Of Jesus, and His open fullness.
The Forty-Sixth Letter.
Of Jesus, and His open fullness.
Beloved brother!
Ah, what a fullness there is in Jesus, which I would so gladly grant and give you whole, although I myself have scarcely tasted a few little drops of it! As I write this, I become keenly grieved that this truth is so often heard and spoken among us, and yet still has so little weight in our minds. When we hear of Jesus and His fullness, it is often as though one heard it in a foreign tongue, which one does not understand. Consider, then, my soul: there is a Jesus; there is a fullness in Jesus — an open fullness; it is near to you, in your heart: yes, for you is Jesus and His fullness. O, how much is said in that! What a precious gospel is that for you! — since you, without and apart from this essential communion with this Savior, are unhappy, here and forever. What occupations, what objects are they, then, that hold you up and away from the enjoyment of this Jesus-fullness? Are they better things? Ah, alas! they are nothings, wholly unworthy shadow-pictures, which can give no refreshment, neither now nor in the hour of death; and by such a Nothing you let yourself be befooled, scattered, bound, and also held fast, so that the days of your preparation pass fruitless and like a dream; and there stands Jesus, with all His fullness, at the heart, and has stretched out His hand the whole day long. Bethink yourself, then, my bewildered soul! you are not for this time, you will not stay much longer here; Jesus calls and allures you; He too would so gladly become ever more essentially your Jesus; turn, then, to Him with your whole heart; lay yourself wholly upon this One — to seek and to find Him in your heart; lay aside all other burden and needless distraction; have your delight only in and on the Lord, and He will surely give you what your heart desires, in time and in eternity. Yea, Jesus! Thou alone art enough — be enough for me too. Amen!
P.S. Pray for me!
German
Der sechsundvierzigste Brief.
Von JEsu und Seiner offenen Fülle.
Geliebter Bruder!
Ach welch eine Fülle ist in JEsu, die ich euch so gerne ganz gönnen und geben möchte, ob ich wohl selbst kaum etliche Tröpflein davon gekostet habe!
— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.
German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).
Translator’s notes
What this letter is. An urgent, tender letter about the "open fullness" that is in Jesus — a fullness Tersteegen says he "would so gladly grant and give you whole," even though he himself has "scarcely tasted a few little drops of it." What grieves him is how little this truth weighs on us: "when we hear of Jesus and His fullness, it is often as though one heard it in a foreign tongue, which one does not understand." So he turns and preaches to his own heart — "Consider, then, my soul: there is a Jesus; there is a fullness in Jesus… it is near to thee, in thy heart." He presses the question hard: what is it that keeps us from this fullness? "Are they better things? Ah, alas! they are nothings, wholly unworthy shadow-pictures," which "can give no refreshment, neither now nor in the hour of death" — and yet by "such a Nothing" we let ourselves "be befooled, scattered, bound, and also held fast," while "the days of thy preparation pass fruitless and like a dream." All the while, "there stands Jesus, with all His fullness, at the heart, and has stretched out His hand the whole day long." The letter ends in direct appeal to the soul to turn — "Jesus calls and allures thee" — to "lay thyself wholly upon this One," to set aside "all other burden and needless distraction," and to "have thy delight only in and on the Lord." Its last words are a prayer and a whispered request: "Yea, Jesus! Thou alone art enough — be enough for me too. Amen!" and then, simply, "Pray for me!"
A few words and echoes.
- The open fullness. The letter's theme — that in Christ there is a "fullness" already "open" and "near… in thy heart" — draws on Colossians' word that "in him should all fulness dwell" (Colossians 1:19) and John's, "of his fulness have all we received" (John 1:16). The tragedy Tersteegen names is not scarcity but our not tasting what is freely there.
- Heard as a foreign tongue. His most piercing observation: the gospel can be endlessly "heard and spoken" and still land like "a foreign tongue" — familiar words carrying no weight. The letter is his attempt to make it weigh.
- The hand stretched out all day. The image of Christ waiting "with His hand stretched out the whole day long" takes up God's lament in Isaiah, "I have stretched out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people" (Isaiah 65:2; Romans 10:21) — patient longing set against our distraction.
- Delight in the Lord. His counsel to "have thy delight only in and on the Lord," with the promise that "He will surely give thee what thy heart desires," echoes the psalm, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm 37:4).
- Pray for me. The letter's fervor turns, at the very end, into humility — the man urging another soul toward Christ's fullness closes by asking for that soul's prayers.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-046 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.