The following excerpts are taken from:
Johann Arndt: True Christianity (The Classics of Western Spirituality; trans. Peter Erb; New York: Paulist Press, 1979)
Book 2,
chapter 3:
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creation (Gal.
6:15)
The new birth is a work of God the Holy Spirit, by
which man is made a child of grace and blessedness from a child of wrath and
damnation, and from a sinner a righteous man through faith, word, and
sacrament, by which our hearts, thoughts, mind, understanding, will, and
affections are made holy, renewed, and enlightened as a new creature in
and according to Jesus Christ. The new birth contains two chief aspects in itself:
justification and sanctification or renewal (Tit. 3:5).
There is a twofold birth of a Christian man: the
carnal, sinful, damnable, and accursed birth that comes from Adam, by which the
seeds of the serpent, the image of Satan, and the earthly bestial quality of
man is continued, and the spiritual, holy, blessed, gracious, new birth that
comes out of Christ, by which the seed of God and the heavenly, godly man is
perpetuated in a spiritual manner.
As a result, each Christian man has two birth lines in
himself, the fleshly line of Adam and the spiritual line of Christ, by which
comes out of grace. Just as Adam’s old birth is in us, so also must Christ’s
new birth be in us. This is the new and the old man, the old and the new birth,
the old and the new Adam, the earthly and the heavenly image, the old and the
new Jerusalem, flesh and spirit, Adam and Christ in us, the internal and
external man.
Note how we are newborn out of Christ. Just as the old
birth in a fleshly manner was continued from Adam, so the new birth in a
spiritual manner was continued from Adam, so the new birth in a spiritual
manner is continued from Christ and this occurs through the Word of God. The
Word of God is the seed of the new birth (1 Pet. 1:23 . . . ; Jas. 1:18 . . .
). This Word awakens faith and faith clines to this Word and grasps in the Word
Jesus Christ together with the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit’s power and
activity, man is newborn. The new birth occurs first through the Holy Spirit
(Jn 3:4). This is what the Lord calls “to be born of the Spirit.” Secondly, it
occurs through faith (1 John 5:1 . . .). In the third place it occurs
through the holy baptism (Jn 3:5 . . .). On this, note the following:
Out of Adam and from Adam man inherited the greatest
evil as sin, curse, wrath, death, the Devil, hell, and damnation. These are the
fruits of the old birth. Our of Christ, however, man inherited the highest good
through faith, namely, righteousness, grace, blessing, life, and eternal
blessedness. Out of Adam, man has a carnal spirit and inherited the dominion
and tyranny of the evil spirit; out of Christ, however, man inherited the Holy
Spirit with his gifts and a consolatory government. . . . Out of Adam man has
received a disobedient, haughty, loose spirit; our of Christ he must receive an
obedient, moral, kind spirit through faith. Out of Adam man inherited a
wrathful, antagonistic, vengeful, murdering spirit by his fleshly birth; out of
Christ he must inherit a loving, merciful, long-suffering spirit through faith.
Out of Adam man received a covetous, unmerciful, self-oriented, thieving
spirit; out of Christ he must receive must receive a merciful, mild, helpful
spirit through faith. Out of Adam man inherited an unchaste, unclean,
intemperate spirit; out of Christ he must receive a pure, chaste, and temperate
spirit. Out of Adam man received a lying, false, slandering spirit; out of
Christ he must receive a true, upright, consistent spirit. Out of Adam man has
received a bestial, earthly, animal spirit; out of Christ he must receive a
heavenly, divine spirit. . . . The suffering of Christ is, therefore, two
things—namely, a payment for al our sins and a renewal of man through faith and
true repentance. Both belong to man’s renewal. They are the fear and the power
of suffering of Christ, which work in us renewal and sanctification (1 Cor.
1:30), and thus the new birth arises from Christ in us. As a means to
it, holy baptism is ordered by which we are baptized in the death of Christ so
that we might die with Christ to our sins by the power of his death and
once again arise from our sins through the power of his resurrection. (pp.
37-38, 40)
Book 5,
chapter 11:
Holy baptism is a glorious affirmation of the union
with God.
1. Spiritual promise and vow occur in holy baptism. In
it, Christ and the Church become one as the two become one flesh in marriage.
This is a great mystery says Paul in Ephesians 5:32. . . .
2. By holy baptism we are implanted and engrafted into
Christ as a branch into a tree. The branch is of one being with the tree, is
united with it and grows with it, for the tre makes it living and gives
nourishment to the engrafted branch so that it grows, blossoms, and brings
forth fruit. In a like manner the Lord Christ preserves his members with his
life-giving spirit, makes them living, and strengthens them so that they
blossom and bear fruit (Jn 15:4).
The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:13 testifies that
the Christian Church or community is a body brought into being by holy baptism
. . . (1 Cor. 12:27). Because of this, Christ commanded that all should be
baptized who wished to be one body with the Christian community (Mt. 3:13).
He who wishes to be a member of Christ must become one
through the new birth.
3. Therefore, baptism is a bath of the new birth (Tit.
3:5) in which the members of the Church are purified through water in the Word
in which all spots and blemishes are rooted out so that he might present them
as one congregation holy and uncorruptible appears before God’s face, pure and
holy, cleaned and purified through the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit,
without any blemish. So perfect is this washing in the blood of Christ that the
Bridegroom says: You are most beautiful my friend (Song 1:15). Therefore,
the Bridegroom takes the soul and marries himself to the soul with an eternal
binding and attaches himself with as many firm bonds as a husband can attach
himself to his wife with. This promise is the betrothal by which the Bridegroom
betroths himself to his bride is stronger than any promise. He has so loved
that he has given himself up for the soul in death. Therefore, this betrothal,
promise, and binding occur in the names of the Father, in faith in the Son of
God, and in the power and truth of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 3:21; Hos. 2:19).
4. Baptism means to put on Christ (Gal. 3:27), to be
adorned and beautified with the Lord Christ’s own righteousness, with his
obedience and holiness. Concerning this there is much to read in Ezekiel 16:10;
Psalm 45:14; Isaiah 61:10; and throughout the Song of Songs.
Just as a husband attaches himself to his wife, so the
Lord Christ attaches himself firmly and strongly to his congregation and never
leaves it, but he loves it deeply and he holds it in his lap so that it eats
his morsel and drinks of his cup . . . (2 Sam. 13:3). O unspeakable fruit of
baptism! O unspeakable, noble, and glorious marriage!
5. What is baptism other than to be baptized in the
Name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be taken up as a children and
hairs of God and to receive this position, to be adorned and beautified to be
made holy and to be prepared as a dwelling place of the highly praised Trinity?
This is the supremacy, acclaim, worth, praise, and honor of our holy baptism. (pp.
264-65)
Book 1,
Chapter 21:
Note that faith consists in living, consoling trust
and not in empty sounds and words. In this knowledge of God, or in this faith,
we must daily grow as the children of God, so that we become ever more perfect
in it (1 Thess 4:1). Therefore, Saint Paul expressed the wish that we might
know the love of Christ that exceeds all knowledge (Eph 3:19). IN other words,
he said, “In this one thing, in the love of Christ, we have to learn throughout
our life, not that we are to see in it empty knowledge of the love of Christ,
which goes over the whole world, but that we are to discover, feel, and taste
in word and faith its sweetness, power, and life in our hearts.” Who can truly
know what it is who has not experienced it, as Hebrews 6:4-5 says: They have
tasted the heavenly gift, the good word, and the power of the coming world.
All this occurs through the Word in faith. This is the appearance of the love
of God in our heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), which is the fruit and
power of the Word of God. This is the true knowledge of God, which arises out
of experience and consists in living faith. Therefore, the Epistles to the
Hebrews calls faith a substance, a being, and an undeniable witness (Heb.
11:1). This is a piece of the inner, spiritual worship, the knowledge of God,
which consists in living faith, and faith is a spiritual living, heavenly gift,
light and power of God. (p. 112)
Books 1,
Chapter 37
We are to grow into a perfect man, that is, as a child
matures in largeness of body, so a Christian is to mature in faith and in
virtuous life until he becomes a perfect man in Christ. Whoever lacks these
things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten that he is cleaned from his
old sins (2 Pet 1:9), that is, Christ has not rooted out and taken away all
our sins with his blood and death. Therefore, we are not to continue in sins,
but the death of Christ is to be fruitful in us so that we die to our sins and
live in Christ. Otherwise, the purification of and payment for our earlier sins
is of no use. IF we die to our sins, do penance, and believe in Christ, our
earlier sins are passed away and forgotten. However, if we do not wish to die
to our sins, we keep all the opens we have committed earlier, we must repent
for them in eternal damnation and we cannot pay for them [fully] throughout
eternity. Thus, a man can be damned for the sake of wrath alone and if he gives
it up all his sins are forgiven for Jesus Christ’s sake. IF he does not give it
up all his sin are forgiven for Jesus Christ’s stake. IF he does not do this,
Peter says he is blind . . . (2 Pet. 1:9).
This is the chief reason why we should be repentant
and leave our sins. Although Christ died for our sins and paid for them all
perfectly, we will not participate in his merits and it will be of no use to us
if we do not do penance. Although a man has forgiveness for all his sins
through the merit of Christ, yet the forgiveness of sins is not promised to the
unrepentant person, but to those who leave their sins. The sins that am an does
not wish to leave and does not intend to leave are not forgiven but only those
over which a man brings true regret and sorrow. Thus it says in Matthew 11:5: The
Gospel is preached to the poor, that is, forgiveness of sins. An example:
There is am an who lived many years here in covetousness and usury as
Zacchaeus, in unchastity as Mary Magdalen, in wrath and vengeance as Esau. He
heard that he must leave these sins or the blood and death of Christ would be
of no value to him. He came then and said: “O God, I am sorry,” and he left his
sins, prayed to God for grace, and believed on Christ. Thus, all his former
sins were taken away and forgiven out of pure grace and this happened without
merit because of the holy blood and death of Christ. The person who does not
intend to leave his covetousness, wrath, usury, unchastity, and pride, and yet
wishes at the same time to have forgiveness of sins, will not get this and must
atone for all his sins in hell for he does not have true faith that purifies
and makes the heart better. Therefore, Saint Paul clearly and precisely said: “Those
who do this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5;21). Sin must be left
or one will be eternally damned and lost.
If true conversion to God is present, forgiveness of
sins and God’s grace is also present. If regret and sorrow are present, God’s
grace is present. If God’s grace is present, Christ is present, for outside of
him there is no grace.. If Christ is present, his precious merit is also
present. If his merit is present, the payment for our sins is present. If the
payment of our sins is present, righteousness is present. If righteousness is
present, peace and a joyous conscience are present, for righteousness and peace
kiss one another (Ps. 85:11). If a joyous conscience is present, the Holy
Spirit is present. If the Holy Spirit is present, joy is also present, for the
spirit is a joyous spirit. IF joy is present, eternal life is also present, for
eternal life is eternal joy.
Note that the light of eternal life is present in
those who live in Christ and in true daily repentance. This is the beginning,
and the death of Christ is the foundation. On the other hand, if repentance is
not present, forgiveness of sins is not present. If true healing, regret, and
sorrow are not present, grace is not present. IF grace is not present, Christ
is not present. IF Christ is not present, his precious merit is not present. IF
his precious merit is not present, righteousness is not present. If
righteousness is not present peace and joyous conscience are not present. If
joyous conscience is not present, consolation is not present. If consolation is
not present, the Holy Spirit is not present. If the Holy Spirit is not present,
joy of the heart and of conscience is not present. If joy is not present,
eternal life is not present, but only death, hell, domination, and eternal
darkness.
Note that the person who does not follow Christ in his
life through true repentance cannot be redeemed from the blindness of his
hearth, indeed, from the eternal darkness. (pp. 167-68)
Book 5,
Chapter 12:
In the establishment of the Last Supper, the Lord
Christ truly looked to this union and its strengthening. Why other did he state
and declare in John 6:56 that the faithful who are to remain in him and he in
the faithful are to eat his flesh and to drink his blood, since the union in
Christ occurs through faith? The foundation of wisdom and truth is made the
clearest in the passage: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in
me and I in him. Why did he not say: He who believes on me remains in
me? He did not [state this] so that we might look at he matter more
earnestly and value the greatness of the matter and the weight of the words. He
wishes to greatness of the matter and the weight of the words. He wishes to unite
himself with us through the eating of his life-giving flesh. If this union is
truly to occur in a spiritual manner through faith, he testifies clear that he,
our Savior and Sanctifier, indicated with his finger the sacramental eating,
which he instituted later in the Last Supper. He not only called himself the
living bread (Jn. 6:35, 51 that those who come to him will not hunger and those
who believe on him will not thirst, but he also expressly said that the bread
that he gives is his flesh, which was given for the life of the world, and that
such flesh is the true food and that his blood is the true drink that he said
and promised he would give. It seems that our Savior and Sanctifier was looking
toward the Last Supper, which was soon thereafter to be instituted. Therefore,
he spoke well concerning the spiritual, with the exception of the Last Supper,
the sacramental eating, indeed, the life-giving use and eating of his bloody
and blood in the Last Supper, which was to be yet established at the same time.
With this shaping of words I in no way reject the meaning of our teachers
concerning spiritual eating that is described in John 6, but I value it and
bold that the importance of the words of our Savior indicate that he was
looking toward the Last Supper. Behold, that which is given for the light of
the world touches the whole man. Who is then to say that the body of the
faithful are not to come into the fellowship of the body and blood of Christ?
The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5:30, We are members of his body form his
flesh and his bones, and he writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that the bodies of
the faithful are temples of the Holy Spirit, which dwells in them, and that
they are not spotted but are consecrated and are made holy and remain to the
Lord.
Those who hereafter are united with the Lord head
rejoice and come with deep affection and movement of heart to the table of the
Lord, continue this union with heartfelt joy, strengthen and acknowledge it
publicly. Those who are strangers of Christ and members of the devil curse and
speak insults against the Lord Christ out of hate. They are guilty of his body
and precious blood, which he poured out, and they must fittingly wait his
proper punishment and vengeance. (pp. 267-68)
