Christian Life and Witness. Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

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Christian Life and Witness - Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf


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him to send: those [helpers] were the Judges, who delivered the people from their enemies, and renewed the lost rule of God time and again among the people; therefore they were also called the saviors of the people.

      The Jews might easily have thought of the name in terms of the yoke of the Romans. Therefore, the old prophets said, “Your king comes to you meekly” (Zechariah 9:9). With that the idea of Gideon and Samson and Jephthah and Barak is cancelled. Consequently, John was sent to make clear to the people that the promised salvation consisted in something different, namely in the forgiveness of sins (Luke 1:77). And on the basis of this first principle the angel, too, testified that the Savior will deliver his people from the misery, rule and power of sin. “He appeared that he might take away our sins” (l John 3:5).

      We are not of the Jewish line and fold, but rather by grace came to it, and shall in a certain degree fill that position. Therefore, Matthew 28:19 says, “Go out into all the world, and preach the Gospel to all creatures, beginning in Jerusalem”; and Acts 1:8 says, “You shall preach in Jerusalem, and in the whole of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” That was the Savior’s wish and desire, because he had come to cast a fire upon the earth that it might soon be kindled. He is a Savior for all people (1 Timothy 4:10). But his believers experience, enjoy, and make use of it. The apostles extol salvation in all their speeches and writings, so that everyone who wants to have it might possess an interest in it and hope for it. Since Jesus is the universal Restorer of the whole human community, and a propitiation not only for our sins, but rather for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). The old fence and dividing wall is struck down, the gulf is filled in, in order that even those who are far away might become nearer through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:14, 17).

      This is not opposed to the sayings of John 17:2 and Hebrews 7:25, that he does not intercede for the whole world, but rather for his faithful ones. Because that was a Will and Testament, in which he appoints heirs and makes a bequest to be carried out. But soon after on the cross he thought not only of his own who were in the world, whom he loved to the end, but rather he also thought of the crucifiers, of his enemies, of the greatest sinners, of evildoers, and prayed for them all (Isaiah 53:12). The first demonstration of the answer [to his prayer] appeared in his nearest neighbor, who converted on account of Jesus’ intercession and became his friend.

      To be sure, not many people pay attention to the witnesses of Jesus, because to these witnesses love for Christ’s cross and bliss with their Lord is more dear to them than anything; they know that he himself was treated no better, that he was persecuted first and most of all (John 15:18), and that their humiliation is nothing compared to the contempt which he had to experience in his life (“We took no notice of him,” says Isaiah in the name of the Jews, “He was the most despised and least esteemed”; see 53:3), compared to the affront which he still daily has to suffer from the world. And if Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:15, “I love much, and am loved little”; it is multiplied in the case of our Lord, who in suffering as in all things has pre-eminence.

      Just consider the wretched idea, attention and opinion which we ourselves had of him and in relation to him from childhood on; what a poor submission of the heart, what thanklessness in relation to his merit, what estrangement from following him, what a secret fear in the presence of his people because we were all called Christians and were baptized in his name. Thus sin lies in unbelief and expresses itself in an indifference, alienation, deviation, and cold-mindedness toward the Lord, or in open enmity with and rebellion against him. The outbreak of the deed (for which conscience and law punishes) is only the fruit and testimony of the inner corruption and wicked motives of the heart, in which sin is actually to be sought, and according to which people are of two sorts: first, completely dead; second, awakened to life.

      They can also grasp that they are good for nothing and are in poverty, but it is only a fleeting thought; at the same time they remain lazy, negligent, and carefree and cannot get a handle on their very selves. They have no power to help themselves, but rather remain lying in death. Still, they remain well-disposed toward the good, and their hearts are a tender object of the Savior, so that when he sees his time and they are brought to the sign of grace, they soon can be helped; it might be that they are too well pleased in their present circumstances and through them perish wretchedly.

      Such dead people are either virtuous, finally able to go so far in the false piety and improvement allowed by Satan that they progress in spirituality to the angels; or they are corrupt. Even though they live in all sins just the same, these people do not blaspheme, but rather allow the good to stand, like Felix: because they are dead to spiritual things; and there is with those same people, if they are not met at a sensitive corner, almost the same circumstance [as Felix], (and then it amounts to a manner of life).

      Others in the category of unbelief are not dead, but rather living and active enough, enlivened and invigorated


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