Holy Spirit uses the term in the Word of God is how we ought to understand the term.

 

As we previously considered, we become God’s children through new birth, by being born from above, by having the very life of our Father placed within us, by being raised from spiritual death, by being made new creations. The very DNA of God lives in His children, His breath, His Spirit. We do ourselves, our people, and the world a disservice if we use the term adoption to speak of coming into the family of God, for unless a person is born again he or she cannot enter the Kingdom of God – we must be clear that we need a New Nature, the Nature of God.

 

The world’s concept of adoption is not the concept of the Bible.

 

However, where the Biblical concept of adoption does share common ground with the Greco-Roman (and I think ancient Biblical) concept of adoption is in the area of inheritance, for a central purpose of adoption in Paul’s world was to bestow a father’s (and family’s) inheritance on the one who was adopted, and that the adoptee would carry the family name. This meant that the person adopted was typically an adult.

 

Here again we see a contrast between our contemporary concept of adoption and that of Paul’s world. In our world children and infants are typically adopted, in Paul’s world we learn of adults being adopted. When Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur, having done his research, he had an adult Ben Hur adopted by the Roman Quintus Arrius.

 

Any treatment of Biblical adoption, the placing of a son, that does not connect it with our inheritance in God and in Christ, an inheritance which is indivisible, fails to adequately portray Biblical adoption.

 

One of the tragedies, and I do mean tragedy, of our failure to understand Biblical adoption is that we fail to see that we have a destiny and purpose to fulfill in this life by becoming mature sons and daughters, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We fail to see that the people of the world and the very creation need us to become who we are in Christ.

 

Instead of growing up to adulthood, week after week, month after month, and year after year, we go over the elemental teachings again and again and again (Hebrews 5:11 – 6:2), never questioning or wondering why we do these things.

 

Let us not forget the Incarnational mystery that Jesus, “Although He was a son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect [mature, complete], He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:8 – 9). The path of being made perfect with Jesus is the path of adoption.

 

Biblical adoption is a key element of the Gospel in Romans, it is the setup for the crescendo of 8:31 – 39. It is the culmination of the trajectory of chapters 1 – 7, the outcome of the Gospel working in those who believe in Christ Jesus. Biblical adoption is our high calling in Jesus Christ and the Father, the fruit of which is the deliverance of creation and the manifestation of the Father in His sons and daughters, and the expression of Jesus Christ in His brothers and sisters…in His Body.

 

Our inheritance in Christ is indivisible, this means that all that Jesus Christ has, we have in Him and in one another, we are “coheirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) and we will inherit all things, most especially the Father and the Son.

 

What more could we desire?

Bonhoeffer's Discipleship Part II - Relfections (5)

 

“The break with the world [via baptism] is absolute. It requires and causes our death” (page 185).

 

"We die in Christ alone; we die through Christ and with Christ. Christ is our death. It is for the sake of community with Christ, and only for that community, that we die. In baptism we receive both community with Christ and our death as a gift of grace” (page 185).

 

“This death taking place in baptism is the gracious death which is ours through the death of Christ. It is the death in the power and community of the cross of Christ. Those who become Christ’s own must come under His cross. They must suffer and die with Him” (pp. 185 - 186).

 

“Baptism thus means to be received into the community of the cross of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3ff; Col. 2:12). The believer is placed under the cross of Christ” (Page 186).

 

I have presented this string of quotations in order that we might feel the force of what Bonhoeffer writes (there is no substitute for actually reading Discipleship – if you visit Niagara Falls and take the tour boat, Maid of the Mist, you will have a sense of Niagara’s force, but if you go over the falls in a vessel you will truly experience its power).

 

What do you feel when you read Bonhoeffer’s words? What thoughts do you have?

 

Is the idea of dying “through Christ and with Christ” new to you? Is it familiar?

 

Are you as familiar with this teaching as you are with the layout of furniture in your living room? Is this teaching a daily reality in your life?

 

How often have you heard this teaching on Sunday morning? If you are a pastor, elder, or teacher, how often have you taught this to your people?

 

We may talk about the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18 – 20, but do we really accept it? Do we truly obey it?

 

Consider that Jesus commands that we “Go therefore and make disciples of all people groups.” Jesus does not say that we are to get people to recite a prayer, to go through a motion, to make a public profession of faith. Jesus says that we are to make disciples, to make people who will be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29), “Teaching them to observe [obey] ALL that I commanded you.” Do we really do this?

 

Are we teaching people to obey, or are we suggesting that they might want to obey? Do we even use the word “obey,” or is obedience a foreign concept lest we should alienate folks?

 

Do we not read and understand the Parable of the Sower? Do we not understand that just because plants come up from the soil does not mean that they will endure? How many fruit bearing plants do we really have? Are we cultivating fruit producers or dependent consumers?

 

Just what is it to baptize “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”?

 

How is it that we can baptize people and they have no concept of Romans Chapter 6 or Colossians 2:12 and 3:3 or Galatians 2:20 and 6:14? How is it that our congregations relegate baptism to a toll booth or custom’s entry point rather than seeing baptism as our Way of Life in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, and with one another?

 

And may I please say this, baptism is a sacramental mystery; while we can experience it, I doubt that we can ever fully plumb its depths or scale its heights or traverse its length and breadth; and I am certain that we cannot intellectually fully comprehend it.

 

Also, as I previously wrote, just because some folks have an imperfect view of baptism does not justify us having a narrow view of baptism. Our religious xenophobia often walls us off from our inheritance in Jesus Christ, we have so much we can learn from and share with one another…our insecurities can be our prisons.

 

When Bonhoeffer writes of “the community of the cross of Jesus Christ,” can we hear Paul saying, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship [koinonia, community] of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10)?

 

In Galatians 2:20 we read, “I am crucified with Christ.” In Galatians 6:14, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (In our previous meditation we saw what Bonhoeffer wrote about the world.)

 

 

In Colossians 3:3 Paul writes, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

 

To be baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit means to be baptized into the death and suffering and cross of Jesus Christ. It means to be crucified to the world, and it means that the world has been crucified to us. To be baptized into the Trinity means that, just as Jesus, and with Jesus Christ, we fall into the ground and die so that we might, in Him, bear much fruit (John 12:20 – 26).

 

Nor is this simply an individual experience, it is collective, it is the experience of the Body of Christ. I am baptized into Jesus Christ, you are baptized into Jesus Christ, we are baptized into Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12 – 13; 10:1 – 4, 14 – 17).

 

Do we realize that we overcome through our baptism?

 

“And they overcame him [the dragon] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death” (Revelation 12:11).

 

Baptism is life through the Cross, through the blood and the death of Jesus Christ. Baptism is life born and lived through the testimony, the witness, of the life of Jesus Christ. Baptism is koinonia in the Cross, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ, therefore, the baptized disciple is a man or woman or young person who has ALREADY died – and a person can only die once! “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We cannot be killed for we have already died.

 

I realize that these things will be new for most readers, but they were the Way of Life for the Early Church and for many believers throughout history. They are central to the Gospel, they are supposed to be central to the professing church, they are supposed to be in the root system of our life in Christ.

 

Please read and meditate on the above Bible passages. Please ponder what Bonhoeffer is saying. Please ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into a fuller understanding and experience of being baptized into Jesus Christ; into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – into your glorious union with the Trinity and the People of God (John Chapter 17).

 

O if we only realized how much Jesus loves us!