Christian Life and Witness. Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

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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.

      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


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