Bonhoeffer's Discipleship: Lesson 13 - The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship - Baptism

Good evening, or good afternoon, or good morning. Uh, this is M.t. Clark, and this is the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. And this is the next installment of Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, Lesson 13, The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship, where we're going to cover the chapters on preliminary questions and baptism. And, um, so as you can see, we've already jumped into the PowerPoint presentation, so let's, uh, let's begin. Um, of course, this study is brought to you by me, M.t. Clark, and mt4christ.org, my blog, and the MT for Christ 247 podcast and YouTube channel. Um, we invite you to check, uh, out our blog and to check out our discipleship teachings, our other discipleship teachings on the podcast and our YouTube channel. Um, just as a way of introduction, I am, um, M.t. Clark. It stands for Mark Thomas. Um, and, uh, I am a Community Freedom Ministry Associate for, um, Freedom in Christ Ministries. I've done, uh, recovery ministry and jail ministry, and, uh, I've been transformed by Christian discipleship by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I can't help but, uh, share what I know and to, uh, point to things that can be helpful, um, for your walk in Christ. And so that's why we do these studies. Um, so let's continue. Um, a reminder about this particular study: it's, it's on discipleship, uh, not the disciple. It's about Bonhoeffer's words, not the man. However, Bonhoeffer is an interesting 20th century saint, and if you want to know more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we recommend Eric Metaxas' book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. That's a biography. And we also recommend Eric Metaxas's latest book, Letter to the American Church, in which he looks at today's society and what happened to Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany, and he draws parallels about how the church was inactive or sat on the sidelines while Hitler changed Germany. And the world. And Metaxas basically warns the church to not do the same thing, to stand up against the things that are morally corrupt or antichrist. So we recommend those two books. And also this week we recommend How to Handle Your Emotions by June Hunt. It covers How the Christian is to deal with the emotions of anger, depression, fear, grief, rejection, and self-worth. That's one of the, one of the most important things I'd like to point to in our Christian walk is the application of biblical knowledge to our real-life situations. And I found that book to be particularly helpful in my walk, and so we recommend it. As we move along. Now, as always, we do point out that this is Bonhoeffer's Discipleship. There's another book out there called The Cost of Discipleship that I was familiar with, but in 1989, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's works were released. Volume 4 is Discipleship, and it's from that text that we'll be drawing today's teaching. As much as I like the older version, I have an e-version of the later version. There's some differences in the text, but again, lately I've discovered that I find the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works translation to be adequate and not too confusing. I do make small edits here and there for presentation purposes and for brevity. But other than that, I find it— I found it particularly in this study not to be problematic. So we're going with this one as we move along. Um, preliminary questions: To his first disciples, Jesus was bodily present, speaking his word directly to them. But this Jesus died and is risen. How then does his call to discipleship reach us today? Jesus no longer walks past me in bodily form and calls, "Follow me," as he did to Levi the tax collector. Even if I would be truly willing to listen, to leave everything behind, and to follow, what justification do I have for doing so? What for the first disciples was so entirely unambiguous is for me a decision that is highly problematic and fraught with uncertainty. What gives me the right, for example, to hear Jesus's call to the tax collector as being addressed to me? Did Jesus not say quite different things to others on other occasions? What about the paralytic to whom he extended forgiveness and healing? And what about Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead? Did he love them any less than his disciples? And yet he did not call them to leave their professions and follow him, but left them at home with their families and their jobs. Who am I to recommend myself to do something unusual and extraordinary? Who is to judge whether I or others are not simply acting out of our own authority and religious enthusiasm? But that would definitely mean something other than discipleship. There's something wrong with all of these questions. Every time we ask them, we place ourselves outside the living presence of the Christ. All of these questions refuse to take seriously that Jesus Christ is not dead but alive and still speaking to us today through the testimony of Scripture. He is present with us today in bodily form and with his word. If we want to hear his call to discipleship, we need to hear it where Christ himself is present. It is within the Church that Jesus Christ calls through his word and sacrament. The preaching and the sacrament of the church is the place where Jesus Christ is present. To hear Jesus's call to discipleship, one needs to— no personal revelation— listen to the preaching and receive the sacrament. Listen to the gospel of the crucified and risen Lord. Here he is, the whole Christ, the very same who encountered the disciples. Indeed, here he is already present as the glorified, the victorious, the living Christ. No one but Christ himself can call us to discipleship. We move along. Discipleship: A Decision for Jesus Christ. Discipleship, in essence, never consists in a decision for this or that specific action. It is always a decision for or against Jesus Christ. And this is exactly why the situation was not any less ambiguous for the disciple or the tax collector who was called by him than it is for us today. The obedience of those who were first called constituted discipleship precisely in that they recognized Christ in the one who was calling them. For them, as for us, it is the hidden Christ who calls. The call as such is ambiguous. What counts is not the call as such, but the one who calls. But Christ can only be recognized in faith. That was true in the same way for the disciples as it is for us. They saw the Rabbi and the Miracle Worker and believed in Christ. We hear the word and believe in Christ. We trusted in his word. But did those first disciples not have an advantage over us in that they— in that once they had recognized Christ, they received his unambiguous command from his very own lips and were told what to do? Uh, and are we not left to our own devices precisely at this crucial point of Christian obedience? Does not the same Does Christ speak differently to us than he spoke to them? If this were true, then we would indeed be in a hopeless situation. But it is far from true. Christ speaks to us exactly as he spoke to them. For the first disciples of Jesus, it was also not as if they first recognized him as the Christ and then received his command. Rather, it was only through his word and his command that they recognized him. They trusted in his word and his command and thereby recognized him as the Christ. Yeah, we trusted in his word. I trust in the Lord, my soul trusts in his word, as we put here. Recognizing his will through his clear word. There was no other way for the disciples to know Christ than through his clear word. Conversely, therefore, to recognize Jesus truly as the Christ necessarily included a recognition of his will. To recognize the person of Jesus Christ did not undermine the disciples' certainty about what to do. Well, on the contrary, created that certainty. Indeed, there is no other way to recognize Christ. If Christ is the living Lord of my life, then I am addressed by his word whenever I encounter him. Indeed, I do not really know him except through his clear word and command. There are those who object that this is precisely our dilemma. We would like to know Christ and have faith in him, and yet we are unable to recognize his will. This objection, however, springs from a vague and mistaken knowledge of Christ. To know Christ means to recognize him in his word as Lord and Savior of my life, but that includes an understanding of his clear words spoken to me. Jesus's command has a single purpose. Suppose we say finally that whereas the command the disciples received was unambiguous, we have to decide for ourselves which of his words is addressed to us. In that case, we have once again misunderstood not only the situation of the disciples but also our own. Jesus's command always has a single purpose. It demands faith from an undivided heart and love of God and neighbor with all our heart and soul. This is the only aspect in which the command was unambiguous. Any attempt to carry out the command of Jesus without also understanding it in this way would again mean that we misinterpret and disobey Jesus's word. However, this does not mean that we would have no way of knowing the concrete command. On the contrary, we hear it clearly in every word of proclamation in which we hear Christ, but we hear it knowing that it can only be fulfilled through faith in Jesus Christ. The gift Jesus gave his disciples is thus fully available to us too. In fact, it is even more readily available to us now that Jesus has ascended. By our knowledge of his transfiguration and by the Holy Spirit that has been sent. The gracious call. All this makes it abundantly clear that we cannot play off the narrative of the calling of the disciples against other parts of the gospel account. It is never a question of our having or taking on the same identity as the disciples or other people in the the New Testament. The only issue of importance is that Jesus Christ and his call are the same then and now. Uh, his word remains one and the same whether it was spoken during his earthly life or today, whether it was addressed to the disciples or to the paralytic. Then and now, it is the gracious call to enter his kingdom and to submit to his rule. Where can I hear Jesus's call to discipleship? The question whether I ought to compare myself with the disciple or with the paralytic poses a dangerous and false alternative. I need not compare myself with either of them. Instead, all I have to do is listen, listen and do Christ's word and will as I receive them in both of these biblical accounts. Scripture does not present us with a collection of Christian types to be imitated according to our own choice. Rather, in every passage, it proclaims to us the one Jesus Christ. It is him alone whom I ought to hear. He is one and the same everywhere. Thus, when we ask the question of where we can hear Jesus's call to discipleship today, there is no other answer than this: listen to the word that is preached and receive the sacrament. In both of these, listen to Christ himself, then you will hear his call. Baptism. In the synoptic gospels, the concept of discipleship can express almost a full breadth and content of relations between the disciple and Jesus Christ. In the Pauline text, however, this concept recedes almost completely into the background. Paul's primary concern is not to proclaim the story of the Lord's earthly life to us, but rather his presence as the risen and glorified Lord and his work for us. This requires him to develop a new and distinctive terminology. Paul derives this new terminology from the special nature of his subject matter. Its purpose is to capture what unites the proclamation of the one Lord who lived, died, and rose again. To express the full witness of Christ requires more than a single set of terms. Paul's terminology thus confirms that confirms that of the synoptic gospels and vice versa. Neither terminology is intrinsically preferable to the other. After all, we do not belong to Paul or to Apollos or to Cephas or to Christ. Instead, our faith rests on the unity of scriptural testimony to Christ. Scripture assures us of the presence of Christ. If we hold that the Christ Paul proclaims is still present to us in the same way, whereas the synoptic gospels testify to a presence of Christ which we no longer know, we break up the unity of Scripture. True, many regard the use of such language as reflecting thought that is grounded in history and in keeping with the Reformation, but in fact it is just the opposite, namely religious enthusiasm of the most dangerous kind. Or how do we know that Christ is still present with us today in the way that Paul proclaims? How else but from Scripture itself? Or should this perhaps be the place to talk about an experience of Christ's presence and reality that would be free and independent of the word of Scripture? No. But if it is indeed Scripture alone that assures us of Christ's presence, then it must be Scripture as a whole. A scripture which also testifies to the ongoing presence of the synoptic Jesus Christ. The synoptic Christ is neither more nor less distant from us than the Christ of Paul. Christ in the epistles and the Christ in the synoptic gospels is the same. Baptism, becoming Christ's possession. The Christ who is present with us is the Christ to whom the whole of scripture testifies. He is the incarnate, crucified, risen, and glorified Christ and he encounters us in his word. The different terminology with which the synoptic gospels and Paul communicate this message does not undermine the unity of the scriptural testimony. What the synoptics describe as hearing and following the call to disciple, Paul expresses with the concept of baptism. Baptism is not something we offer to God. It is rather something Jesus offers Jesus Christ offers to us. It is grounded solely in the will of Jesus Christ as expressed in his gracious call. Baptism is essentially a paradoxically passive action. That means being baptized, suffering Christ's call. In baptism, we become Christ's possession. The name of Jesus Christ is spoken over baptismal candidates. They gain a share in that name. They are baptized into Jesus Christ. They now belong to Jesus Christ, having been rescued from the, the rule of this world. They now have become Christ's own. Everything new through baptism. Baptism thus implies a break. Christ invades the realm of Satan and lays hold of those who belong to him. Thereby creating his church community. Past and present are torn asunder. The old has passed away, everything has become new. The break does not come about by our breaking our chains out of an unquenchable thirst to see our life and all things ordered in a new and free way. Long ago, Christ himself has already brought about that break in baptism. This break now also takes effect in my own life. I am deprived of my immediate relationship to the given realities of the world since Christ, the mediator and Lord, has stepped in between me and the world. Those who are baptized no longer belong to the world, no longer serve the world, and no longer are subject to it. They belong to Christ alone and relate to the world only Through Christ, the death of, the death of us and the world. The break with the world is absolute. It requires and causes our death. In baptism, we die together with our old world. This death must be understood in the strictest sense as an event that is suffered. It is not as if we were asked to bring about this death ourselves through various kinds of sacrifice and renunciation. That would be an impossible attempt. Such a death would never be the death of the old self, which Christ demands. The old self cannot kill itself. It cannot will its own death. We die in Christ alone. We die through Christ and with Christ. Christ is our death. It is the sake— it is for the sake of community with Christ, and only in that community, that we die. In baptism, we receive both community with Christ and our death as a gift of grace. This death is a gift of grace which we never create for ourselves. True, in this death, judgment is passed on the old self and its sin, but out of this judgment rises the new self which has died to the world and to sin. Baptized in the community of the cross. This death is thus not the final angry rejection of the creature by its creator, but rather the gracious acceptance of the creature by its creator— by the creator. 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. Those who are granted community with Christ must die the grace-filled death of baptism. That is the rule of the cross of Christ under which Jesus places his disciples. Christ's death and cross were cruel and hard. However, because of our community with him, the yoke of our cross is easy and light. The cross of Christ is the gracious death which we die once and for all in our baptism. The cross to which we are called is our daily dying in the power of the death accomplished by Christ. Baptism thus means to be received into the community of the cross of Jesus Christ. The believer is placed under the cross of Christ. Baptism separates us from sin. The death of baptism means justification away from sin. In order to be freed from their sins, sinners must die. Whoever has died is justified from sin. Sin no longer has any claim on those who are dead. With death, the claim has been met and has ceased to exist. Justi— justification from sin can thus take place only through death. Forgiveness of sin does not mean that the sin is overlooked or forgotten. Rather, it means that the sinner is really put to death and thus separated from sin. However, the only reason the sinner's death means justification and not condemnation is that this death is suffered in communion with the death of Christ. Being baptized into the death of Christ is what brings forgiveness of sins and justification and a complete separation from sin. And calling his disciples into the community of the cross, Jesus gave them the gift of justification of death and forgiveness of sins. The disciple who followed Jesus in the community of the cross received no other gift than the believer who was baptized. According to Paul's teaching, the gift of baptism, the Holy Spirit Although baptism requires a passive role on our human part, it must never be understood as a mechanical process. A look at the relation between baptism and Spirit makes this abundantly clear. The gift received in baptism is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is Christ himself dwelling in the hearts of the believers. Those baptized are the house in which the Holy Spirit dwells. It is through the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ remains present with us and that we are in community with him. The Holy Spirit gives us a true understanding of Christ's nature and of his will. The Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us all that Christ has said to us. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth so that we may not be lacking in the knowledge of Christ and may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. Walking in the Spirit and the certainty of knowing him. The Holy Spirit does not create uncertainty in us, but certainty and clarity. We are thus enabled to walk in the Spirit, taking confident steps. After his ascension, Jesus did not withdraw from those who belong to him that measure of certainty with which the disciples of Jesus enjoyed during their earthly community with him. By sending the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who are baptized, the community with Jesus has in fact become so intimate that the certainty of knowing him is not only preserved but increased and strengthened. Baptism: the public display of obedience. In calling the disciples, Jesus demanded a visible act of obedience. To follow Jesus was a public act. In just the same way, baptism is a public act, for in baptism we are incorporated into the visible church community of Jesus Christ. The break with the world which has taken place in Christ can no longer be hidden and remain hidden. It must become externally visible through active participation in the life and worship of the church community. Christians who are actively involved in the church community take a step out of the world, their work, and family. They visibly stand in the community with Jesus Christ. They take this step on their own as individuals, but they regain what they have given up—brothers, sisters, houses, and fields. Those who are baptized live in the visible church community of Jesus Christ. What that means and entails must be examined in the following two chapters of the Body of Christ and the visible church community that we'll be presenting later. One baptism. Baptism and the receiving of its gift take place only once. No one can be baptized twice with the baptism of Christ. The fact that this gracious act of God is unique and cannot be repeated is what the letter to the Hebrews is trying to express in that mysterious passage about the impossibility of a second repentance after baptism and conversion. In Hebrews 6:4, all those who are baptized are participating in Christ's death. Through his death, they have received their death sentence and have died. And just as Christ died once for all, and just as there can be no repetition of his sacrifice, so do those who are baptized suffer their death with Christ once and for Now they are dead. Can't die twice. Um, yeah, uh, Dead to Sin: The Daily Dying of a Christian. The daily dying of a 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, those who have been baptized live henceforth under the motto, consider yourselves dead to sin. They know themselves only as those who have already died, as those who have already undergone everything that is necessary for salvation. Those who have been baptized draw their life not from a real repetition of Christ's death, which would have to be accomplished ever anew as an act of grace. Instead, their life springs from looking back again and again, placing their faith in Christ's death as an act of grace which has already been fully accomplished in their baptism. They live out of the once-and-for-allness of Christ's death. 1 Corinthians 15:31 tells us, I affirm by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. And yeah, so with that, you know, a little bit of commentary. Um, you know, we're baptized once and the dying daily, the repent You know, once saved, always saved, I guess. You know, we're baptized once into his salvation, we're saved. However, sanctification requires a daily death as we surrender to the will of Christ and repent and turn from our old worldly ways. So I think that's what Bonhoeffer's getting at there. And we'll move along. Infant baptism. The fact that baptism can take place once and only once has important consequences with regard to infant baptism. The question is not whether or not infant baptism is really baptism, but precisely because it is indeed baptism, that baptism that takes place only once and cannot be repeated. Infant baptism requires certain restrictions in its use. True, It was certainly not a sign of a healthy church life when in the 2nd and 3rd centuries believers, believing Christians, postponed their baptism until they reached old age or were already on their deathbeds. But this practice nonetheless speaks of a clear insight into the nature of baptismal grace, an insight which is widely lacking today. With regard to infant baptism, this means that the sacrament should be administered only when, where it is certain that the act of salvation already accomplished once and for all will be repeatedly remembered in faith. And that can only be the case in a living church community. Infant baptism without the church community is not only an abuse of this, is not only an abuse of the sacrament, it also betrays a reprehensible thoughtlessness in dealing with the children's spiritual welfare. For baptism can never be repeated. And I will not comment on— we'll just stick with Bonhoeffer's words and not comment on infant baptism. But I would agree with the restrictions that they're putting in place and be in the context of a faith community. But oh brother. Yeah, we'll move along. Hath you died? Are you following him? For those who are called, Jesus's call was equally unique and unrepeatable. Whoever followed him had died to their previous life. This is why Jesus had to require his disciples to leave all they had. Both the finality of their decision and the complete sufficiency of the gift they received from their Lord needed to be clearly expressed. But if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored. It could not be stated any more pointedly than this, that Jesus' gift was offered and received once and once only. 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. Well, amazingly as it might seem, that is the conclusion of this teaching from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship on the preliminary questions and the topic of baptism. We'll be continuing the series, and I've made great progress in compiling the PowerPoint so far, and I believe I will be able to meet my goal of completing it before the end of 2022. So Be on the lookout for more teachings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship on the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast and YouTube channel. I didn't comment much on, on today's teaching. It's very clear, and we invite you to check out Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book on discipleship to, to dive into it in a deeper sense. As it is our intention to present this material to encourage people to walk a Christian disciple's walk, to follow the Lord with the way they live their lives, to walk in the Spirit. And so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for 20th century saints like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who walked the walk and talked the talk of a Christian disciple. And Lord, we thank you for his teachings that have been preserved and passed on that can encourage us in our walk of faith. And Lord, we just pray that you take this teaching and inspire people with it, and that it encourages them to live a life of Christian discipleship and encourage others to do so as well. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. And, um, so from M.t. Clark and the M.t. for Christ 24/7 podcast, uh, we say thank you, uh, for tuning in, and we say God bless you.