Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

To a Count — that in communion with Jesus is our whole salvation and justification, and that progress in sanctification does not annul justification.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 142 · Der hundertzweiundvierzigste Brief

Addressee — An einen Grafen — two-line salutation "Hochgeborner Graf! / In der Gnade unsers JEsu werthgeschätzter Bruder!": a count, addressed in the high-courtesy Dero; he had written to "Brother N.," whose letter was passed on (communiciret) to Tersteegen. Not further identified (1773-only); the fourth titled-noble addressee of Th II and the first male noble (cf. the Gräfinnen of Briefe 105, 121, 129). Courtesy Dero → English you.
Date — Mülheim, 28 October 1738 ("den 28. Oct. 1738"; GS/Hartman agree).
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 418–419), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Hundred-and-Forty-Second Letter.

To a Count — that in communion with Jesus is our whole salvation and justification, and that progress in sanctification does not annul justification.

High-born Count!

In the grace of our Jesus, highly esteemed brother!

Your kind letter to Brother N. has been communicated to me; it gladdened me in spirit. Praised be our Saviour, that He will heal us from the ground up! How good it is to remain, with a naked ground, before His presence! He is indeed a Sun of righteousness, which without mercy assails our darkness (O mercy!), and pierces with its beams even thither where no self-seeking reaches: but there is also healing under its wings, to make us light through itself, as it is itself. For this we are to sing Him a Hallelujah — that He would have us so pure and fair — and give ourselves over ever more inwardly to His leading, asking always, with unfeigned holding-still:

Is there aught else, my Friend? O Beauty without spot! Is there aught else in which I displease Thee?

Nothing binds the soul more closely to Jesus than when, through many real experiences, it comes to know the mingling of its own human [element] — however well-meant — with the divine: there He must become all. One wants to do nothing without Him. To let Jesus live in us — that is to live as we ought. This is the power of His resurrection, which one comes to know step by step, where one is willing to have fellowship with His suffering, and to be made conformable to His death. And so it remains, before as after, sheer grace, and Jesus our whole salvation. Freely are we justified, freely are we sanctified. Through our justification, at the forgiveness of sins, we are happily initiated into sanctification; and as sanctification goes forward, justification is not abolished, but ever heightened, and it becomes more and more a pure life of grace.

Why do I write so much? I meant only to greet, and to show my continuing love and fellowship. Had it been a paper [love], it would have come to grief — I confess it — so long have I not written; I have not been able.

Mülheim, the 28th of October 1738.

❦

German

Der hundertzweiundvierzigste Brief.

An einen Grafen, daß in der Gemeinschaft mit JEsu unser ganzes Heil und Rechtfertigung sey, und daß der Fortgang in der Heiligung die Rechtfertigung nicht aufhebe.

Hochgeborner Graf!

In der Gnade unsers JEsu werthgeschätzter Bruder! Dero Angenehmes an den Bruder N. wird mir communiciret; es hat mich im Geist erfreuet.

— 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. A short, dense, and beautiful letter of 28 October 1738 to a Count — the fourth titled correspondent of this Part, and the only nobleman among them. His own letter had reached Tersteegen at second hand, passed on by "Brother N.," and Tersteegen answers with a compact meditation on the two great gifts of the gospel — being justified and being made holy — and how the second never crowds out the first.

The Sun of righteousness. God, he says, means "to heal us from the ground up," and the image is Malachi's: "He is a Sun of righteousness" whose light is both severe and tender — it "assails our darkness without mercy (O mercy!)," piercing "even thither where no self-seeking reaches," and yet carries "healing under its wings." The soul's part is only to keep still and open, singing its "Hallelujah" and asking — in a little verse Tersteegen quotes — "O Beauty without spot, is there aught else in which I displease Thee?"

Justified and sanctified — both freely. The doctrinal heart is stated as plainly as the mystical vision: "Freely are we justified, freely are we sanctified." Growth in holiness is not a second, self-won stage that leaves grace behind; on the contrary, "as sanctification goes forward, justification is not abolished, but ever heightened — and it becomes more and more a pure life of grace." What binds the soul to Christ is precisely the humbling discovery of "the mingling of our human, however well-meant, with the divine" — for then "He must become all," and this is "the power of His resurrection… fellowship with His suffering… conformity to His death."

A few words and echoes.

"A Sun of righteousness… healing under its wings." Malachi 4:2 — "the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings."
"O Beauty without spot." Song of Songs 4:7 — "thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee." The quoted verse is a prayer to Christ.
"The power of His resurrection… conformable to His death." Philippians 3:10 — "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."
"Freely are we justified." Romans 3:24 — "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
"Jesus our whole salvation… righteousness and sanctification." 1 Corinthians 1:30 — "Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 142 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-142.html.

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