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?