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!

 

 

 

The Holy Spirit - Revealing and Convicting (14)

 

  Adoption (V)

 

We see the term “the placing of a son” (adoption) twice in our Romans passage, in 8:15 and 8:23. Some folks get confused about the term because of the way it is used in verse 23, “We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

 

Some people read verse 23 and think, “Adoption is about our resurrection. It is about the consummation of our redemption, the redemption of our body from corruption into its glorious state of incorruption.” This thinking places adoption in the future, it makes adoption something we have not yet experienced.

 

I’m going to share a quote from Douglas Moo’s outstanding commentary on Romans to help us understand this passage:

 

“Since adoption, according to 8:23, takes place when the body is redeemed, some interpret “Spirit of adoption” here [8:15] in the sense of “the Spirit that anticipates, or pledges, our adoption.” But this flies in the face of the immediate context, in which the stress is on the present enjoyment of our status as God’s children. We should, then, attribute the apparent contradiction between this verse [8:15] and 8:23 to the ‘already-not yet’ tension of the Christian’s eschatological status: ‘already’ truly ‘adopted’ into God’s family, with all its benefits and privileges, but ‘not yet’ recipients of the ‘inheritance,’ by which we will be conformed to the glorious image of God’s own Son (see 8:29).” (The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, Douglas Moo, Eerdmans, page 501.)

 

While I think Moo misses a critical element when he writes of being “adopted into God’s family,” for only children can be adopted, his point about the “already – not yet” is important – for what we see in Romans 8 is a process, a trajectory, a working out of the manifestation of the sons of God that results in creation being delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of God’s children. This trajectory also molds us into the image of the Firstborn Son so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

 

While Moo writes of “benefits and privileges,” we should also consider the responsibilities and call to suffering that are inherent in the placing of sons and daughters, that are integral to Biblical adoption. All of these lead to the deliverance of creation, the full manifestation of the sons of God, and the conformity of the sons and daughters of God to the image of Jesus Christ so that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren.

 

Suffering is inherent in our call to follow Jesus and to grow up into Him, “If indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (8:17). We are to present ourselves as “living and holy sacrifices” (12:1). We are to know Him in the “koinonia of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10).

 

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

 

Furthermore, compare what Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:13 with what we see in Romans 8, “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation.”

 

Biblical adoption is a process by which the Father brings His sons and daughters to full participation in Jesus Christ, as Jesus’ brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:10 – 13). These sons and daughters suffer with Christ on behalf of others (Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 4:12; 1 John 3:16), following the Lamb wherever He goes (Revelation 14:1 – 5).

 

We are called to live as men and women in Christ, not as perpetual children preoccupied with “our best lives now” or “bless me clubs” or producing weekly religious productions or having the equivalent of self-help offerings, group therapy, or operating “great courses” in our flavor of Christianity. We are to be our Father’s daughters and sons participating with Him and our Elder Brother in bringing Life to the people of the world and deliverance to the creation. We are to realize that Christ desires to come to the world in and through His Body, today and tomorrow.

 

When we read passages such as Romans 8:18 – 25 we ought to have the good spiritual sense to realize that the coming of Jesus Christ is inextricably associated with His People, rather than the news headlines or the latest and greatest and most entertaining prophecy teacher and his franchise. We need to stop being religious consumers, babies and toddlers in highchairs (1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:12 – 6:3), and start being women and men of the Word of God who bring the produce of the land to share with others within and without the Church.

 

O dear friend, you are not an accident looking for a place to happen, nor in Christ are you any longer a sinner, not even a sinner saved by grace, but you are a saint of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, washed and cleansed and raised with Jesus Christ to newness of life, sitting in the heavens in Jesus Christ, called to grow up into Him, coming to know your Abba Father, living as an adult in the Family of God, being conformed to the image of His Son.

 

We can easily say that the Biblical Spirit of adoption is the Spirit of adulthood, which I hope we will see in our next reflection in this series.