Tension **

I am left with a dialectic. Not a Marxist socio-political dialectic - as if I even know what that is - nor the so-called dialectic of those who would balance two opposing philosophies. I am left with a more Bonhoefferian dialectic - a tension between two seemingly opposite theologies that leaves just one course of action.

Jesus said, "If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out...if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter the kingdom maimed and blind than to be cast out in the darkness as a whole man."

When we read this, we are left with a problem of compliance. "Jesus hardly expects us to sacrifice an eye or the right hand. Surely, He cannot be serious." We are left in a quandary by this strange command.

Luckily for us, Paul bails us out when he says, "self-abasement is of no value against ungodliness" - meaning the left eye can certainly do what the right once did and the left hand can surely sin in the same manner as the now-disenfranchised right hand. And so with Paul, Jesus' mountain-top decree can largely be ignored.

But one doctrine emerges from this Christo-Pauline tension...a doctrine of obedience. Because a serious Christian cannot ignore the teaching of Christ. He cannot say that by "hand" or by "eye" he meant something totally different. So he must obey, that is, he must not lust.*

This summary is nothing short of a murder of Bonhoeffer's theology. So, having gone so far as murder, I have no shame in continuing to abuse it further. :) There seems to be a certain, similar dialectic in view of our justification. It works like this:

Baptism is of no value to the non-believer, of no value to the man of lawlessness nor the man of religion who lives without faith. It is of value only to the faithful and only to the obedient.

But dialectically speaking, we know the act itself cannot justify the participant and yet the participant finds justification in the act. Likewise, those who seek to be justified by means of the act find themselves unjustified. And conversely, those who seek justification apart from act (that is, obedience) find themselves lacking. If mere baptism were able to justify the world then the whole world could be saved. Alas, faith is prerequisite.

There are other tensions:

Our acts of obedience are not our confidence before God but we would agree that a disobedient man cannot stand before the Lord.

Sometimes I think that in our various theologies we find our hands tied. It shouldn't be this way - is this not the true meaning of "for freedom He has set us free?" Are we required by Paul to call the unbaptized believers "Christians" (for justification's sake) or are we bound by Peter to call only the baptized disciples "Christians" - so that those who have not been immersed are seen to be in grave danger?

Can we say that justification, sanctification and salvation are all inseparably linked and then separate them categorically from each other and from faith and obedience?

We must be careful and wise to speak the whole counsel of Scripture (or even the "whole council" - we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses) in regards to faith, obedience, justification, sanctification, Spirit and salvation. And I know that is our intent. And though I know baptism cannot justify, nor faith, nor obedience, I also know that I am justified through faith. If I can be justified through something that is my own and yet a gift, I can certainly be justified through participation in something that is not my own but rather a work rooted in eternity - a work prepared beforehand for me to walk in.

The baptism dialectic (I don't know what else to call it) exists for two purposes: to demonstrate the Grace of God and to push men to obedience in baptism. If our theology does not encourage, even demand baptism then it has resolved or removed the godly tension - to the detriment of obedience. If our theology demands baptism, as the Judaizers demanded circumcision (Galatians 5), then the dialectic has been removed and the grace of God forgotten.

I invite anyone to help me express this more clearly.

*From Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

**This is partly in response to what jmt wrote yesterday and partly in response to sk and partly in response to the ramblings and preamblings of c.lewis and because, somehow, I agree with everyone.