Part 9
response. When Elijah called, however, the fire of Jehovah fell from
heaven upon his altar and devoured burnt offering, wood, stone,
earth, and even water, the enemy of fire; the flash of lightning
proved that "Jehovah is God. Jahweh is God. The Lord is God!"
Fire that descends from heaven is the blazing sign in which the
God of the covenant draws near. For he is the creative spirit of the
central fire. He created heaven and earth, sun, light, glowing heat,
and all life. Consuming fire proclaims God's approach. When
Abraham, the patriarch of divine faith, asked for a sign of the
covenant to put all his doubts aside, it was God's flame of fire that
came between the pieces of the sacrifice at the right and the left,
just as people making a covenant used to stride between the parts
of the divided animal to strengthen their vow. God makes his
covenant with fire; this covenant we must follow.
When the dwelling place of the covenant – the tabernacle – was
set up in the wilderness, a shining flame and a cloud of smoke
settled over it because it was the house of God's fire. When this fire
of God would not move ahead, the people stayed at their camping
place and waited, even for months at a time. When the flame went
ahead with a cloud of smoke, however, the whole company,
pledged to the fire, made its departure. They saw the guiding light
of the fire as God's call, God's breath, and God's word. God the
sender of fire was himself their fire bearer, and it was impossible to
make any move unless he went ahead.
Again, to give the prophet Moses his commission, God appeared
to him as flames of fire in a burning bush. God's word was a burning
fire also to Jeremiah; it glowed in his heart and became a blazing
flame in his mouth. This is also said of Elijah; he burst forth with his
prophecy like a burning fire. Fire and smoke are signs from God,
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 1
breaking in like flaming words to proclaim his glory – both as the
fire of wrath and judgment and as the fire of love and unity.
The fire of God's light never appears without judgment, consum
ing what is old, withered, and dried up, what is lifeless, disunited,
and unjust – all that has fallen prey to death. We should never
forget that fire from heaven and from the abyss came in lightning
and in volcanic eruption. Bringing fear and terror, it strikes into the
cold darkness of night and unpeace. It floods the dead and with
ered landscape with a fiery sea of horror. It reveals and consumes
the darkness of evil, death, and separation. Always, the fire of judg
ment must burn the felled tree and the useless chaff.
God calls down this fire as a final judgment over the darkened
universe, just as he let it fall on impure and degenerate Sodom and
Gomorrah, on the tyrannical injustice of Egypt with its slavery, and
on the divisive and rebellious company of Korah and other subversive
Israelites in the wilderness (Num. 16:1–35). It will consume heaven
and earth. Like jewels to be tried by fire, they are destined for a sea
of flame, kindled on the day of the last judgment. It destroys all
that is disunited, separated from God. In this judgment, a grim,
dark fire will be kindled, sending out jets of torturing smoke
without the blessing of justifying flames.
The hellish fire of expulsion and banishment is the last mystery
of judgment. It is separated from all community of life, from all
the protecting and liberating power of the camp or hearth fire. It
burns with lurid flames and belongs to the nocturnal powers of
darkness. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declares that whoever
destroys the community of love and despises brothers and sisters
and denies them dignity, whoever leaves the hungry and thirsty
without food and drink or the homeless and naked without shelter
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 2
and clothes, whoever ignores the sick and imprisoned deserves this
final fire of judgment because he or she has forgotten God and
love.
Cold hearts that shut out the misery of others, that are callous to
injustice, and that resist community in their hard-heartedness call
down judgment upon themselves – they are cast out into the
consuming darkness of complete absence of community because
their whole nature has the characteristics of darkness. Jesus declares
this very severe judgment inescapable: divisive, destructive, and
disintegrating unpeace must be exposed and judged. There is no
other way of approaching this unpeace. Yet Jesus, in proclaiming
impending judgment, wants to bring salvation. His fire judges evil
by showing the way out of the dominion of darkness into the kingdom
of light. In his hand, the torch of wrath becomes the dispenser of
gathering and sustaining life. Jesus is God's fire bringer.
The early Christians preserved this memorable saying of Jesus:
"He who is near me is near the fire; but he who is far from me is far
from the kingdom." Jesus glows like fire and sun; he brings the
judgment of the spirit of fire; through the approach of his kingdom
of light, he lays the foundation of the community of fire in his
church household. With him comes God's kingdom, God's rulership;
God himself is the shining sun, putting all created suns in the shade
forever. In the light and unity of Jesus Christ, God's heart of glow
ing, blazing love has achieved the fulfillment of his eternal will.
The Son is the sun hero, who needs no created suns when he brings
in the victory of the coming age of light. His radiance is consuming
fire and life-creating light. "Just as the sun fills everything that
absorbs its strength, so the voice of God echoes through everyone –
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 3
but also as a voice of wrath. If a plant has no sap, the sun's rays burn
it; but if it does have sap, the sun's rays warm it and make it grow."* If
we are not ready for God's fire of love, for Jesus Christ's victory of
light, we succumb to the fury of the all-consuming judgment by fire.
In the burning love of Christ's approach, the blazing wrath of
judgment by fire comes to an end. Annihilation ceases in his glowing
warmth; life begins in his spirit of light. His followers know that,
unlike Elijah, they cannot intervene and call down destructive fire
on the enemies of the cause, or actually spew it out themselves.
They know how loving is the spirit whose children they are. As
when Elijah ascended, their fire, coming from God's radiant heart,
is seen in the sun chariot and the horses of fire that carry the liberated
spirits of all nations into God's unifying kingdom of light. The burning
fire of Christ's followers shows itself in their fiery mission of love,
in the glowing light of their joyful message. Their nature is that of
messengers sent out by God: through their service the light of the
heavenly world is brought to those who are to inherit the salvation
of the final kingdom.
The mission of Jesus Christ brings the Holy Spirit – the radiant,
burning spirit of perfect love. The fire of this mission, originating
in the coming world of light, consumes all that is unholy and fans
to radiant brightness all that is of God. Jesus came to kindle a sea
of fire on the earth. His whole longing is for it to burn. He is the
last of the men of old, one who has never fallen. As the bearer of
the spirit of fire, he is the only possible bearer of the light, guardian of
the embers, and kindler of the fire. The flame of this spirit offers
the last chance of becoming true people, uniting with God, and
gathering together in community.
*The German mystic Jakob Böhme, –, is the source of this and other unidentified quotes throughout this chapter.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 4
The first Adam forfeited the privileges of his holy calling – the
old nature spurned the possibility of the life of light once granted
it. But God did not want us to lose forever our destiny of light as
his images. He sent to earth the divine flame and loving fire of the
last Adam, and in him the burning light of God breaks in again. In
its white-hot glow lives the strength to awaken life, the lightand
life-bestowing energy of the new creation.
Through the blazing flame of the spirit of Jesus Christ, people
once enslaved by fear of death are set free from all bestial and
infernal powers of night. From now on they can assume lordship of
spirit over the aging powers of nature and also over body and soul,
both creatures of the first creation. Only the power of the spirit of
Jesus Christ can bring about kingly freedom. For only he who is
more powerful than any other spirit is able to bring the authority
and lordship of the father of Jesus Christ to victory over the enslaving
powers of death.
The power to gather and protect, coming from the flame of his
spirit, drives away the murderous spirits of night; it supplants the
ice age of the prevailing world-spirit that makes everything grow
cold; but not only that – its blazing protection brings the one thing
that is decisive for our world and age: the church gathered round
the altar fire of the crucified one, the communal household of God
with its missionary bands sent out into all the world.
The focal point of this new people is the new fireplace of the new
church; around it the central communal dwelling arises once more.
Around the radiant fire of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual temple is
built up as a tangible house of God: the city on the hill, whose light
streams out over all lands. Her place of worship is on fire with the
Spirit; she shines forth in the truth. The fire of the Holy Spirit brings
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 5
the church above – the glorified ones who have witnessed with
their blood – down to the band of believers gathered round Christ's
throne of fire. In this flame there is living unity between those who
have gone before and those who remain on earth. The unanimity of
the people gathered to full community in the house of God is the
unity of the church above. It dwells in perfect light, inaccessible to
the mortal life of our darkened earth.
From the city above, the fire of love descends and takes the lead
ership. Coming from the spirit of perfect unity, it leads the body of
believers in all its weakness not only to community of goods –
food, land, and everything else – and to community of work: it
leads them to pass on this flame through hospitality and fiery
mission, serving as messengers to all people on earth. From the
kingdom of light, the unity of the church becomes a message of
peace for the whole world.
For this fire-carrying service, the holy flame of the church's pure
spirit must be kept unadulterated. The church of fire can maintain
permanence only because she fosters and reveres the holy flame to
the end. Those united in faith and love in the church protect not
themselves but the flame of the spirit, the only surety of true life.
What they try to preserve is not their own life but that of the holy
fire, to which they have surrendered their own nature. Only in this
way do they gain real life, which shall become fullness of life for
everyone. Their hearth burns for the whole world without assimi
lating the unholy fires of other elements from the world. Nothing
of our own nature, no alien fire from other altars, no other spirit
may approach. The church's altar of light is holy; her works of love
are of a different nature.
Yet as soon as her radiant fire is mixed with the fuel of alien
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 6
flames, it dies out. When such a church community forgets the light
of unadulterated love and denies her first works, which were free
from everything alien to love, her lampstand is knocked over, her
light goes out. As soon as the inviolable fire of the Holy Spirit is
taken from such a community, it loses its commission and its freedom.
The dying hearth ceases to be an altar; robbed of the fire of God's
love, it is nothing but worthless ashes. Without light, the house of
this people is no longer a temple of God. Unity and community are
extinguished with the loss of fire; they have become impossible.
The church can never gather without the focal point of holy light
and fire. Only when the Holy Spirit is called down from its homeland
in the church above can such a lost people be set free again from
the dominion of slavery and lack of community.
Without the fire of the Holy Spirit, community dies. It peters
out in slavery to alien peoples where other flames burn – unholy
fires of our own works and the emotional enthusiasm of blood,
which is demonic. The land once consecrated to common use
through the divine fire of the spirit now belongs once again (with
all the work done on it and with all it produces) to self-interest or
group egoism, whereas in the church it had at long, long last
belonged to God. In the church of Christ was realized in a small,
hidden way what will appear in greatness at the end of time: "The
earth is the Lord's." It belongs to God. No inch of its land may be
claimed as the property of an individual. Where the spirit of the
last and eternal king rules, the land belongs to the light and fire of
his church and his kingdom. Where God's flame goes out, God is
robbed of his land, and it falls back to private property. The life of
community is dead.
Yet the message of the gospel is resurrection from the dead.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 7
From his resurrection on, Christ shows himself as the Son of God in
the coming-down of the Holy Spirit again and again. When the old
flame has gone out – when the living, as slaves to death, drift apart
and turn away from the hearth that once gathered them and leave
it to those of old (now dead and gone) who were faithful to their
altar – then the spirit of the risen one wants to kindle new fire to
set up community of life again with the watchword: "Light your
lamps; the Lord is truly risen!"
Inspired by the Easter message and the Pentecostal flame of the
Holy Spirit, young people – "the holy springtime" –set out to
consecrate new land to the church of the risen one. Again and
again, bands of awakened young people have set out. A hundred
years after the first full community in Jerusalem, a new outpouring
of the spirit of fire created the church again in Asia Minor. In total
community, this church awaited the Jerusalem that was to come
down from God, the image of God's city-state, the work of God
alone. With mutual hospitality, they waited for this city with its
holy order of divine justice. In the suspense of this expectation,
virgins carrying fire appeared before the gathering of believers and
wept in repentance, as if bewailing the dead, and lamented over
the life people were leading, estranged from God. As a result of the
gospel, proclaimed like this with power characteristic of the future,
a life took shape that corresponded to the coming kingdom. The
serving church was to learn how to direct the holy life in such a
way that the purifying fire of God's future brings the all-embracing
harmony of true community.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 8
More than a hundred years after that, Methodius the Martyr
sang of the fire-virgins of the expectant church:
From on high, O virgins, Rang out the voice that quickeneth the dead: Go out in haste to meet the bridegroom, Robed in white and bearing lamps, Before the morning dawns.
Awake, Before the Lord doth vanish through the door!
I consecrate myself to thee, And bearing lamps that shed forth light,
I go to meet thee, bridegroom. O Christ, thou art the prince of life. All hail, thou light that never settest!
Hear our cry! The choir of virgins calleth to thee, Thou flower of life, thou love itself, Joy, understanding, wisdom, everlasting word!
I consecrate myself to thee, And bearing lamps that shed forth light,
I go to meet thee, bridegroom.
No longer are we robbed of paradise, For thou dost give once more by thy decree
The land we lost Through guile of cunning serpent, O immortal, unshakable, blessed one!
I consecrate myself to thee, And bearing lamps that shed forth light,
I go to meet thee, bridegroom.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 7 9
Characteristic of the readiness for martyrdom in this movement of
the Spirit (and of Methodius himself, who was to die a martyr's
death in a.d. 311) is the cry of these fire-bearing virgins:
Fleeing the cunning serpent's Thousandfold flatteries, I endure the firebrand's flame And the dread onslaught of wild beasts, To await thy coming from heaven.
To expect Christ is to be ready for the fire, in the strength of the
flaming spirit. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Who
ever expects God's kingdom prepares in spirit for the fire-baptism of
martyrdom. With the spiritual flame of his fire of judgment and
light of love, Jesus brings to earth the fire of the burnt offering, a
fire of purification through utmost suffering. As the bitter Christ,
he brings the salting fire of extreme need. Making ready for the
burnt offering, his fire seasons. Defying persecution and death by
fire, the blazing torch of his mission calls for the ultimate sacrifice.
"Everyone, everyone must be salted with fire" (Mark 9:49). "You
must not be surprised at the burning fire. It burns for your purifica
tion." "The time has come for judgment to begin with the household
of God" (1 Pet. 4:17). Faith, like gold, must pass the final test by
fire. God tests hearts through need and suffering as fire tests silver.
The coming day will disclose what each one has been building
(1 Cor. 3:12–13). God's day is revealed in a fire that melts everything.
All that the nations have labored over comes into the burning fire.
God will pick out the gold and the silver in the smelting flame. His
burning is like a goldsmith's fire.
The purifying effect of fire and its power to ward off all animals
and nocturnal spirits have been obvious from time immemorial.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 0
The fire-beacons at springtime and Easter, like the fires at the
midsummer and midwinter solstices, were meant to cleanse the
land and the springs of water and set them free from all powers of
evil. The fire-baptism of the spirit of Jesus Christ, the cleansing fire
that banishes everything unclean and malevolent, brings purification
through need and suffering and, above all, through the fire of
judgment in church discipline.
In the light of the believing church – the light of the spirit –
everything destructive, everything belonging to humankind, is con
tinually sorted out by the fire and rejected. Everything that cannot
stand before the purity of the holy flame is thrown out and swept
away. The mystery of the church is Christ shining in her. The pure
fire of the Holy Spirit is proof of Christ's presence. His clear light
tolerates no defilement. The mystery of the church is the purified
expectation of God's coming glory and majesty. The light world of
the coming kingdom tolerates no darkening of the waiting church.
The pure light of God allows no darkness to approach his
lampstands.
Believers in Israel already testified: "The Lord is my light." They
called to God, "May thy countenance shine upon us!" They knew
about living in the sight of God's shining eyes. They let themselves
be guided by his light and his truth. They came to the recognition:
"In thy light do we see light." The light knows nothing but light
and refuses to let its purity be impaired. The prophet proclaims:
what the light shines upon shall become light. "Arise! Shine, for
thy light has come; the radiant glory of Jehovah has risen upon
thee." Where there is light, everything shines. Light wishes to be
light and remain light without any darkening.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 1
Yet the believers of the old covenant lacked the secret that was
entrusted to Paul: that radiance alive in the church, the radiance of
glory to come, which in its inner aspect is in fact the light of the
"Christ within you." The innermost becomes one with the outer
most and with the ultimate. The light burning on the lampstand of
the church proclaims the death of Christ, his second coming, and
the future world. It proclaims the burnt offering of the present
time as well as the universal conflagration of the last day.
The prayer of the apostle is that Christ should dwell in our hearts
through faith. Jesus Christ, the resplendent reflection of God's
radiant majesty, gives light for God's kingdom. He is the true light,
which enlightens everyone and shines into their darkness. He brings
each one to the crucial decision whether he or she loves darkness
more than light and wants to turn from darkness to light. When
this happens, a sudden and wonderful change takes place in those
about to be born anew. It shows the stark contrast: formerly, in and
of themselves, they had been "darkness"; now, in Christ, they
become "light" (Eph. 5:8). They come to the light of the world. They
see the light. They are saved from the ruling powers of darkness so
that from then on the fire of unity, as the light of peace, rules in
them. Out of this rulership of inner light, a life of light takes shape
that includes everything, transforming all previous confusion into
clarity. It excludes the works of darkness. It leads to the works of
burning light: self-consuming deeds of love sending out rays far
and wide.
Even Meister Eckhart recognized the dynamic effect of light
when he said, "In this birth, God pours himself into the soul with so
much light that in its ground and nature there is an abundance of
light. As a result, it bursts out and overflows into all energies and
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 2
into the physical." Light is clarity and effective action. As the
mystery of the "Christ within you" at work in the enlightened
heart, the inner light brings clarity about Christ and his work, about
a person's inner being, about evil the world over, and about how to
conduct life in both attitude and deed in accordance with the
source of light.
Light is clarity; it never wishes to bring gloomy uncertainty with
it. A witness to light must be clear and definite. Mechthild of
Magdeburg often spoke of the "streaming light of the divinity,"
yet even her words suffer from a certain cloudiness.* She speaks
more of the broadened stream than of the generously flowing
source. The light of the moon does not prevent us from recognizing
very clearly all its hills and mountains and the whole of the surface
turned toward us. The moon withdraws from our view only as far
as it sinks into darkness. When we study the sun, we can look into
its depths in spite of all its radiant brightness. To the eye searching
in these depths, the sun reveals its heart whenever it opens up before
us in whirling solar storms. Every light radiates from a source, the
giver of its energy. True enlightenment must reach the final goal of
grasping the Light Bearer himself. It is the nature of light to reveal
itself directly and without intermediary. The more refractions and
reflections the light has gone through, the more noticeably is it
changed and weakened when we receive it. We must dare to look
the shining sphere straight in the face. We must receive it into
ourselves as it is.
The mystic's concept of submerging into darkness and uncon
sciousness is poles apart from the apostolic enlightenment given to
Paul, who is able to recognize who God is and what his heart is. The
inner light of the spirit penetrates to the very depths of the
*Mechthild of Magdeburg, –.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 3
Godhead. It reveals to our spirit what no eye has seen and no ear
has heard – what has never entered our hearts. Only light sees light.
"We cannot grasp even the smallest spark of light unless the burning
spirit of God himself enters our soul like a fire." "There would be
nothing to catch the sun's brightness if in the depths there were
not the same nature as the sun." Only the pure light of divine
power gives us sight. "There has to be something present to catch
the light of the sun. It is the star in your eyes." Christ, the morning
star of our hearts, sees within us the sun of the future. We ourselves
do not have the power of vision. The inner light can see deep into
eternity only because it is more than reason, more than human ability,
more even than the deepest depths of the human conscience. It is
in very truth the spirit of the Son of Man in the believer, the spirit
far superior to our reasoning, who recognizes the spirit of God.
He alone sees. He is the light in the eye, the seeing pupil of the
eye. He proclaimed himself as the light that illuminates. The light
kindles life in the one who sees. To the inner eye, Jesus Christ shines
as the ultimate reality of God's new creation. As God's creative,
illuminating clarity – as ultimate decisiveness – he penetrates into
the perceptive heart. As the shining tree of life and knowledge, he
spreads his roots into the depths and his branches afar. The root is
the spirit of joy that leaps up when life is kindled. "When the soul
is kindled by the Holy Spirit, it triumphs in the body, and a great
fire of new life flares up in the soul."
The origin of this illuminating light is the pure clarity of its
source, of its bearer. Recognizing it always depends on the incon
ceivable contrast between this light and the darkness of human life.
The meaning of darkness can be detected only in the light. Darkness is
shown up only when it is dispelled by light, and without a dispelling of
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 4
darkness there is no knowledge of the source of light. When light is
accepted, it brings liberation and redemption. Forgiveness is the
removal of the darkening powers of night. When the land is flooded
with radiant brightness, the landscape of human life is purified
from the works and creatures of darkness. Then land and life enter
into the community of light. Darkness is banned. Creation,
redeemed, shines resplendent in the worship of God's holy mountain,
pouring out light because the heart of God's light dwells there.
Through the light of this holy mountain, everything that used to
live in darkness will be led back into the bright community of God's
heart.
We experience the Lord through the light that streams out from
him. Whoever sees him in the light, sees him as he is. In the coming
world of light, all works, all life, will be transformed by the inner
vision into his nature – light. "Then the sun and the stars will pass
away; for the heart will shine as the light of God and fill everything.
When God's heart triumphs, everything will rejoice." Until this
transformation takes place, the believing church of today must be
led onward step by step from her present imperfect recognition to
the ultimate vision. She must be led more and more deeply into the
mystery of God's heart. In Jesus she must learn how to distinguish
between the footsteps of God, which show his judgment making
the history of nations, and the inmost heart of God.
The early Anabaptists of Reformation Europe distinguished
between the ultimate depths of light in God's heart and the mighty
consequences of his flaming wrath. Along with their leader Peter
Rideman, a Silesian shoemaker, they gave clear testimony in this
regard, particularly in their so-called "articles" and confessions of
faith. There they maintained that whereas the rod of his wrath
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 5
must punish profligate nations still today, God's wrath has long
come to an end in Christ. In Christ has begun the quite other kingdom
of blessings, the quite other rule of love and kindness. "Wherever
blessing comes, or has already come, wrath comes to an end."*
Whoever is unaware of this difference will not be able to come
to an understanding of God's light. In Christ alone is the whole
blessing of God's heart revealed. Therefore what is still ordained
under the curse of wrath, under the mercilessness of fierce judg
ment, has no place whatsoever in Christ. And vice versa: the child
of blessing and love can never be the servant of wrath and
vengeance. What the Father has ordained in Christ will remain in
Christ and will never be changed. It is love, peace, unity, and
community. What God has appointed outside his Christ, however, is
death, wrath, mercilessness, curse, and vengeance – all this cannot
continue, as the prophet Hosea declared so sternly about the power
of governmental authority: "I have given you a king in my anger,
and I have taken him away again in my wrath."
Christ stands in opposition to every worldly ruler. His
kingdom is not of this world. Therefore he said: "The princes and
powers of this world lord it over the people, but you should not." A
Christian, therefore, is not a ruler, and a ruler is not a Christian. A
ruler must exercise judgment with the sword. In the church of
Christ there is an end of war and violence, lawsuits and legal ac
tion. Christ does not repay evil with evil. His followers show his
nature in all their doings. They act as he did: they do not resist evil,
and they give their back to the smiters and their cheek to those
that pluck off the hair. Their task is to reveal the kingdom of love.
Legal authorities are appointed to shed blood in judgment; the
*See Peter Rideman, Rechenschaft, ().
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 6
church of Christ, however, has the task of preserving life and soul.
The law courts of the state must bring evil to account; the church
of Jesus Christ must repay evil with good. The authorities that sit in
judgment must hate and persecute the enemies of their order; the
church of Christ must love them.
With the instrument of governmental authority, God's wrath
punishes the wicked. Through the authorities, he compels nations
that are estranged from him to protect themselves from the worst
harm so that the whole land does not become guilty of bloodshed,
the whole earth does not have to be destroyed. Christ gives his
church a completely different task. She must confront the forcible
execution of justice in the world state with the peace of unity and
the joy of love, with brotherly justice. She builds up and maintains
her unity with no other tools than those of love and the spirit. In
the faith of the church, death and the law come to an end. The
freedom of the kingdom of God begins in the church.
Those who are grafted into Christ demonstrate the mind and the
spirit of Christ as unchangeable love. They do what is good and do
not need to fear the forcible execution of punishment over evil,
nor do they need to exercise it. Punishment, which belongs to
power and judgment, is quite alien to Christ and his church, like all
the evil that calls for this punishment. In Christ, the inmost heart
of God's love frees itself from the historically necessary wrath and
world judgment, in which he has to assert the holiness of his will
through the force of the law.
A hundred years after this had been put into words by
Peter Rideman, Jakob Böhme tried to grasp the depths of this
far-reaching recognition. He saw it as the difference between God's
fire of wrath and his heart of light: God is love and wrath, light and
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 7
fire, yet he calls himself God according to the light of his love
alone, not according to his wrath. Whatever does not belong to his
love belongs to his wrath. Yet God is not called God according to
his whole nature but according to the light; he dwells in himself
with light alone.
Those who live among the thorns of God's wrath live outward
lives. The love of God, as light, dwells in itself. The darkness does
not comprehend it, nor does it know anything about it. The eternal
rulership of God according to love and wrath, light and fire, is to
be revealed in the lives that stand in this conflict. In the darkness,
God is a God of wrath and a devouring fire: darkness calls for fire.
If it were possible for darkness to be lit from the light directly, the
light would have no root; if it were not possible to produce fire,
there would be no light either. For this reason, the kingdom of fury
has to be; wrath is the cause of the fire world as judgment over dark
ness. It lives in darkness. It is not called God but the wrath of God.
The devil kindled the wrath of God. He wanted to have his own
will; he wanted to be his own god in order to rule as he wished in
and over everyone with the mighty power of fire. The nature of his
fire is choleric; it produces daring boldness, furious wrath, and
mounting pride; it always wants to rule, which is typical of power.
Severity, harshness, fear, torment, and unpeace are part of it. This
fire-will brings fear. Without this fear, fire would not exist. It was
in God's wrath that the devil forfeited love. In the fire-will, the
devil and God meet face to face. The powers of wrath, of judgment,
and of the sword are pagan. They remain far from the heart of God.
They can never be Christian. And yet they have been appointed by God,
for God's holy majesty would not exist if his wrath did not exist. It
salts and seasons the darkness so that it is transformed into fire.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 8
As war and violence, this wrath burning between God and the
devil consumes all that is godless. Every soldier is a rod of God's
wrath. God's judgment in its fury punishes through him. The
soldier belongs to the order of fury through which God's wrath sets
up and tears down countries and kingdoms. Tinder calls for fire.
God's wrath has always existed, just as fire lies hidden in wood. As
soon as the wood dried out – as soon as the people turned from
God – the burning had to begin.
Yet God wanted a supreme light of love to be born out of the
consuming blaze of murderous fire. That other majesty of God –
the utter sublimity of his heart – was to be revealed in this light.
The somber fire of wrath is not God but a hellish fire. Yet if there
were no fire, no light would be given. God's fire of wrath becomes
the root of his compassionate love, that is, of the light in his heart.
In the critical times of his judgment, his love shall become manifest. In
the fullness of God's time, the last judgment will become the
wedding feast of his kingdom of love. The fire is overpowered by
the light. Out of the burning torment, a sublime kingdom of joy
shall arise. As soon as a burning fire blazes up, light shines out. The
light takes on all the vital characteristics of fire: it awakens life, it
draws people together so that they find each other, and it leads to
the God-given community of the circle, the encampment, and the
consecrated house.
In short, it is a question of deciding between love in light and
blazing wrath in darkness. In light, God is a merciful and loving
God; only in the strength of light is he called God. The light world,
which is God himself, has no craving for destruction. There is no
spark in God's heart that could desire evil, even as punishment! In
God a great joy of love surges out of the wellspring of his heart.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 8 9
Then the fight arises. God's heart wants us because we are meant
to be God's image and likeness; the kingdom of wrath wants us too
because we now belong to the very nature of darkness.
Souls once left the paradise of love for the fiery life of wrath. So
these souls died to God's light, perishing in selfhood, in possessions.
They died to God and lived in utter fear of his stern wrath. Yet the
ray of light came once more to the soul and said:
Acquire the love of God in your heart so that out of the heart of God you will be born again in the center of your life. The light of his heart shall send light into your life! You shall become one with him! You had willfully broken away from my love and fallen into the fiery clutches of wrath. Now I will shed my rays of love with bright light into your fear-ridden life of fire. As love, I will transform the fire of your fear into the open flame of my joy. As the essence of light, I will impart my rays of love into your life and work, renewing them with light.
So from the heart of God the life of light, full of joy, shines with
power into all powers and sets them on fire for the work of love.
The will is gathered to give birth to light. Lit by God's light, the
inner vision breaks swiftly through, keen as a flash of lightning; it
soars up from the heart and catches fire in the will to love; it is no
longer furious lightning but a power of great joy.
Christ is this joy. What has arisen in the enlightened heart is the
joyous light of the Son of God as the fire of love. From now on, the
life that gives outward expression to such a heart should reveal the
inmost spirit of the light world in all it does; the essence of this
light is the kingdom of God. From the most inward and tender love
of Christ arises the kingdom of joy.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 0
True faith in the kingdom of God is the power, spirit, and life of
a shining light, welling up from the heart of God. It is the supreme
power of God, real and living, the flaming love that shines out of
his heart. The work is accomplished by this love. The essential part
of faith, burning in the believing Christian as strength that also
loves, is Christ himself, who is the life and light of the renewed
soul. The love of the church is faith in the heart of God, who pours
his sea of light into all lands.
Christ is the joyful urge to love, coming from a flood of light that
gains dominion over wrath's urge for fire. After the soul forfeited
light, God spoke the name "Jesus." In him, God's wrath is extin
guished. Christ is the heart of God, triumphing over all the conse
quences of God's wrath and hastening to all lands met by it. Christ
sends his light into all the world; it rises over all nations, shining on
them without partiality. Even to the most godless, gripped in
consuming fire by the violent wrath of God, the gates of birth into
light stand open.
Through the death of Christ, Christians die to wrath and its fierce
decrees: they die with Christ to all the elements of wrath. In
Christ's spirit, in the love of God's heart, those who live in that
other justice of loving forbearance have been newborn. Where
once wrath burned in darkness, love is burning now, radiating from
the shining heart of God. The fire of wrath and the light of love are
as alien as day and night. Neither understands the other; neither
sees the other.
Yet from the very beginning, every human being has both within.
It is just as if the right hand wants to enter into the majesty of
light, and the left hand wants to stay in its original state – fire.
Whichever of these two attributes is being awakened burns in
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 1
people: the soul can burn with the light of love or with the fire of
wrath. If it surrenders to wrath, wrath spreads like a cancer and
subjects everything to the laws it makes, an avenging fury. But if it
surrenders to the heart in God, it learns that the spirit of Jesus
Christ dwelling there knows no wrath, wages no war, and administers
no violent punishment – he only loves and gives.
The wisdom of God's heart has no desire for death or war. The
children of God's heart may not kill or go to war. They need no
murderous weapons. No one who is a Christian can go to war. Who
ever does, does it as a heathen within the order of wrath, never as
a Christian within the order of love. Countries and cities are laid
waste in war only where the relentless cycle of guilt and vengeance,
of offense and retaliation, strangles and murders and kills. In
Christ, the vicious circle of cause and effect is abolished. Mars
grows pale and vanishes as soon as the sun rises. Lightning storms
retreat before a sunlit sky. The heart of God disperses the clouds of
his wrath: even in the midst of judgment, his heart triumphs over
his wrath. Led by this heart, the church of Jesus Christ passes
through history's fires of wrath without being in contact with
them. She is dead to the world of wrath's elements; they can do
nothing to harm her; she stands quite apart from them. Because
they are all rooted in darkness, the church of light keeps her back
turned on all their characteristics.
The church has died to greed for property (the ultimate root of
all evil) and the pride and respect that go with it. She has left
behind her all fear and insincerity, unfaithfulness and covetousness,
those ugly, monstrous offsprings of the fires of hell. She abomi
nates the heart and will of mammon who rules the world, the great
Antigod who uses war and strife to build up societies and classes,
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 2
kingdoms and countries, in order to shatter them again. The church
discerns the spirits. She knows what she is waiting for, what she
loves, and what she believes in. She knows what she has left behind
and can never take up again. The church stands in the dawn of the
coming day. Therefore it cannot take part in the works of nocturnal
darkness that rule the world, nor can it take part in the blazing
wrath of fiery judgment on the world of today. It is in Christ that it
lives, and it dwells in God's heart. It does the work of love; it
believes in and waits for the reign of light. Its members are weak,
but the spirit that dwells in it is the shining fire of God's heart.
True, the plant cannot say, "I am the sun" because the sun is at work
in it. And quite certainly, the believing member of the church c
annot say "I am Christ," because Christ dwells within and is at work
there. But the believing church shall be transformed into the image
of his radiant beauty insofar as it looks with unveiled face upon his
being. The vision given to faith, like the transformation to come, is
an enlightenment that springs from the heart of God. Christ, the
future lord of the eternal light world, reveals himself in his
wonderful light as the spirit of his church.
Christ dwells at one and the same time in the shining throne of
God's heart and in the spirit-filled body of his church. God himself,
who let light shine out of darkness in his son, has "caused a bright
light to shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
God's glory as we see it in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). In
the quickening spirit of his church, we can see his bright radiance
face to face. The image of his love is bound to grow dim where
dogmas, however good, are merely learned by heart; where the
Bible is read only literally; and where all obedience remains outward
obedience only. As the inner eye of the community of believers
becomes brighter and livelier, it becomes more and more open to
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 3
enlightenment in the uniting spirit of Jesus Christ and increasingly
able to grasp the exuberant greatness of his radiant power. For the
most faithful in Ephesus, Paul prays for the enlightened eyes of
understanding. Only those who have Jesus himself in their hearts
as an illuminating light can gain strength and clarity from God,
who reveals the infinite life and power of light in the church of
Jesus Christ.
The ground of inner enlightenment is where the Lord of light
himself is revealed to us. It is inextricably bound up with growing
clarity about the true way, which leads in the full light of truth to
God's final objective. "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light" (Eph. 5:14). This rousing call of the
spirit goes with an urgent challenge to lead the life given only to
children of light. It is a matter of the new life and growth of the
church, which must itself be described "as a light" for it lives in
unity with Christ: "You are the light of the world, for the Christ of
the final kingdom is your lord." He is the light of the whole world
here and now in his church.
This light tolerates no community with the barren works of
darkness. Both in the innermost recesses of the heart and in the
outer aspects of life, it exposes everything that is secret or shameful
or that has a bad effect. "Everything will be visible when it is
censured by light." The action of light discloses and transforms
everything. "For everything that becomes visible is light." Light is
clarity. Therefore what believers of old experienced is renewed in
the light of Jesus Christ: "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,
our secret sins in the light of thy countenance." Light unlocks the
doors of night. It encourages honest open-mindedness, the only
state in which we can become convicted of sin. God brings about
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 4
an open-heartedness that leads to absolute decisiveness: in order
to be renewed in the light of Jesus Christ for the life of his church,
we have to give room to light, do away with all that is dark as some
thing to be hated, and recognize and leave behind the depressing
feelings of guilt that shackle us.
Light does not work like dynamite, yet it is stronger. The weapons
of light fight without any murderous force against the works of
darkness. Love does no evil to its neighbor. And nevertheless at the
eleventh hour before the coming day, it puts an end to the waxing
powers of night and their violent works. Anyone who wants to put
a dark cover over hostile actions can pile up as many layers of dark,
hateful thoughts and deeds as possible: we know that there are
rays that in all quietness penetrate even the thickest walls of the
strongest fortresses. When the working of the spirit's light is
perfect, it has latent in it a power to remove and overcome,
stronger than all the forces of destruction.
One of the most remarkable discoveries is that of the impetus of
light. Every perpendicular ray of light exercises a pressure that is
quiet, gentle, and firm, in keeping with the nature of light. This is
how astronomers explain why the tail of a comet turns away from
the sun. When the dark and distant comet nears the sun, clouds
begin to form out of its head, through the action of solar heat. The
sun's radiation pressure blows these vapors away from the head,
producing the long tail. The light of the sun repels the expanding
vapor. It destroys nothing. But when another body approaches, the
light quietly and almost imperceptibly drives anything it cannot
tolerate in its vicinity out of the center of that body. Unless we
turn to the sun of the universe, we remain in the dark. "If the light
that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness then?" Unless
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 5
we hasten with open eyes toward the divine light, we remain blind.
Just as those who are blind from birth can never find a substitute
for their eyesight through their intellect, so we can never be led to
inner light through our powers of reasoning. Only when the power
of the sun opens our inner eye, can we see the light that shines
down upon us from the distant presence of God.
Faith is a light from God that surpasses all human understanding.
The light of faith is God himself drawing near and intervening.
Those in the sun have no lack of light. Everything becomes clear
and bright as soon as the inner eye is enlightened and sound,
focused on the Ruler of the central fire. It is given to the eye of
faith to see and understand the perfect light. If the eye were not in
its nature like the sun, it could never see the sun. "Therefore see to
it that the light that is in you is not darkened. When your body has
no single particle of darkness left in it, it will be completely light,
as if you were illuminated by a bright flash of lightning."
God's enlightenment draws near with elemental force. Unforget
table are those moments in which a bright flash of lightning lays
bare the deep-black mantle of night. It exposes every hiding place,
bringing to light all the vermin of darkness – those predators of the
night that would flee from every ray of light. "He who does evil
hates the light. He does not want to come to the light lest his works
be punished." Yet greater than lightning at night is the sight of the
rising sun, especially where the contrast between night and day is
not veiled by our northern twilight. Life awakens with the light.
Birds of daylight sing, flowers of the light open, and the whole land
is radiant with the glory of the morning. This is what happens when
the morning star heralds the sunrise of life. Whoever longs for light
is open to it. Whoever loves light hastens toward it. "Those who
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 6
live by the truth come to the light so that their works may be
clearly seen, for they have been done in God."
The light is the exposer, the liberator, the leader. The inner light
begins to lead the whole of life where a life in God begins, where
the inner and outer life go to meet Christ's shining countenance,
where his power dispels darkness. The believing church finds the
way that leads to the kingdom of light. It lies clearly in front of her.
"If a man walks in the daytime, he does not stumble, for he sees the
light that lights the world. If a man walks at night, however, he
stumbles because he has no light." The way has to be well lit if we
are to find it. The light wishes to bring our entire way of life into
one single, very clearly defined direction. It wishes to lead our whole
life on the one way that is the only way into the kingdom of God.
Words of eternal truth testify to this influence on the direction
our life and work takes: we must work while it is day. No one can
work in dark night. Therefore Jesus says:
As long as I am in the world, I am the daylight: I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness; he will have the light of life. Walk while you have the light; the darkness shall not overtake you! He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. Trust in the light while you have it. You shall be children of light (John 12:35–36).
Even the people of the old covenant knew that "the path of the
righteous is like the glorious light of morning that grows brighter
and brighter until it is broad daylight. The way of the lawless is like
darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble and fall." To
be divinely led by this guiding light is to be protected from the
deceptive bypaths and will-o'-the-wisps of night. From his
wellspring of light, God has given clear vision to steer the right
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 7
course. With this vision the way cannot be missed. For those nights
when the sky is overcast, a bright lantern is put into the traveler's
hand: the word of God, which lights the dark way ahead until the
day dawns and the morning star rises.
Jesus reveals himself as the guiding light to the people of the
new covenant. He is the fulfillment of the words of old: "The
commandments of the Lord shine clear and give light to the eyes."
"Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light on my path." Guidance
through the inner light of the spirit of Jesus Christ is accomplished
through the lamp of the word. Nevertheless his truth bears a new
criterion, decisive for this present age, one that proves the purity
and unity of the guiding light: the unanimity of the church
throughout all ages. In this church, God lets his thoughts of light
be known without deflection. The church is the city of light: its
foundation is community through the mystery shining in her.
In Reformation times, the body that was once the church of old
set up the lamp of her unifying light again in the midst of severe
persecution. Peter Rideman writes:
The church of Christ is the foundation and bedrock of truth. It is a lantern, a light-star, and a lamp of righteousness. In it, the light of grace is brought to the whole world and held aloft so that the world's darkness, unbelief, and blindness may be made light and clear through it; also so that people may learn to see and know the way of life. For this reason, the church of Christ is first of all illuminated through and through by Christ, as a lantern is com pletely illuminated by the light that shines through it; so that, secondly, the light may shine through her to others.
Just as Christ's lantern has become bright, clear, and illumi nated with the light of divine knowledge, this brightness and radiance reaches out into the distance to shine for others still
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 8
walking in darkness, as Christ himself has commanded: "You must shed light among your fellows, so that when they see the good you do, they may give praise to your Father in heaven." Yet this can never happen except through the power of the spirit of Christ working in us. Natural light, in accordance with its nature, sends out rays to give light; in the same way, divine light sends out divine rays wherever this light is kindled, and its nature is true and divine righteousness, holiness, and truth. It shines out from the light-star or lamp – that is, from the church of Christ –
to give light to all more clearly and brightly than the sun.*
This task was given to the apostle Paul, as he himself testified: to
bring light to all people regarding the mystery of the church, which
is inseparably bound up with the mystery of the coming Christ. The
inner light of Jesus Christ reveals the oneness between his nature
and the unity of the church with its future destiny. Enlightenment
through the Holy Spirit has the unmistakable characteristic of
leading to complete unanimity, to undisturbed harmony and
agreement between all the members of the church of light.
The light of God's heart reveals the mystery of the church: it is
the radiant body of Jesus Christ. This body cannot be dark – its eye
is clear and bright. Focused on the center of its field of vision, its
eye receives the light. Christ himself in all his radiance, and
nothing else, dwells in this body. He is the faith of the church. His
future is what she awaits. She is filled here and now with the
future rays of his majesty. The hope of her life is to extol his glory.
Those who confess Christ, like those who receive their mission,
can experience rebirth only through the living church of love and
light. The people of light are gathered by the torch of the Master in
order that he may establish his sun-kingdom with them. Only the
*Peter Rideman, Rechenschaft, ().
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 2 9 9
lamps of the church can show the light of the future to earth's
darkness. The spirit of Jesus Christ, as the light that from now on
determines everything, rests on these seven lamps. From these
lamps goes out the transforming power of God's approaching
future.
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 3 0 0
The Holy Spirit
The gift of inwardness is a two-edged sword. Some people are
serious about wanting to fathom not only God and his truth, but
just as much Satan and his abyss: we can see this from literature.
Which do you want – God or the devil? A decision has to be made.
God is good, and he is spirit. The realm of the evil spirit is the de
monic. Do you want to submerge yourself into both at the same
time? You can recognize a spiritual being only by becoming one
with it: there is no other way of comprehending spirit than by uniting
with its essence, its innermost nature. Here you are, a living person:
which spirit do you want to unite with? After long years of indecision
on this question, Augustine made up his mind: "God and my soul
are what I want to understand. Nothing else? No, nothing else!"
The human soul is dominated by flesh and blood. With one hand
it grasps at life, with the other it grasps at death. As Friedrich
Nietzsche said, "Woe to those who have no ground under their
feet! Woe to those who have no support! This is the danger I slip
into: my vision soars up to the heights while my hand wants to keep
hold of the depths and find support there." We have started out on
a dangerous journey because the life-giving spirit of the heights
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 3 0 1
and the life-hating spirits of the abyss are fighting a hard battle
over us. On this journey, human nature in its own strength is incapable
of lifting itself above the level of flesh and blood. Our soul may
turn its gaze inward as much as it likes; our head may be turned by
great visions, plans, or ideals, but without the spirit of God we will
remain on the all-too-human lowlands of limited mortal sight.
Because our spirit is so closely bound up with our psychophysical
makeup, it comes under the same judgment as our body: "What is
born of the flesh is flesh." Flesh is bound to decay. The horrors of
our time have shown what harvest is reaped when the seed of life
is cast upon the soil of unchanged human nature. Only the harvest
blown upon by the wind of the life-giving spirit will be good. Without
the Holy Spirit, human nature remains dull and feeble. Without the
wind of his spirit, the tilled field of human nature remains barren.
Cut off from the fountainhead and drying up in its independence,
the life of human nature is doomed to destruction. Our nature is
debased – we ought to know how degenerate and desecrated it is.
Our mortal nature longs for a superior power to free enslaved
humankind from all powers hostile to life. Only the spirit of perfect
life has this power to overcome death. Without this divine spirit
who overcame all deadening and evil spirits, we are lost. God and
his spirit alone are life. The spirit of the Son redeems from bondage
and fear of death; only he can give full and abiding life. Those of us
who are unable to discriminate between him and the voice of the
blood condemn ourselves to remain sensual; enslaved beings, we
remain in bondage to our corrupting nature and its murderous
powers.
Those who lay decisive value on the sensual impulses of their
blood are described by Paul as carnal, even if they are able to probe
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 3 0 2
the depths of inwardness or rise to the loftiest ideals of nation or
humanity. The soul by itself, like the blood, is always limited to the
mortal life of the individual and the nation, conditioned by the
body and subject to demons. And yet the soul knows that deep
down it has a disposition created for higher and purer spheres. The
conscience continually bears witness:
A human being! Yes, but only he is worthy of the name Who lifts his spirits high above the human plane.
Without Jesus Christ, we can never be more than living souls. This
enfeebled life leads of its own accord toward death. Nations who
let themselves be led by nothing but their racial community fall
under the law of hate, which paves the way for death and for
belonging to the kingdom of death. From humankind in general –
as such – no help is to be expected. Only the one Son of Man is a
life-giving spirit. His life is everlasting and overcomes all death. His
strength is the boundless power of unchangeable love; it releases
an inextinguishable vitality such as the immortal Spirit alone can
give. It leads mortals to eternal life. The spirit of Jesus Christ is
stronger than all other spirits; he alone unites the believing heart
with the living center of all creative life.
In this center, the Spirit creates the sublime unity of all freed
spirits, a unity that can be achieved neither by nations nor by
humankind. The Holy Spirit is this unity in Christ –he brings about a
united life in God. He alone guarantees one people and one
kingdom – that is, God's people and God's kingdom – as an eternal
inheritance. Only the spirit of the great Liberator can give that
eternal reality to our spirit in which the children of all peoples are
children of the one God. God's people come into being in the Holy
I N N E R L A N D : A G U I D E I N T O T H E H E A R T O F T H E G O S P E L 3 0 3
Spirit. Only in him does true humankind come into existence. In the
power of this life-giving Spirit, God's firstborn was shown to be his