Of the gracious revelation of Jesus after His resurrection. A hearty wish that Jesus would reveal Himself in us also.
The Hundredth Letter.
Of the gracious revelation of Jesus after His resurrection. A hearty wish that Jesus would reveal Himself in us also.
Immanuel!
In the Same, dear friend and sister, I greet you heartily, and wish you His inmost nearness in your inward part.
I have wished to visit you this time with this little, though my mind can seldom compose itself for writing — while yet, in the meantime, my poor remembrance of you continues often in love, and our fellowship in the spirit is maintained. In this season the remembrance and memorial of the gracious revelations and appearances of the Lord Jesus to His disciples, in the forty days after His resurrection, is especially dear to me: how He went about and walked with them, so full of grace and love, to make Himself truly one with them, as their Immanuel, and their All in all.
My dear sister! He is, as yesterday, so also still today, the very same sweet Immanuel, who would still be such a Jesus for us and in us; whose one only work, after the resurrection, is to give Himself, just as He is, wholly and utterly to us, and to wed Himself to us, and to have His delight in the children of men. Let Him but set our inward part into that capacity into which He wills and can pour and impart Himself — as, in some measure, the disciples' condition was! Let Him gather and enclose us from within, that we may be shut up against all else, and our ground stand open to Him alone! Let Him step into our midst, and speak His peace within us! Let Him show us, mightily, His precious wounds, and the power that flows from them, of His transfigured blood and water! Let Him also keep a meal with us, and breathe upon us with the lovely breath and rushing of His Spirit, that we may truly become aware of His divine life! In sum: let Jesus become our Jesus, wholly and utterly, without any exception — even as He is made of the Father unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and full redemption! Let Him imprint Himself so upon our heart! Let Him reveal Himself to us, as He has promised, in His presence within, and dwell by faith and love in our hearts, that henceforth we may wish to hear and know of nothing and no one more, but only of this Jesus Immanuel! That, out of inmost experience and wonder at His great and unspeakable love and loveliness, His majesty and glory, His highness and all-sufficiency, we may cry out with the beloved Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" Yea, that this may be our one only life and occupation in the remaining days of our life, until we go up with Him to heaven — where it will also be our one work, to be and to remain, with all the saints, unto all eternity of eternities.
Meanwhile may Jesus preserve to us, under all mischances and troubles, temptations and conflicts, this ground and pure disposition: to hunger after Him in the spirit, and to look upon Him in faith, until we shall one day behold Him face to face before His throne. To this end I wish you, my dear sister, all needful grace in all things; and I entreat you to ask the same for me. I commend us, therefore, into the opened heart of our dearest Immanuel — in whom I remain
Your dear brother.
Mülheim, the 25th of April, 1730.
German
Der hundertste Brief.
Von der holdseligen Offenbahrung JEsu nach seiner Auferstehung. Herzlicher Wunsch, daß auch JEsus sich in uns offenbahren wolle.
Immanuel!
In demselben, liebe Freundin und Schwester, grüße ich euch herzlich, und wünsche desselben innigste Nahbeiheit im Inwendigen. Habe mit diesem Wenigen diesmal euch wollen besuchen, obschon mein Gemüth sich selten zum Schreiben zusammenfassen kann; da inzwischen dennoch mein geringes Andenken in Liebe öfters continuiret, und unsere Gemeinschaft im Geist unterhalten wird.
— 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 Easter letter — written 25 April 1730, in the weeks between Easter and Pentecost — to a friend whose name has not come down to us. Its whole subject is what the risen Christ did in "the forty days after His resurrection": how He "went about and walked with them, so full of grace and love, to make Himself truly one with them, as their Immanuel, and their All in all." That, Tersteegen says, is "especially dear" to him just now, in the Easter season; and the letter turns almost at once into a sustained prayer — one of the most beautiful in the whole collection — that the same Risen One would do all of it again, within us. He is "the very same sweet Immanuel," "as yesterday, so also today," whose "one only work after the resurrection is to give Himself, just as He is, wholly and utterly to us." Then, phrase by phrase, Tersteegen prays the Easter Gospel into the soul: Let Him step into our midst and speak His peace within us (the upper room); let Him show us His precious wounds, and the power that flows from His transfigured blood and water; let Him breathe upon us with the breath of His Spirit (Christ breathing on the disciples); let Him keep a meal with us (Emmaus); until, "out of inmost experience and wonder," we cry with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" The prayer is that Jesus become "our Jesus, wholly and utterly, without any exception" — "made of the Father unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and full redemption" — so that henceforth we would "wish to hear and know of nothing and no one more, but only of this Jesus Immanuel." He closes by commending them both "into the opened heart of our dearest Immanuel," and signs simply, "your dear brother."
A few words and echoes.
- Immanuel. The letter's keynote and its opening word — "they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1:23).
- The forty days after His resurrection. Christ's appearances to the disciples, "being seen of them forty days" (Acts 1:3).
- As yesterday, so also today. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8).
- His delight in the children of men. Wisdom's word in Proverbs — "my delights were with the sons of men" (Proverbs 8:31).
- Step into our midst and speak His peace … show us His wounds. The risen Christ in the upper room — "came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you … he shewed unto them his hands and his side" (John 20:19–20, 26–27).
- His transfigured blood and water. "Forthwith came there out blood and water" (John 19:34), now glorified.
- Breathe upon us with the breath of His Spirit. "He breathed on them, and saith … Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22).
- Keep a meal with us. The risen Lord known "in breaking of bread" at Emmaus (Luke 24:30–31; cf. Revelation 3:20).
- Made of the Father unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Almost verbatim from Paul — "Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).
- Dwell by faith in our hearts. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" (Ephesians 3:17).
- My Lord and my God. Thomas's confession (John 20:28); "All in all" is Paul's word for the end, "that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28); and "face to face" is First Corinthians 13:12.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-100 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.