Christian Life and Witness. Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
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the grace and blood-won justification of the One who makes the godless righteous. The most innocent, the most pious, the person who has probably been so blameless from the moment of emerging from the womb to the present that one would have to take him for an angel on account of his good training, in relation to whom one neither hears nor sees anything evil, this very person [bears] the same appraisal and damnation as the most immoral sort of human beings among [us]. None is better on account of his little tidbit of good, and none is more wicked because of his many evil acts. All need grace, mercy, and a Savior’s blood; before God none [of our works] carry any weight, neither our scampering and running about, nor our repentance and improvement, but rather his mercy alone, Christ’s atonement, satisfaction, and reconciling offering on the cross. To be sure, one can abuse this precious truth in the direction of safety and irresponsibility; but nevertheless it is and remains the truth pure and simple. This even produces unity in religion, but is, as far as that goes, almost the only true and proper controversy about reality. This also makes the leading and tending of souls concise and easy. If each one understands himself to be a sinner in his own way, and humbles himself before grace, then befalls him what is meant for the eminent and well deserving.
There are so many different kinds of people, and Satan has bound them by means of so many different kinds and modes of evil, or deceived them with various appearances of good, that one could certainly not disentangle them from each other, if there were not also a universal sickness for which a medicine was suitable. But thus one can now say to souls, that all human beings require grace, the respectable just as much as the profligate, so that all need Christ’s blood, which alone cancels the future wrath, conquers Satan and hell, cleanses the heart, cures injuries, pulls the love of sin out by the roots, and can produce all good.
We are sinners in our best works and actions as well as with our greatest acts of sin. No intention, no matter how good, helps without Christ, either to free from sin, or to be godly and do good. Consequently, one must really concern oneself only about faith in Christ, but let all other things quickly go; and forget about them like a child. And Jesus must become our faith, our love, and our hope, the only object and purpose of our life: all thinking, speaking, and desiring must become completely his; then they are right and fitting before God because of Christ.
In faith we need not tremble like the devils, but instead can be sincere and confident like children.
1. In this speech Count Zinzendorf expresses his theological opposition to so-called rational or natural religion. Intellectuals in the eighteenth century found very appealing the idea that all actual, historical religions share a common core. This core was thought to consist of a simple set of religious ideas that constituted the truth of any and all religion. Thus, the actual teachings and practices of a religion were not to be taken seriously except insofar as they expressed these core ideas. Lord Herbert of Cherbury set forth the core in this way: 1) there is one supreme God; 2) this God ought to be worshipped; 3) the connection between piety and virtue is the most important part of religious practice; 4) people must repent of their wickedness and vices; and 5) there is reward or punishment after this life (cf. Cherbury’s little book De Veritate, published in Paris in 1624). These tenets were thought to be rational because they were imagined to be discoverable within every religion by all truly rational people. They were said to be natural because they were thought to be written into the fabric of nature. There are several telling philosophical and anthropological objections to this view. But Zinzendorf found it religiously and theologically objectionable from the perspective of Christian teaching. Some of his reasons appear in this speech.
2. The Count grants the advocates of rational or natural religion this point: existence itself drives us to be religious. Every person organizes life, and must do so, according to some fundamental convictions and commitments. By means of these one unifies personality and life, makes sense of experience, and understands the self’s role in the cosmos. The object of these commitments and convictions is that which concerns us ultimately, on which our being or not being depends, i.e., our god. Zinzendorf notes here in his own way that all people recognize a god, a high essence or Supreme Being, a main thing in life. But simply to have a god of some sort, even a highly moral one, is not enough to grant participation in what Christians call salvation. Even atheists can be very religious about their atheism! But one must know the true God. It is only the true and actual God who is able to save.
3. This way of talking about sin and godliness belongs fully to the ancient Christian tradition. It appears in classical form in the writings of Augustine, the great bishop of Hippo in North Africa from the late fourth century to the early fifth century. He had said it like this: “When humanity by free will sinned . . . the freedom of the will was lost . . . Accordingly, the one who is the servant of sin is free to sin. And hence [one] will not be free to do right, until, being freed from sin, [one] shall begin to be the servant of righteousness. And this is true liberty . . .” Enchiridion, chapter 30. Thus, for Augustine, apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ, one is free only to sin. Even the virtues of the pagans are but splendid vices because their acts do not proceed from faith in Christ (Romans 14:23) and thus can only be sin. But once having been freed by God’s grace in Jesus, once having been delivered from bondage and servitude, a person is no longer compelled to sin. One is no longer bound to sin no matter what one does and has the privilege of doing righteousness in obedience to God. Augustine is quick to note that though freed from the inevitability of sin, Christians continue to sin in fact. Christians still require daily forgiveness of sins, since in this life one continues to struggle against sin and sin always remains a possibility. In this life Christians are always sinners who are nevertheless justified by grace through Jesus Christ. Luther had a great deal to say about this!
4. It is very interesting that Zinzendorf should use the phrase “evil inclination” here. It has a long history in the Jewish tradition. Since ancient times rabbis have spoken of two inclinations in each person. The yetzer ha-tov, the good inclination, and the yetzer ha-rah, the bad inclination, are said to strive for mastery of the heart of every person. Paul seems to have been thinking in this tradition in Romans 7. One wonders where Zinzendorf picked up this way of talking. It may have been from rabbis and Jews he knew, or it might simply have come from his reflection on Paul’s writings in the New Testament.
5. Zinzendorf’s point turns on the distinction between mere civil righteousness and righteousness before God. One could be blameless before the worldly court of law, but at the same time be utterly damned as wicked before God. Since God looks upon the heart and motive, true obedience means doing God’s will with a pure and joyful heart with no regard for consequences or rewards. It means loving and obeying God with abandon and purely for God’s own sake. One’s civil righteousness has only an ambiguous and uncertain relationship to that!
The Second Speech (26 February 1738)
Jesus!
And there is no other name given to human beings, by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12). It is our fortress and our free city to which we must flee for deliverance (Proverbs 18:10; Numbers 35:15, 28). Very few people understand this. The angel of God told Mary what it meant: “You shall call his name Jesus; because he will save (deliver) his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
The explanation and exposition of this name was necessary for two reasons, first because the Jews hoped out of their particular feelings for the Messiah as king, and saw [the matter] only from [the perspective of] their external affliction, burden, and trouble, as people are generally so created by nature that they know of no other torment than bodily burdens and public nuisances, and are difficult to convince that sin is the greatest affliction, so that the prophet marvels: “What do the people complain about? Each one grumbles against his sins” (Lamentations 3:39). Secondly, [the explanation] was necessary because otherwise they could have made the deduction from old examples of divine rescue, [that] their Shiloh was even one of the ancient helpers, whom