“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!
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