Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil III (1775)

What is commonly understood by the sin against the Holy Ghost. Which temptations defile the spirit, and which not.

Bd II · Th III · Brief 41 · Der einundvierzigste Brief

Addressee — To Wilhelm Weck, at Wald near Solingen — addressed as a dear brother in the intimate du (English you); the letter answers a question of his about the unforgivable sin. Salutation Hertzlich geliebter Bruder in der Gnade JEsu! → "Dearly beloved brother in the grace of Jesus!" (Rule B).
Date — Mülheim, 31 October 1743 — the print dateline reads Mülheim, den 31. Oct. 1743.
Provenance — *Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil III, pp. 120–123), in normalized GS-1845 house orthography. All rendered words are from public-domain prints.

The Forty-First Letter.

What is commonly understood by the sin against the Holy Ghost. Which temptations defile the spirit, and which not.

Dearly beloved brother in the grace of Jesus!

I am well content with your kind letter of the 28th of September. ——

To be disobedient to the promptings of the Spirit of God might well be called a sin against the Holy Ghost; but — woe to us all! — if every disobedience against Him were that sin which shall not be forgiven. This sin can have place only at a singular degree of illumination, as one judges, when against a high light one sins deliberately, wantonly, and persistently. Once for all: absolutely-unforgivable is no sin, except where one persists in the sin; but this is true, that an enlightened man might commit such a wanton sin that it would seem to a Paul (Heb. 6:4 ff.) impossible to bring such a one right again. Yet what is impossible with men is not therefore impossible with God. In short! everyone who longs for forgiveness can find it with Jesus, because no one can obtain forgiveness with God without Jesus.

The enticement of one's own lust is a temptation; and though it is a fruit of our fall (for which reason it must also humble us, so much the more when we have sometimes opened the window a little to the temptation), yet for Jesus' sake it is not reckoned to us as sin; but when we give the will into the temptation, then lust conceives and brings forth sin. Now since evil is once here, the temptation must come; but whoever, in the strength of Jesus, endures the temptation, is a fighter for whom a crown is laid up.

The temptation defiles the spirit no further than only when the will of the spirit touches the unclean thing, more or less (2 Cor. 6) — I mean, dwells on it with some willing occupation of the thoughts, or with complacency in it. Some temptations may well bring obscurings, even when one has borne oneself well in them; but these obscurings do no harm. The best is to remain, in the present moment, with the Lord, with the hearty resolve to let in no evil — but for the rest to think little of the evil, and rather of the present God; and not to dwell much on the temptations that are past, but, without examining, to lay the blame on oneself, and to sink again into grace.

The temptation, or enticement to evil, comes not from God. But God does try, or prove, our faith, our love and faithfulness, now and then, to make us approved and transfigured; 1 Peter 1:7. Yet He upholds us everywhere with hidden hands, and makes the temptation gain such an end that we can bear it; and he may indeed rejoice who thus falls into manifold trials. James 1. But when Jesus teaches us to pray, Lead us not into temptation, this aims at such temptations as when God forsakes a man so far that he actually comes to a fall — as happened with Hezekiah (2 Chron. 32:31), and with Peter; for when a soul builds too much on its own strength and faithfulness, and is not wary, God lets it once see, through a grievous experience, what is in its heart; and for that we should pray. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Matthew 26:41.

That love toward a child of God is beautiful which increases in me the love and the remembrance of God — which gathers me, stills me, and leaves no image of the creature behind in me. This pure brotherly love comes from God alone, and leads to God alone; therefore we must only hunger after the love of God, and turn all our love to this One — and then He teaches us, in His time, to love His children in Him. But to love one another and go about together, or to render many services of love, is not one and the same thing: it may, according to circumstances, be together, or not together. ——

May Jesus become to us, ever more deeply, the life of our souls! What comes out of us aims also at us. He Himself must have our heart, will, thoughts, and everything in His power, so that He may quicken us, and we may live purely in Him.

Mülheim, 31 October 1743.

❦

German

Der einundvierzigste Brief.

Was gemeiniglich durch die Sünde in den heiligen Geist verstanden werde. Welche Versuchungen den Geist beflecken, oder nicht.

Herzlich geliebter Bruder in der Gnade JEsu!

Mit deinem angenehmen Schreiben vom 28ten September bin wohl zufrieden. —— Den Eingebungen des Geistes GOttes ungehorsam seyn, könnte man wohl eine Sünde wider den heiligen Geist nennen: Aber, wehe uns allen!

— 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 theological letter — one of the most closely argued in the collection — written to Wilhelm Weck at Wald, near Solingen, who had evidently been troubled by the old terror of the "unforgivable sin." Tersteegen takes the question seriously and answers it carefully, then turns to the practical side: when does a temptation actually defile the soul, and when is it merely an assault to be borne? He will not let the phrase be used to torment a conscience. To disobey the Spirit's promptings, he grants, "might well be called a sin against the Holy Ghost" — "but, woe to us all, if every disobedience against Him were that sin which shall not be forgiven." The unforgivable sin belongs only to a deliberate, wanton, persistent sinning against a high light; and even then, "what is impossible with men is not therefore impossible with God." The pastoral point lands in one sentence: "everyone who longs for forgiveness can find it with Jesus."

The heart of the letter is a distinction the anxious soul needs. Temptation as such — even the stirring of "one's own lust" — is "not reckoned to us as sin"; it is "a fruit of our fall," and its remedy is humility, not despair. What defiles is consent: "the temptation defiles the spirit no further than only when the will of the spirit touches the unclean thing." The assault is not the sin; dwelling on it "with complacency" is. So the counsel is to refuse the evil at the will and then think little of it — "to think little of the evil, and rather of the present God" — and, when one has slipped, "without examining, to lay the blame on oneself, and to sink again into grace." Whoever "endures the temptation in the strength of Jesus is a fighter for whom a crown is laid up."

A few words and echoes.

the sin against the Holy Ghost. Matthew 12:31–32.
impossible to bring such a one right again… a Paul. Hebrews 6:4–6.
what is impossible with men… with God. Luke 1:37; Matthew 19:26.
lust conceives and brings forth sin. James 1:15; the "manifold trials," James 1:2.
a crown is laid up. 2 Timothy 4:8.
touches the unclean thing. 2 Corinthians 6:17.
makes the temptation gain such an end that we can bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 — "a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Lead us not into temptation… Watch and pray. Matthew 6:13; Matthew 26:41 (with 2 Chron. 32:31, Hezekiah; and Peter, Matthew 26:33–35).

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, III. Theil, Brief 41 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-041.html.

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