On the excellence of the life of Jesus in us.
The Sixtieth Letter.
On the excellence of the life of Jesus in us.
To two travellers.
I commend you once more to the close watch and guidance of the Lord, both in the inward and in the outward. I thank Him heartily that thus far His goodness has been over you; and I wish, too, that your hearts, moved to thankfulness thereby, may be freshly stirred up to the glorifying of God in your sanctification! God heaps upon us kindnesses without ceasing: He repays, says Theresa, our sins with sheer glory and grace, even in this present time — that we may indeed believe He is all Love.
So must God, in the outward too, still go mostly gentle ways with us weak ones; since otherwise this abyss of love is most surely and essentially experienced in the abyss of the soul: O how gladly will He there open Himself and swallow us up into Himself, where we sink far enough out of our own! Ah, how hard-pressed is everything outside Him in the world! Only in Him are peace and hiding, yea holiness and blessedness, to be found. Therefore let us in no thing set to work according to our own motion, will, or intention, but leave ourselves ever more undisguised and bare to Him, that only the life and the divine motions that were in the inward part of the heart of Jesus may also be in us and become manifest in us. A single moment of this life of Jesus in us is more to be prized than to live a thousand years otherwise upon earth, though one should work miracles. This, then, is the most gracious will and counsel of God toward us: that we should henceforth live no more to ourselves, but to Him alone who died and rose again for us; to this counsel of God we must and will heartily and actively assent, taking heed of this our High Priest (Hebrews 3), and offering up to Him our animal life with all its motions as a sacrifice — giving place, in all ways, childlike and inwardly, to His dear drawings and to the motions of His pure life, unto the bringing-forth of His image and upright being in us, Amen! Abbreviating, I remain, through God's grace,
Your
Mülheim, 23 April 1733.
bound fellow-travelling pilgrim.
German
Der 60te Brief.
Vortrefflichkeit des Lebens JEsu in uns.
An zwei Reisende.
Ich empfehle euch nochmals der genauen Aufsicht und Leitung des HErrn, sowohl nach dem Inneren, als nach dem Aeußeren. Ich danke Ihm herzlich, daß bis dahin seine Güte über euch gewesen ist; wünsche auch, daß eure Herzen in Erkäntlichkeit davon gerühret, und aufs neue zur Verherrlichung GOttes in eurer Heiligung gereizet werden mögen!
— 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. One of the rare letters addressed not to one soul but to two — "to two travellers," the merchant-brothers Fischer and Otterbeck on the road in Holland (compare the later letter "to two travelling merchants," Brief 134). Being a travel letter, it is about carrying the inner life through the outer world. Its theme is stated at the top and never left: "the excellence of the life of Jesus in us." Tersteegen's confidence is bottomless — God "heaps upon us kindnesses without ceasing," and he reaches for Teresa of Avila's startling line that God "repays our sins with sheer glory and grace" — all to press one belief: "He is all Love." Because the travellers are weak, God deals gently in outward things; but the real treasure is inward, "this abyss of love… experienced in the abyss of the soul," where God "opens Himself and swallows us up into Himself." From this flows the practical counsel of the whole Tersteegen school: do nothing "according to our own motion, will, or intention," but stay "undisguised and bare to Him," so that the very "motions that were in the heart of Jesus" become ours. The famous sentence at the center weighs the two lives against each other: "a single moment of this life of Jesus in us is more to be prized than to live a thousand years… though one should work miracles." He signs not as teacher but as companion on the same road — "your bound fellow-travelling pilgrim."
A few words and echoes.
- "The life of Jesus in us." 2 Corinthians 4:10–11, "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" — the letter's controlling text: not imitation of Christ from without, but Christ's own life living inwardly.
- "He repays our sins with sheer glory and grace" (says Theresa). A saying attributed to Teresa of Ávila, whom Tersteegen read and quoted; the paradox that God turns even our sins, repented, into occasions of grace (cf. Romans 5:20, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound").
- "The abyss of love in the abyss of the soul." Psalm 42:7, "deep calleth unto deep" — the divine depth answering the depth of the soul's ground; a favorite Tersteegen figure for the meeting of God and the soul below all thought.
- "Live no more to ourselves, but to Him… who died and rose again for us." 2 Corinthians 5:15, almost verbatim — the purpose of the redemption stated as the purpose of the inner life.
- "This our High Priest (Hebrews 3)." Hebrews 3:1 ("consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus"); cf. 4:14–15 — Christ as the High Priest into whose "motions" and "pure life" the soul is conformed.
- "Our animal life" (unser thierisches Leben). The merely natural, sensual life (from Latin anima/soul-as-animal, 1 Corinthians 2:14, the "natural man") — offered up "as a sacrifice" so the divine life may replace it.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-060 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.