Part 11
Only through the spirit of the crucified one can this church with
her courage to face death be gathered and held together. This spirit
is her joy in life and her inspiration in death. His blazing fire kindles
an enthusiasm for the ultimate sacrifice – all members of the
church are ready for it. In a special way, those called upon to be
ready for death in mission must be invested with a spirit of utmost
sacrifice: they must bear the sword of the Spirit, drive out devils,
proclaim a break with the status quo, spread the victorious light of
God, and scatter the biting salt of truth. They must call to repen
tance and faith, represent the embassy of the city on the hill, and
reveal the image of God. The sign by which they are known is the
community of the cross. The working of the Holy Spirit for the
good is to be so clearly recognizable in these members of the
church that no one but God can be glorified in everything they say
and do. This mission can be given only through the power and
action of the Spirit – not of men and women but of God. Christ
commanded his disciples not to leave until they were endued with
power from on high.
They were not allowed to gather people until they had received
the gift of the Holy Spirit. They had to wait for it. Without it, the
disciples could never become apostles. Without Christ, who is the
Spirit, no apostolic deeds can be done, and no works can stand
before God. The holiest work of all is the service of apostolic
mission. It may never be undertaken in self-delusion or human
presumption. Only according to the instructions and guidance of
the Spirit can the truth be spread around, the word of mission
ventured. That same spirit filled Jesus before he was sent by his
Father. How much more does he long that his messengers never go
out on mission except in the power of this same spirit! How could
they possibly do what he did or represent his word with authority,
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if they lacked the spirit with which their master was sent out! How
could they ever gather people with Christ if they had not received
the spirit of his unity with God!
Jesus gathers. He says clearly: "Whoever does not gather with me
scatters." With motherly protection, he wants to gather the sons
of his people in the arms of his spirit. His church, like Jesus himself,
resembles the mother hen who unites her children under her wings.
Whoever wants to gather with Jesus must be of his nature, of his
mind, and of his spirit. It is at the same time the will and the
commission of Jesus Christ to gather and unite. Just this is possible
through the Holy Spirit alone.
This commission for unity can be understood only in the Spirit.
Only the spirit of Christ can lead disunited people to the united
church. No man or woman can do it – no one is allowed to do it. It
must begin in the Spirit and be completed in the Spirit. No arm of
flesh and blood receives this authority. Only the spirit of the city
above can bring the church together. Only he binds. No human
strength is able to do it – no one may even try to do it. Where the
Spirit is building, no other power is allowed entrance. His building is
his work exclusively: "Though men watch, it naught availeth, God
must watch, his arm prevaileth." He does it through the Spirit. Only
under his protection is his house built.
Every building begins with the work of clearing-up – there must
be an empty plot for the house to stand on. When everything is
cleared away, the building begins. No foundation can be laid
without the work of digging and excavating. Every house must be
protected from undermining waters: its load has to be tested and
fire precautions taken. In times of danger or threat, a watch is
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needed to prevent fire and housebreaking. The good spirit keeps
evil spirits away. The house requires protection.
The house of the church is protected through the most watchful
spirit of all. The best possible protection is the elimination of all
dangerous powers. Only the Holy Spirit can clear away everything
that tries to undermine, suppress, or destroy the church. He drives
out all evil spirits. But burdens of the past, both old and recent,
threaten all believers in the present. Powers fought long ago make
their old claims again: they raise their heads in the present, calling
to mind past evils!
The present has its roots in the past. The only way to cope with
the present is tackle the roots. Without the forgiveness of sin, there
is no elimination of evil. The new life cannot begin if the old is not
done away with. The only way the lame can be healed is by having
the cause of illness removed.
Christ destroys the works of the devil with his mission. He takes
the ground from under them. The church receives the power and
authority to forgive sins through the power of his liberation. Jesus
himself imparted it to her: "Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive
someone, he or she is forgiven. If you do not forgive, he or she is
not forgiven." If you take away sins on earth, they shall stay away
in heaven; but if you leave them unchanged here on earth, they
shall stay a burden in heaven too. They will keep people in their
clutches with overmastering power. What takes place in the church
is valid in the kingdom of heaven; what is left undone in her is left
undone in God's eyes. No one enters the kingdom of God without
forgiveness of sins, and without the sacrament of forgiveness there
is no community anywhere. Without constantly renewed purification,
it is not possible to have community with God or among people.
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The church must be pure; otherwise she does not live up to what
she should profess. There is no community other than that of the
unblemished Spirit. This alone is the church. In the authority of
forgiveness, the spirit of Jesus Christ stands by the church as his
new creation.
The church is the memorial of the Christ-life, honoring the
inmost character of God. The Spirit acknowledges her asthe image
of God. With conclusive authority it confirms that she is the rock of
truth. Through her foundation in the apostles and prophets, it has
entrusted her with everything she needs for her building-up. On
the basis of the truth, it commands her to exclude and avoid
everything that should be kept out of a consecrated building. This
building, this church, is guided with a sure hand. It bears the pure
image of God. It has foundations. As the rock of truth, it is built on
the cornerstone, Jesus Christ.
At the end of the early Christian period, the Roman prophet
Hermas saw this living monument in a vision and described it in his
ninth parable:
The Holy Spirit in the form of the church showed him a great white rock big enough for the whole world. Its gate shone brighter than the sun, and around it stood virgins clad in white. Stones that had been cleaned and dressed passed through their hands, and with these stones the holiest of buildings was to be built on the white rock. The new gate in the old rock leads into the kingdom of God and to the building that is his church. The master builder of this rock temple is the Son of God himself. Only through him is there access to his building. The pure virgins rep resent the powers of the Holy Spirit: through their work, the building becomes one stone with the firm rock, and through the touch of their hands, all the stones are filled with the Holy Spirit,
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who is still building his temple. Whoever loves peace, whoever has a childlike spirit, let him come! They shall be fitted into the building. Whoever wants to free all human beings from their distress, whoever hastens to do good to all, must be in the temple of the rock before it is completed.
In his first confession, written in an Austrian prison around 1530,
Peter Rideman testifies to the same building of the Holy Spirit, who
as power of the Most High brings about all that is good in his living
stones:
Through manifesting and communicating his gift, he brings the church together and unites it as the house of God; in it, her members receive forgiveness of sins; in the bond of love they are united with him into one body. All this takes place through the Holy Spirit, who brings it all about.
In this spirit, it becomes clear how we should build the house of
God, and what the house of God is. Then we can joyfully begin to
build on the foundation of all the apostles, with Jesus Christ as the
cornerstone.
This house is the church of God. Its stability is in God. The first
pillar that supports this house is reverence for God, which
overcomes all fear of people. The second pillar is the pure wisdom
of God, which is eternally at war with all human wisdom. The third
pillar is divine understanding; on this pillar the folly of human
understanding comes to grief. The fourth pillar is the counsel of
God, which is bound to contradict all human counsel forever; the
fifth is the strength of God in contrast to human force; the sixth is
the skill of God as against the skill of humankind. The seventh and
last pillar is the loving-kindness and friendship of God; against this
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pillar break the destructive waters that come with love of possessions
and a life of pomp and splendor. As in olden times the pillars of the
old sanctuary were given symbolic names such as "He lays firm
foundations" and "in him is strength" (1 Kings 7:21–22), so now the
building of the church is in truth founded on the steadfastness and
strength of the spirit of God. Like the pillars of the old temple that
stood on silver feet, the pedestals of the seven pillars of the church
shine out in the purity of the Holy Spirit.
All that the dark shadows of the old temple were meant to
signify has been fulfilled in the radiant spirit of Jesus Christ. The
house of the old covenant was meant to represent the dwelling of
God in the midst of his people. "They shall make me a sanctuary in
which I will dwell among them." To this people, who regarded the
old dwelling as the inviolable holy of holies, Jesus made a very daring
claim: "Here is something greater than the temple." The Holy Spirit
dwelt in Jesus as the Godhead embodied in his whole fullness. Jesus
placed the true dwelling of God in the midst of people, who de
spite their old temple were without God in the world.
Jesus did this in all their hostile unbelief. When his body was
about to be broken, he promised to restore the demolished temple
in three days. And indeed, he who had risen alive from the dead on
the third day sent his Holy Spirit. He gave the new temple to the
believing church: "The temple of God is holy; you are that temple."
In the quickening wind, Christ and the Father want to come to
believing people. In the Son of Man, God's dwelling has come out
of its concealing shadows. In the words and life of Jesus, in his
deeds and works, God dwells on earth, visible to all.
Because of his works, even if nothing else made them believe,
people had to recognize this established fact: in Jesus Christ the
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work of God is disclosed by the spirit of revelation. His work is his
house, the place where he dwells; he acts from within it. The spirit
of God wants to enlighten the eyes of all hearts to see the greatness of
his power as it establishes his work in Jesus Christ. For this reason
he sets up a throne room in the house of the church for the ruler of
the kingdom of God. From here he directs the embassy sent out by
his government. In the church, the spirit of God makes Christ, raised
to the majesty of the king of the kingdom, ruler over all things. In
the Spirit, the church can recognize everything given into her
hands from God's kingdom.
The old temple was the tent sanctuary where people used to
gather. In the same way, the church of the Holy Spirit is where
everyone gathers who wants to glorify the heart of God and his
dwelling among people. Just as God wanted to receive the sincere
sacrifices and prayers of his people in the old tabernacle, he accepts
the thank-offering of his church in the new temple of the Spirit.
Her house is full of jubilation. Her spirit exults to God. Her festivals
honor the king. She is filled with such an exuberant joy of the Holy
Spirit that out of the fullness of her heart she brings praise and
thanks to God, she sings him fervent songs overflowing with the
Spirit, and in her whole life and work she honors what his love
decrees. The Holy Spirit is the never-failing source of a joy that
wells up unceasingly from the innermost depths of the sanctuary
and pours out over all lands.
The old temple was divided into the holy of holies, the holy place,
and the forecourts. The most important of all was the center of the
innermost place: the further from the interior, the more each part
of the tabernacle pointed back to the deepest and innermost
center and away from itself. God had his dwelling in the innermost
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place; therefore even this inner covering in the tabernacle was
called the dwelling of God (Exod. 25:17–22). It surrounded the
throne that commanded the whole. In the holy of holies, the mighty
angelprinces testified most powerfully of all to the presence of the
Lord who reigned over them. The princely spiritual beings
surrounding the throne of God give it honor and glory. The throne
remains decisive. The death of Jesus Christ has rent the curtain that
divided the holy of holies from the holy place. From now on, God
from his innermost throne wants to govern and have mastery over
all the forces of the church, commission them and equip them The
eternal light of the holy of holies shines out far amd wide. Rulership
from God's dwelling flows out far beyond the boundaries of
inwardness. It becomes outwardly visible. The place of worship
remains in the inner recesses of the house, but the perfect life of
the spirit of Jesus Christ will not be limited and hidden any longer.
Certainly it will still be true to its starting point in the deepest
spirit of the holy of holies – faith; certainly it will still keep a
certain reserve about its inmost prayers and its dedicated works;
yet its aim is to allow the lordship of God's spirit to grow and
expand unhindered. Starting from the holy of holies, the spirit of
Jesus strives to gain mastery over all the forecourts.
Thus the whole body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. The
whole world becomes the parish of his church. Christ dwells in
overflowing hearts through faith, and the faith that stems from his
love floods over all worlds. As in the holy of holies of the old
covenant, all the vessels, all the walls, and all the coverings were
radiant with gold, the color of faith, so the innermost sanctuary of
the temple of the Spirit is filled with faith's golden light, radiating
far and wide. The faith of Jesus Christ will conquer the whole
world. The light of his kingdom will have command over all the
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ends of the earth. Wherever God takes up his dwelling, the throne
from which Christ rules is recognized to be the center of all life.
From the throne of God in the Old Testament holy of holies, all
people were to be ruled. For this reason, the forgiveness of sins
was proclaimed from it. From the throne of the new government
forgiveness is made a reality. This throne has been established
where a different sacrifice took place, valid for all time. An
ultimate sacrifice was needed; there was no other way to break the
opposing regime of the sinister prince of this world. God's new
government succeeds: faith in this sacrifice of the Lord of light – a
sacrifice unto death that overturns everything. Then the new
certificate of citizenship is freely given, promising community
between God and his people forever.
The spirit of the new throne generates a power, founded on
faith in the sacrificed king alone. It sweeps away every-thing else.
In the all-decisive battle – his death – he has taken possession of his
throne. His first act as ruler was to declare an amnesty for all time,
promising his enemies absolute forgiveness as soon as they are
ready to acknowledge his sovereignty without hesitation. Perfect
love flows out of this faith in the kingly deeds of forgiveness and
the sacrifice unto death. It is poured out through the Holy Spirit
into the hearts of the whole people; the spirit of the King grants to
his people the heart that has his own kingly attitude. Like their
divine king himself, they are able in him to love – to love God –
with all their heart and soul and mind and with all their thoughts!
Like their sacrificed king, they are able in him to love their
neighbors and all their enemies just as they love themselves! After
all, they were only recently enemies themselves! What love they
have received! They are filled with its glow.
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In everything, the new temple proves to be a fulfillment of the
old prototype. In the old covenant the congregation used to gather
in prayer in the forecourt whenever the high priest bore incense
into the holy of holies. So now the central fire of the loving church
urges the hearts of all believers to gather as one before God.
Through enlightenment in Christ, the light with the seven branches
is renewed in the seven candlesticks of the church. Christ's fiery
love permeates the new life so completely that the bread always
offered in ancient Judaism has become, in the new covenant, the
surrender of all the means of existence to God's cause. The spirit of
the dwelling penetrates the life of the new house so completely
that all it possesses in the way of food or clothing belongs to the
Holy Spirit and his love. The whole house and all that is in it
belongs to him.
The new church is filled with the Holy Spirit. Going out from the
innermost sanctuary, the whole temple is opened to the Spirit. He
rules over everything right down to the utmost use of all the gifts
and faculties of every believer in the new covenant. The whole
body has become a holy temple. The self-control that makes for the
spirit's harmonious mastery of the whole person, right down to all
physical urges, is a conclusive fruit of the Spirit. No fruitless
branches remain on the tree of the Holy Spirit. From all his living
branches, love, joy, and peace can be harvested. Unfaithfulness and
all impure acts, hostility and murderous hate, discord in the form
of bickering and envy, and dissension caused by anger and quarrel
someness must be kept away from his house just as much as the
idolizing of luxury and possessions. The fruit of the Spirit will not
share the same bowl with any dish prepared by the flesh. It has pro
found significance that Jesus drove out the bankers with their
money tables and middleman's profits. He did not tolerate them in
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God's house, not even in the outermost forecourt. Jesus used his
sharpest measures against them to win back the outlying forecourt
for the house of worship. Like all the outer chambers and rooms in
the old forecourt, the whole life of the new church, including the
management of all its economic affairs, becomes a holy temple of
God. Once and for all, the power of mammon and all the dealing in
money that accompanies private property have been vehemently
driven out of the house of God by Jesus.
Our souls and bodies, like our spirits, must be kept as a holy
temple until the day of Jesus Christ. From the depths of faith, the
spirit of Jesus Christ requisitions all functions and achievements,
even of a life generally stamped as profane. In the forecourt open
to the profane, not only the priests and prophets of old but also
Jesus and all the apostles of the new covenant represented the
truth of the sanctuary. The Holy Spirit wants to spread God's dwelling
over all that is earthly and temporal.
The earth is God's. All its gifts and powers are to be brought
under the rule of his spirit. To do this, the church of the Holy Spirit
was erected in the midst of this world; her forecourts, dedicated to
God, are to expand over the whole earth. The curtain is rent.
Streams of living water go out from the innermost sanctuary into
all lands. Mighty works of the Holy Spirit reveal for the whole earth
the power and lordship of the holy throne of God. The spirit of
Jesus Christ has given the new temple of God to the whole earth.
The church believes in the victory of the Holy Spirit; she surrenders
to his rulership so that God may be acknowledged throughout the
world. She calls to the spirit of God to bring the kingdom of Jesus
Christ to all people.
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The Living Word
Every call to a more centered life is a challenge to fight for
greater clarity, for certainty about the ultimate demands of our
highest calling. Yet only God can bring about an inner awakening,
only his will is clear. Only God gives us the one, pure light that can
cope with all that a dark future might bring. Nothing in our own
nature can help us to find real clarity out of our deep confusion. All
those "inner voices" that speak from the depths of our own emotional
hearts can be dangerous – will-o'-the-wisps, flickering up out of
swampy ground and leading the traveler astray.
As heirs of fallen humankind we show our old nature again and
again. On our own we can never achieve anything – only unclarity.
There is only one hope: the sun must rise and cast its radiance on
the swampy lowlands. Only in the light of day does false light grow
dim. Jesus brings in the day. He ends night. He is the morning star
of the dawning day. He brings the old humankind to an end. He is
the last Adam, the founder of a new race that lights up the new
humanity. As the creative word he brings into being the new people
of creation's new day. He is the enlightening and life-begetting
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word, whose mystery can be revealed only in the unity of the
creator with Christ and his spirit.
In the tumultuous period of spiritual seeking that marked Refor
mation times, Ulrich Stadler wrote on the power of the Holy Spirit
and argued that like God himself, God's word could be understood
only in the unity of the Father with the Son and the Spirit.
First of all, God is recognized as God through his omnipotence –
he is the Father of all creation. Next, God is recognized through the earnestness and righteousness of the Son; and thirdly, through the loving-kindness and compassion of the Holy Spirit. All rational minds recognize the creator of heaven and earth through the works of nature. They see in creation unmistakable proofs of God's omnipotence as the power of the Father. All God's works indicate that there is a God. Yet we still lack some thing decisive when giving honor and glory to God: the hallow ing of God's name. It arises out of the second article of faith, out of the strict justice and righteousness that the Father fulfills in Jesus Christ and in the corporate body of all his members, the church. There the third and last article is revealed: the infinite loving-kindness and compassion of the Holy Spirit! Nowhere else, and in no other ways, can the word of God be recognized and grasped.
If we are to gain knowledge of the living Son, we must ex pect God to do in us what was done to Christ. We must carry the cross of Christ and follow in his footsteps if Christ's word is to become alive in us. The word must become true in deed and in reality. The works of Jesus Christ, the truth and righteousness of the crucified Son of God, are the means by which the word is revealed. If we are to recognize the highest good, we must submit to all three articles of faith in our own person. The word as a whole must be received, living, into our hearts –it does not
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bestow itself in part. It must become flesh and live in pure and open hearts through the Holy Spirit. But this does not happen without great fear and trembling, as with Mary when the angel told her of God's will. The word must be born in us too, and it can come about in no other way than through pain, poverty, and misery – within and without.
New birth brings new life. When the word is born, when it has
become flesh in us, we live for love itself and for the fruits of love:
we live for God alone. So our hearts are at peace. As the church of
Jesus Christ, we become mothers, brothers, and sisters of God.
Then the third article of faith will be revealed: the loving-kindness
and compassion of the Holy Spirit. No one can come to him save
through the deep waters of need and distress. Through the bath of
rebirth, we are born anew. We become children of God, brothers
and sisters of Jesus Christ. We are awakened from the dead, led out
of hell, and made alive in Christ. Through the cross we have
received Christ; now we can confess that Christ has come into the
flesh, for Christ lives in us. All those who have experienced this are
ruled by the Holy Spirit. Through the word of God, the third article
of faith appears in them. The Holy Spirit rejects everything of the
world in them. He lives in them as the living word of eternal truth.
The true light – Christ – shines in all who are given an understanding
of the living word through suffering and the cross. Then they all
see the loving-kindness and compassion of God. No one can really
see or recognize God's love as long as his or her heart is wrapped
up in worldly pleasures. But through the Holy Spirit, the living
word can in truth be seen, for he brings the crucified Christ into
our life; in his light the whole of scripture, with all the words and
sayings of God and Christ, is encompassed in the unity of the
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Trinity. In this unity the scripture speaks of the true, godly life; and
in the Spirit we have to see how to achieve it. The living word will
place it before our eyes even though it may not be written on the
pages of the Bible in front of us; for those who have the spirit of
God are able to discern all things through this one spirit.
The Holy Spirit plants the living word into the heart of
the believing church. Through him, Christ is the living word in the
church of believers. He is in perfect accord with every line written
by his apostles and prophets, who were filled with the same inner
word. For it is they who in truth give witness to him as the giver of
life. The word comes to life in the heart of every believer. It is
essential to grasp in the innermost way the eternal, the living
Christ, as the life-giving word. Christ himself is the word coming to
life, the morning star and sun of the believing heart.
Only through the light of Christ can our darkened inner life be
freed from all unclarity. The word of God falls into the hearts of
erring mortals to flood them through and through with the divine
spirit. From within, the living word has to transform everything. As
soon as dying humanity follows the call from their hearts: "Turn
your hearts to all the words I testify to you this day," they will
experience the living word themselves. God has called his people
with this deeply challenging word through all ages.
The only way to help our failing life become healthy is to prepare
our hearts for the living word. A doctor's visit can help only when
the sick take to heart the advice given, disregarding no instructions
or medicines. Above all, the foolish patients must stop trying to
cure themselves with their own ideas or with neighborly advice.
Our hearts can be healed only if we accept all the words of him
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who said: "I am the Lord, your physician." "The medicine must be
taken internally. Outside us it does no good." The inner word brings
the helpful physician, who is himself the healing medicine. The best
physician is the one who brings healing by the mere fact of his living
presence. When in an inner way we eat and drink the life-giving
word, it means that the healer and his healing have been accepted.
This points to the mystery that drove so many of Jesus' friends
away from him: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, unless
you drink his blood, you have no life in you!" This stark way of
expressing the innermost union with Jesus himself was bound to
turn all those away who were not resolved, cost what it may, to
win through to final unity with him. Only those who, like Peter,
had experienced the power of his living word could say: "Lord,
where shall we go? You have words of eternal life."
We must take the words of Jesus to heart, take in the Savior himself,
if we are not to give ourselves up for lost. If his word is to heal, we
must have it close to our heart and let it burn in our soul. The word
lies before us like an open book of glowing truth on a table. There
we can read and work with heart and soul. Every letter shall
become living fire in our hearts. Only through the heart do we
receive the word like the tasting of the tongue and the searing heat
of flame.
And yet ultimately, it is not through any activity of the human
heart that the inner content – the intrinsic value – of the word
becomes alive. True, when the word penetrates our heart it awakens
our innermost being. That is the first stage of inner growth. For
how could we believe in the living one if we had not heard of him?
We do hear him with the awakening ear of the heart, and slowly
faith arises! But the decisive hour is when we come to the faith
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that only God can give. Faith in God means awakening from the
dead. Like Mary, faith holds on to the living seed of the Holy Spirit,
the word of God at work within us. In every living word, God and
God alone is at work.
Through the example of the Virgin Mary, Peter Rideman shows
how the word becomes alive in the heart of a believer:
Mary was sealed with the Holy Spirit as soon as she believed… The Holy Spirit worked together with her faith. So the word, being believed, took on our human nature from her…The word was conceived when the Holy Spirit and faith came together. So the word became flesh.
Mary believed the word spoken to her; through faith she re ceived the Holy Spirit. This is how she conceived Christ, this is how he was born of her. Whoever wants to be reborn a Christian must first hear the word, like Mary, and then believe it.
Whoever wants to be born of God must keep in mind how Christ's
birth took place: it was brought about by the working of the Holy
Spirit in faith. Every birth from God happens in the same way.
When the word is heard and then believed, faith is sealed with the
Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit renews us and makes us new creatures
in the life of God's justice. We are formed in God's image. Where
his word is believed, God makes it alive through the gift of the
childlike spirit. Through the living word, we will live from now on
in the holy, divine life of the kingdom of God.
Faith arises from proclamation, but proclamation comes from the
word of God. The life-creating word is there first. Faith comes
second, decisive for each one personally. It is an awakening from
the dead when we receive the word of God into our hearts. Then
the word must come to life. Faith holds firmly to the word, as Mary
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did. Like a germinating seed it must remain in the heart and yet
blossom in life. From its roots in the depths of the soul, the word
must spread far and wide. From deep within, the word stimulates
all that faith does and furthers all the deeds of faith. The life-giv
ing word is plainly to be seen in what grows out of it.
The Holy Spirit gives life to the word; through it, he produces
the works of his love. He is not forced by the dead law. He is the
living finger of God himself, writing his loving word on the pages
of the heart. The word of the Spirit is the living word at work, for
it pierces soul and spirit. It destroys the works of the devil and
consummates the work of God. All who want to inherit the promised
kingdom must be born through the living word. Through the Spirit,
the word is planted in the innermost members of living people. All
those in whom the word is active through the Holy Spirit, from the
smallest to the greatest, know the living God and the kingdom
where he is at work.
Through the word of the Spirit, what the dead law demanded in
vain is spiritually alive and given its highest meaning (Rom. 8:3). In
the Spirit's divine order of life, everything is accomplished in the
living power of God. The written law, in so far as it is bound to the
letter, is annulled through Christ; for he has given his spirit, who
has nothing dead about him. The letter is dead and spreads death.
If the Spirit does not accompany it, the scripture can never achieve
the righteousness that counts before God. Through the spirit of
freely given and newly created life, we become free forever from
the law and from all dead works belonging to it. Once we live in
the Spirit, we are no longer under the law.
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We cannot have the freedom given by community in God with
out the word alive within us. Its power frees us from slavery to the
letter of the law. It leads to a life of living faith in action. The
righteousness born of faith knows the source of its life. "The word
is near you, very near; it is on your lips and in your heart." When
the word becomes very dear to our heart, it is free and living.
It has decisive significance whether we only look up the "word of
God" and consider it, only hear and read it, only understand it and
think about it, only approve of it and acknowledge it, or whether
we receive it and cherish it in the innermost depths of our heart as
a living seed of God. What use is it to contemplate the source, if we
do not drink from it? What use is the word if we know it only by
rote and the all-too-familiar letter stays outside us? The roots of a
living flower absorb the water and hold on to it. Out of the depths,
the water must bring life to every fiber. The living word has the
same effect as living water: its life wells up and flows into every
branch.
Therefore Jesus said, "I give living water. No matter who drinks
of the water I give him, he will never thirst in all eternity: the
water I give him will become in him a spring pouring out into life,
into eternal life." The living word of the Spirit is the source of life.
It is in the heart of each believer. Christ is at work in each heart as
the living word. In Christ the word bears within it the powers of
divine life. In the rebirth that takes place through the word of the
spirit, the life of eternity begins, never to be repressed again.
The hidden seed of the word is stronger than anything else. It
roots up all poison. It cuts until it separates soul and spirit. It
divides life from death. It warns against all destruction and awakens
all that the divine life demands. It judges all thoughts and feelings,
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shedding light on ourselves. It is radiant with the light of him who
is himself life. The inner word is the inner light. It saves us from
everything that darkens. It is the word that brings healing and
salvation. It transplants us to God's kingdom of light. Planted in
our innermost heart, it blossoms as the shining tree of life.
The garden of truth grows within us as the love of God, replacing
our own ego's rank growth. We ourselves are the field of the living
seed. Here, God's will becomes reality in the word of life. God's
plantation is the divine word. His seed springs from his heart of
light and fights against the seeds of darkness. As the living word
within grows and bears fruit, it tolerates no weed of other works.
The inner word, becoming deed, fills every corner of the heart. It
takes over the whole of life until everything harmful to God's
plantation is crowded out.
Only the new seed is fruitful. Everything that does not grow out
of the seed of the new planting belongs to the soil that still
contains many other seeds of the old field with all its weeds. What
happens there is a miracle – the new seed grows, though the rest of
the field remains barren. The living word, which goes out from
God, is different from the inadequate words of men and women.
The living seed of God's kingdom wants to spread over the whole
world like a mighty tree. The word of truth is God's living heart. It
is the creative God himself, the Christ who rules over all.
Through the eyes of the one who is alive and at work as the new
word, the chaos of the old, corrupt existence is revealed. As the
spirit of Jesus Christ, the living word hovers over the deep and
formless void. His glance reveals the creative might of God's love,
completely restoring all true life.
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The light of the new creation shines out from the eyes of the
living one. Jesus is God speaking. Christ is the living word of God's
heart. The new fire of his word is the love of God. An indescribable
joy in the Holy Spirit, in God, and in his new creation arises when
the word of Christ is received and accepted by his loving church.
The church lives in this joy and exultation that comes from the
creative word of the Spirit, giving glory to Christ in God.
The unmistakable sign that Jesus is alive in any heart is the working
of the creative word. The word is Christ. It shapes the whole of life
to accord with the mind and spirit of Jesus Christ. He who is truth
at work embraces all truths of the divine life. The word of truth in
all its facets represents the whole Christ. Jesus Christ is the living
content of the word. A mysterious unity binds the living power of
the inner word with the presence of Jesus Christ himself.
The word of God was already alive before the first pages of the
Bible were written. It lived in the very beginning. It revealed the
creative and loving nature of the one who spoke it. It was divine
nature before the very beginning and will remain one with God
beyond the end of all things. It became flesh and dwelt among
people in Jesus Christ.
Even now after the last page of the Bible has been written, the
word remains the living, creative word, as it was in the beginning
and shall be after the end of all things. The word, in all its creative
working, is one with the living God and his eternal love. Wherever
new life takes shape, it comes from him. As God's free gift, it takes
on shape and form. It brings the kingdom of God. It fills the church
and builds it up. It dwells in the heart of God's temple and fills all
the envoys of the city of God with spirit and life.
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The word reveals the truth in love and the love in truth. It speaks
directly from the heart of God to the heart of the believer. It speaks
in the Spirit. What it gives and what it demands has absolute
authority, for the word of Christ is spirit and truth. Its absolute
"thou shalt" is no law, bound to the letter, but an ardent longing of
the heart – in the holy "thou must" felt by all those in whom it has
kindled love. It is not a dry precept but a living urge. It is not a
sinister threat but the radiant light of inmost liberation. It is not
the letter, it is life: it is the Spirit, it is Christ, it is God.
Ulrich Stadler testifies:
The word became flesh so that this flesh might be ruled by the Holy Spirit in the word. Where that takes place, this apostolic witness is made: Now, not I live, but Christ lives in me; the world is crucified to me; I am dead to the world. Everyone who can confess Christ like this can boast of the living word. He can witness to the truth. All others who come without such a con fession, however, go on clamoring with outward noise; all those who do not live in him come with dead words without Christ.
Without the Holy Spirit and his living word, without the annihilation
of our old life, our own life, without the reality of a new life in
Christ, no one should dare to preach the word of God. In his
Confession of Faith, Peter Rideman summarizes this statement of
the truth very clearly as the confession of all the brothers:
Those who cannot wait upon God cannot expect that the gift of the Spirit will be imparted to them. Those who want to go before it is time, before they have received this grace, go in their own strength. To such this word applies: "They go in haste, yet I did not send them; they preach, yet I did not command them." Therefore their preaching is fruitless.
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Because they lack the Spirit, they do not have Christ's teaching. If
the word is to be a message and bear fruit, then it must come about
through the Holy Spirit. Christ's teaching and mission must never
be mixed with the human will but represented through the Holy
Spirit alone. The holy people of the old covenant spoke as they
were prompted by the Holy Spirit. All the more now, the members
of the church must speak and teach in the way the Holy Spirit
prompts them. They have to do what he brings about through them
and neither do nor say anything of themselves. Christ puts it in
these words: "It will not be you that speak, but my Father's Spirit
will speak through you."
In this and no other way can the word be living and bear fruit.
This truth applies to everything that is word, to everything said or
sung before the people and before God in the church of the Spirit.
Like the word that is taught and the word of mission, like prayer
and worship, so the word is alive and powerful in song only when
the songs of the church are composed through the spirit of God,
through his prompting. Songs other than those of the Spirit do not
belong in the church. Those created by the impulse of the Spirit
may be sung only through the movement of the same Spirit from
which they came.
All those who belong to the Spirit think about what is of the
Spirit. Whoever speaks, or prays, or sings in this alert Spirit considers
every word – what it leads to and how far it goes. In such members,
the Spirit himself is concerned and watchful to see that everything
serves to build up the one work that is the Spirit's cause alone. The
Holy Spirit makes the word live by bringing Christ and the clarity of
his all-embracing witness into the heart, by revealing the whole
future of his kingdom – the kingdom that encompasses all worlds.
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The spirit of truth reveals the teaching of Jesus as light and clarity
illuminating all things. Everything God wants to say and bring to
people is put in the right order within the context of the whole by
the word of the Spirit. The Spirit shows to each and every one
where they belong according to the will of God.
The word touches each one in the right place; it strikes where
God wants to strike. Without God's spirit there is no two-edged
sword of the word. The living word that is Christ cuts through the
heart. The sword of the Spirit knows how deep it cuts and what it is
doing. Unless this sword does its work of separating, knowledge
and life itself stay hopelessly confused. The spirit of Christ alone
leads to the right order in the teaching of truth and in the wisdom
of life. Without clarification through the Spirit, the word of God,
like the heart, remains sunk in confusion and darkness. If the whole
of scripture were to be put before our eyes at once, it would still
bring neither fruit nor improvement unless it were done according
to the directions of the Spirit who alone knows the truth. Only
those who demonstrate the character and order of the Spirit in all
their words as well as in all their works are its servants.
Whoever wants to be a child of the Spirit and a servant of his
truth must let the power and works of the Spirit be seen in all
words spoken and above all in life. Whoever presumes to preach
the gospel in any other way is a thief, offering stolen goods, which
have become worthless. Those who run in haste without the power
of the Spirit, before Christ has seized hold of them, are murderers.
They bring people to mortal ruin. Their word, devoid of the Spirit,
is deadly. It reeks of decay, it stuns, it kills life.
Christ's truth does not belong to the letter, which kills, but to the
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Spirit, who gives life. That is why we may never let it pass our lips
unless we have the spirit of God. But whoever receives the Spirit
must proclaim the word. This Spirit must make it known to those
who wait for the Spirit. It is the Spirit in the depths of the heart –
and only the Spirit – who grants again and again the divine power
of the living word. He comes to the aid of the sound and letter of
the spoken and written testimony. These symbols of the word are
spoken and written down; then the same living, creative power
from which they sprang in the first place gives witness to itself
again as their real, living essence.
Peter Rideman testifies clearly that the word of truth can be living,
powerful, and fruitful only through the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Therefore only those may use and witness to this holy word who
bring the life-giving spirit that belongs to it with them. To Ulrich
Stadler, too, signs of the living word are to him signs of the living
God – in the Spirit, in Jesus Christ the crucified. Everything the Holy
Spirit imparts is brought about by God through this justice of the
cross, with which his word is concerned. Those who receive the
Spirit in faith submit and give practical expression to God's justice,
on the way of the cross.
It is a question of faith. Paul says to the Romans: "Faith comes
from hearing what is preached, but hearing comes through the
word of God." The right preaching and writing are not themselves
God's word; rather, God's word precedes them and brings them into
being. It is those filled with the spirit of God and the power of the
word (outwardly invisible and inaudible) who write and speak what
the eye can read and the ear can hear. But faith and the word
itself – the word that is believed – are of the invisible God. The
outward eye does not see God or his word; the outward ear does
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not hear God himself or his voice. Before we can preach in the right
way, we must be overcome by the true word of God in the very
depths of our soul, where it is possible to see and hear what God
puts there himself. Christ alone is the word of God. A servant of
the word must have become really one with Christ through the
suffering on the cross if he wants to give an account of the word,
whose mystery is the cross of Christ.
The word preached by people is a token of the true word that
God alone can speak. God speaks this word in Christ. The eternal
word is not written, spoken, or preached by any person, today or
ever. The scripture written by the hand of the apostles and prophets
and the word spoken by the mouth of true preachers all belong to
God's well-made creation, meant to proclaim its creator. This
creation is not Christ, not itself the living word, which belongs to
the creator alone. Whoever wants to use scripture according to its
true worth has to make the sharpest distinction between the
spoken word and the inner word in the believing heart.
The direct and living word is always of first importance. It is there
whenever God himself speaks to the heart. It lives in the spirit of
Jesus Christ. The spoken and written word of the disciples comes
second. It presupposes the first and proceeds from it. First of all we
must be taught by God himself. Only when scripture and outer
word go together with the power of the Holy Spirit does the inner
word penetrate. God himself teaches his word, and he does so
through his Holy Spirit.
Christ expressly commanded his apostles to proclaim the word:
"Preach the gospel to all creatures." It is these apostles who have
witnessed most clearly to the vast difference between the inner
and the outer word. They point out that everything we hear from
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human beings, everything we see in creation or read in books, can
never be the living word of God itself. We should not confuse an
account and the retelling of it with the event of which it tells! To
be an apostle of Jesus Christ means to be an ambassador of his
kingdom, giving an account of it and spreading the news of its
written commission. Whoever believes the message receives the
same commission from Christ himself. The king reserves the right
to give his commission and equip his ambassadors.
Like the water of baptism, like bread and wine at the Lord's Supper,
the sound and the letter of the Bible are always only an image, a
token of what is really alive and important. The token points away
from itself to what it stands for. It is not the thing itself, for whose
sake it exists. The eternal inner word – the living word of God is
witnessed to by the outer and ephemeral word, coming from those
who are filled with the living word. We grasp this witness wherever
and whenever, in the Holy Spirit, we perceive the cause to which it
bears testimony. It is like an inn sign announcing with truth that
there is wine in the cellar: the sign is not the wine itself.
It is in keeping with God's order that everywhere in his first
creation, and also in his new creation, the physical precedes the
spiritual. On the other hand everything physical at the beginning
and at the end of God's way proceeds from the spiritual: God's spirit
is alive before he begins to work. However, in our world the physical
witness of writing and speaking and the faith that comes from
hearing precede the Spirit's work of inner justification or forgiveness
of sin. Only the forgiving and renewing Christ can achieve God's
work. That is how, in the Holy Spirit, he brings the living word with
God's authority to our hearts.
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In this justification, which is Christ himself, the seed of God
germinates and grows as faith that proves itself powerfully before
God and before all creation in times of storm. Through the Holy
Spirit, God himself confirms the living word of Christ in the heart
of the believer. In the very depths of soul and heart, the believer
receives the righteousness of God, justification through Christ.
Through the Spirit, it is written by the living finger of God. Thus he
lives in the obedience born of faith according to the directions
given by this living spirit, according to the whole word of God and
Jesus Christ. The heart is gripped by Christ. It is filled with his spirit.
Now what is physical and material is given shape and form according
to his demands.
Through the power of faith, the new commandment brings new
life. True life is never old. The childlike life of the Spirit cannot help
being new again and again. It is the new life of love. If the new
word lives in us, if it rules in us and leads to rebirth, if our whole
heart and mind are filled with it, as God demands of us, then the
witness of Moses and David, the prophets and the apostles will
become a living word in us: the word will be a new person in Jesus
Christ. That is why the life-bringing spirit is called the living word:
the new covenant, the New Testament.
That is what the writings of the prophets of God and the apostles
of Jesus Christ testify – everyone must find the everlasting word
within themselves if they really and truly want to seek nothing but
the kingdom of God. It helps no one to know everything written in
the scriptures. Each one has to suffer the work of justification
(forgiveness of sin) in their own person. Christ wants to bring it
into their hearts and lives as the living word. If that does not
happen, they remain dead in the same way as all worldly people are
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dead. Were they to know the whole Bible by heart, without the
living work of God in them, their confession (however loud and
high-flown) is nothing but delusion. It is not the slightest use to
them or others.
But those who in Christ renounce the whole world and give them
selves to God as living sacrifices hear the word of the Spirit in their
hearts. They believe the word and take it in. To those who are not
justified through the indwelling Christ, whose faith is not con
firmed by the living word within, who are not proven in Christ's
suffering and cannot bear the test of his cross – to such the word
will be a dead sound, a dead letter, wherever they go. Beside the
living word of him who is the truth, the ever imperfect witness of
the outward word is like a lifeless portrait beside the living person.
However loudly we try to persuade people that the confession
we preach, the witness we hear, or the print we read are God's
word, such teaching leaves them empty and dissatisfied. Left on its
own, the outward word brings no improvement. The living word of
the Spirit must join it, otherwise everything remains as it was.
Word and word belong together. The inner word is the true and
essential one. It is God's eternal and almighty power. No human
being can change it; no interpretation can alter it. In the believer, it
has the same nature and form as God, for it is God. As God himself,
it comes to believers. It can accomplish all things. It opens up what
is new. For this reason, John says about the new commandment: "It
is in him and in you!"
The word-become-flesh never teaches anything – never is anything –
but the living Christ. Therefore the church of Jesus Christ and her
mission must challenge everyone through the outer word to
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surrender to this inner teacher. People must never be allowed to
keep to the outer word, otherwise scripture, preaching, and all the
words used in them become idols. Words should never become
idols. They are all nothing but tools or images. They must, they will
disappear when the word that never passes away finds its ultimate
fulfillment. Until then they remain what they are: a picture of the
true word in created things. However, what it represents and
portrays is meant to be glorified in this picture.
In this respect, the New Testament is no different from the Old,
taken according to the letter. Both remain a token or a testimony.
It must be preached or listened to, written or read. People can use
it. But if the living master of the inner word does not bring the
power of the new covenant and pierce the heart and take
command, the Old Testament remains the old commandment, the
old law. Without the inner Christ and his new commandment –
without the love of his living heart, without the implantation of
his cross and the new life it brings – all writing and preaching are
still dead letters and empty noise.
As the sixteenth-century Anabaptist Hans Denck writes:
On my own I can understand nothing of the scriptures: the Day, the Day itself, the everlasting Light has to break in: Christ has to rise in my heart if the word is to become alive. Whoever does not stand completely with God, whoever is not penetrated through and through by God's spirit, cannot understand the scriptures. If such people honor the Bible, they cannot help making an idol of it.
The scriptures are holy, they are good. But as long as we have a
wrong attitude, we cannot use them as they are meant to be used.
The scriptures witness to Christ, but only Christ himself can give us
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his life. It is love that in Christ commanded what was to be written
and continues to command what could be written still. In the Jesus
of the gospels, in the Christ witnessed to in the whole of scripture,
the love of God is deed and reality. Through the same Christ, God's
love wants to become deed and reality afresh in us! We must wait
for love if we want the truth. Whoever will not wait for a revelation
from God within his breast but presumes himself to undertake the
work which belongs alone to the spirit of God and Jesus Christ, will
quite certainly make the mystery of God in the scriptures into a
horror and abomination in his sight.
Therefore, it is for the Holy Spirit alone to interpret the scriptures;
they came from him, for he existed first. Our own interpretations
and the false faith that results, the absolutely wrong and human
ways of understanding the scriptures, will give way to true faith
and to interpretation in the Holy Spirit only when we long for this
pure faith from God himself.
Therefore Hans Denck cries out to God: "Lord, I wish to have
faith. Help me to come to faith!"
He saw what can bring faith and the word of God into our hearts:
only the rising of Christ, the sun of righteousness. Only then will
the darkness of unbelief in our hearts be overcome. The almighty
word of God can be grasped in no other way than when it comes in
Christ directly from God above and pierces the heart. Human ways
and means can never lead us to an understanding of the holy
scriptures. For it is the scriptures that testify to the wonder of God,
which no human being can understand.
Like Ulrich Stadler and Sebastian Franck, Hans Denck points out
that often two texts in the Bible contradict each other in such a
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way that understanding either of them seems difficult. When this
is the case, he says:
Both passages must be true, for God deceives no one. This would be obvious if we paid heed to the one and only teacher, the Holy Spirit, for he reveals in our innermost hearts the truth that is completely united in itself. Whoever leaves two passages contradicting each other, unable to unite their truths in God's irrefutable truth, lacks the chief thing – the ground of truth, Christ in God.
The Bible is closed to the intellectual approach. The Master alone
has the key to this book, which contains all the treasures of wisdom.
He is the truth. Everything in this book comes from him, the word,
which from the beginning was with God and in recent times
became flesh. Denck goes on:
I testify to the future coming of Jesus Christ our Lord, and pray all of you who hear the truth of God, see it, or otherwise perceive it, that you might receive it in the truth of Christ. That means you shall receive it in the one way and in the one form taught and established by Jesus Christ. The means to all knowledge and all life is Christ, whom no one can know in truth unless he follows him with his life.
There is only one testimony to the truth. That is in Christ. It is life
surging directly into us. The word living in our hearts through
Christ should never be denied. We should earnestly and diligently
listen to what God wants to speak in us through Christ. At the same
time of course we should not absolutely reject all outer witness; we
should rather hear and test everything, making comparisons in the
reverence born of the Spirit. If we do that, our understanding of
the truth will grow purer from day to day until at last we hear God
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