The glory of God which clothed man in the state of innocence was lost through the Fall, brought forth again through Jesus; and how it is now to be found in Him.
The Seventy-First Letter.
The glory of God which clothed man in the state of innocence was lost through the Fall, brought forth again through Jesus; and how it is now to be found in Him.
Dearly beloved brother!
As I sat down to render you my due thanks for the cloth you have given me for a coat, there came into my mind, it is true, that great word of our Saviour: I was naked, and ye clothed me. But it would not properly fit my case, since I still had a coat of my own to cover my bodily nakedness. Meanwhile, what you have been willing to do for one of the least of this Saviour's own — and it is far more than a drink of cold water — may that be to Him an acceptable offering, and be repaid with something more essential! For at this thought, that I had after all not been naked, there came into my inmost heart the blessed state of innocence in which God created us, when the radiance of the glory of God not only clothed the inner man but also penetrated the pure body and adorned it with angelic brightness, so that there was nothing naked in the whole man. Since now, after the Fall, we have need of a poor coat as a covering for shame, by which, however, only the bodily and not the spiritual nakedness is covered — O, how more than naked, shameful, and hideous do we appear before God and His saints in our natural state, now that, through our turning aside from God, the garment of the glory of God has fallen away from us! O misery and unspeakable shame that has come upon man! Who would not long to be clothed upon again, while still in the life of the body, with the lost garment of light, that he may not one day be found naked. 2 Corinthians 5:2–5. For this there is a remedy, since God in Christ emptied Himself of His glory and, through His becoming man, has brought that glory back into our humanity. He is near to us in the heart: to Him we surrender ourselves wholly: into Him we turn inward with our whole will and our whole loving inclination. The more naked and shameful we find ourselves, the more humbly and the more trustingly do we seek to hide ourselves in Him, and to await the workings of His Spirit, and to leave them room. This Spirit is a Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God, who then penetrates and renews us. The more turned outward we are, the darker we are. Whoever lives much in inward prayer and in the beholding of the presence of God becomes clear, luminous, and beautiful (2 Corinthians 3:18), so that often even other people can notice and feel something of it — that the Spirit of glory rests upon such a soul (1 Peter 4:14) — although they do not know what it is. And when we leave room within us to this glorious and glorifying Spirit of the love of Jesus, behold, then we have here and eternally clothing and adornment enough; for it is also for the sake of this hidden splendour of the Spirit that He will one day make our mouldered body alive again (Romans 8:11), and clothe it once more, wholly and eternally, with this glory.
See, dear brother! For this garment I beg daily; and that it may be given to you also in essential reality is the wish, out of the most inward longing, of
Your
obliged and weak fellow-brother.
Mülheim, 9 December 1745.
German
Der einundsiebzigste Brief.
Die Herrlichkeit GOttes so den Menschen im Stande der Unschuld bekleidet, ist durch den Fall verlohren, durch JEsum wieder hervor gebracht, und wie solche nun in Ihm zu finden sey.
Herzlich geliebter Bruder!
Wie ich mich niedersetzte, um dir wegen des geschenkten Tuchs, zu einem Kleid für mich, meine schuldige Erkänntlichkeit zu bezeugen, da fiel mir zwar das große Wort unsers Heilandes ein: Ich bin nackend gewesen, und ihr habt mich bekleidet.
— 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 thank-you note, written the day after Brief 70 and to that letter's recipient's brother — the same Johann Peter Schmitz who had once asked how to arrange his hours of prayer (Brief 63). He has sent a length of cloth for a coat. Tersteegen sits down to acknowledge it, finds a scripture rising in his mind as he does so, and within a paragraph the gift of cloth has opened into the largest subject he ever writes about: what human beings were clothed in once, what they lost, and what may be worn again.
The turn from cloth to glory. The saying that comes to him is Christ's — I was naked, and ye clothed me — and his first move is to refuse it: it will not fit his case, he says, since he still had a coat to cover his bodily nakedness. But that thought — that he was, after all, not naked — is the hinge. It calls up the state of innocence, "in which God created us, when the radiance of the glory of God not only clothed the inner man but also penetrated the pure body and adorned it with angelic brightness, so that there was nothing naked in the whole man." Against that, our clothing now is a "covering for shame" that hides the body and not the soul: before God and His saints we appear, in our natural state, "more than naked."
The remedy. It is stated in a single clause of exchange, and it is the Incarnation read as a change of garments: God in Christ "emptied Himself of His glory and, through His becoming man, has brought that glory back into our humanity." What follows is the practical part, and it is the familiar counsel in an unfamiliar key — the more naked and shameful we find ourselves, the more trustingly we hide in Him. Turning inward with the whole will and the whole loving inclination; awaiting the Spirit's workings and leaving them room; and the terse diagnosis that runs the other way: "the more turned outward we are, the darker we are."
The promise at the end. Whoever lives much in inward prayer and the beholding of God's presence "becomes clear, luminous, and beautiful" — so much so that others sometimes notice something resting on such a soul without knowing what it is. And the glory is not finally a matter of the soul alone: for the sake of this hidden splendour, the letter ends, God will one day make the mouldered body alive again and clothe it, wholly and eternally, with the same glory. Then the return to the gift that started it: for this garment I beg daily — and he wishes it to his benefactor too.
A few words and echoes.
- I was naked, and ye clothed me. Matthew 25:36, with the answer of the King two verses later — what is done to the least is done to Him.
- a drink of cold water. Matthew 10:42 — the smallest kindness that does not lose its reward; the letter says the gift is far more than that.
- angelic brightness. Englische Klarheit — "angelic," from Engel, not "English": the body in innocence shining as the angels do.
- covering for shame. Schand-Deckel — the coat of skins after the Fall, which hides the body and leaves the soul bare (Genesis 3).
- emptied Himself. Philippians 2:7 — the kenosis, read here as the laying-aside of the very glory that is afterwards restored to human nature.
- clothed upon. 2 Corinthians 5:2–5, the letter's own citation — to be over-clothed while still living, "that he may not one day be found naked."
- turned outward. Ausgekehrt, the exact opposite of Einkehr, the turning-in: the one word carries the whole spirituality of these letters.
- the mouldered body. Romans 8:11, the letter's own citation — the promise extended past the soul to the body that has faded in the ground.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiii-071 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.