The other message.
What great worthiness and blessedness God has given to us through His holy incarnation, and how we are to become one with him.
Eece rex tuus venit tibi, justus et salvator. (Latin from Zechariah 9:9)
Behold, your King is coming; He will justify you and is your savior.
This is a voice of joy and blessedness amongst the houses of sinners. Rejoice, all you mountains and forests in the face of the Lord, for He has come. How thankful mankind should be that the Lord had such great mercy on us poor, little earthworms and sinful creatures. Who has such a stony heart that his soul does not melt and dissolve because of love? He hears about or meditates upon the fact that the highest God took upon Himself our mortal nature in the holy body of his worthy mother, that our Lord became our servant; the Son of God became our groom; the chief judge our brother. He has given us Himself with all his riches and grace, for Jesus the Savior of the world does not come without healing, nor does Christ come without sacred salve, nor does the Son of God come without glory. Now, you should know that all the riches, that the Lord has given us through His holy incarnation, cannot be grasped by either the understanding of the angels or of mankind. Therefore, I am only going to speak a little and not too much about this.
Our beloved Lord has given us his body as a meal for our spirit through the unification of his holy body and soul with his godly nature. No creature (whether spiritual or physical) can eat this meal except for God alone. The creature may taste but not feast (he himself spoke of this: my body is truly a feast). Also, the soul and the body of our Lord are preserved so that they are not confused with other particular human persons (as other humans are, as each human is separated from the others). For the person of the Son comprehends the body and soul of our Lord, even though it may be in all the world and in all things. Therefore, we have the advantage that nothing exists that can be unique to us except for God. For, if God is in us, then nothing is in him of which we will not be receptive or participatory. For, there is not only an essential union but also an actual one so that the primary forces and the understanding behold and the will needs the godly nature on which all blessedness is dependent. From this, we receive that we are receptive to the blessedness in the same way that he is blessed. Also, we receive here a foretaste of the eternal blessedness we shall have. As well, all the lowest forces and physical senses of our Lord Jesus Christ were also united with the Godhead so that we can say: God saw, God heard, God suffered. Therefore, we have the advantage that because of his unification, all of our works may become godly. Furthermore, because human nature is unified with the godly personhood and with the angels, all mankind has fellowship with him. More than some creatures, because they are his members and are influenced by him who is their head. This is the advantage that we have, that we are all his members, and, therefore, have fellowship with each other. All possessions which belong to our dear wife and all saints are also my own, as they are theirs. What has gone up towards heaven since then is mine, and what is mine is also their own, as it is mine through the deep and sweet unification in Christ. We thank him cheaply with our own strength and fortunes; we should praise and love him at all times and forever. Out of this sweet unification, it is possible for us to see and know the Father through and with the Son. For the Son speaks: This is eternal life that they know you, God, and the one whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. No one knows the Father except the Son. Therefore, if a man shall know God (upon which his eternal blessedness rests), then he must be with Christ, God’s own son. If you want to be blessed, you must be a son, united with Christ Jesus.
Not many sons! You may well and should distinguish between those according to their physical birth, but in the eternal birth, one cannot be more than a son. For in God nothing is of natural origins; therefore, nothing is a natural product of the Son. Therefore, if you would be a son with Christ, then you must be an eternal product of the eternal words.
How then shall a man become an eternal son of the Father? Note this well: as the eternal Word, our Lord God, took on human nature, he did not do so according to man, but he took on himself a free, undivided human nature, which is a picture of it. The adoption of human nature from the Word is actually a picture of human nature. For as God became man, so also man has become God by grace. Thus, human nature is pictured in what it has become, in the divine picture, which is a picture of the Father. If you now desire to be a son, then you must separate, leave, and dismiss all those things that make a difference in you. For the man is a chance of nature. Therefore, give up and lose all those things that were brought to you by chance, and take for yourself the free, undivided, human nature. When the son of the eternal God has taken on the same nature (as you have taken), you will also become a son of the eternal Father with Christ through the adoption of the eternal Word. As a result, you will be in the same nature that God has adopted. Therefore, guard yourself that you do not take on the nature of this man or that, but take on the undivided human nature in freedom. Also, if you desire to be a son, separate yourself from all empty things, for emptiness makes a difference.
Notice as well that you are not the one who makes a difference between you and another person, nor is it that or the other person who makes that difference. Therefore, if you want to be the difference, then separate yourself from nothing. For there is a strength within the soul which is separated from nothing and has nothing in common with other things. For in this strength is nothing but God alone who shines merely in this strength. The person who is thus a son takes motion and impact and everything that he takes in their essence and nobility. For in the manner in which the son of the Father is a son for all eternity, he is such from the Father. What he has, he has in him, for he is one with the Father in essence and nature, for he has all essence in himself. And as he spoke: Father, as you and I are one, thus I desire that they will be one. As the son is one with the Father, you be one with him, and you will have all these things through grace that the Father has. This you have from God; do not doubt it. God is yours, and everything that you thus take that is yours. All your works that you do not take in this godly essence are all in vain before God.
These are the works to which you are being moved through foreign influences by which God is not meant, for they do not come from life. They are dead, for only those things are alive that have movement from their origin. Therefore, if your works are to be alive, then they must happen from their own source, in and through God. They must not come from foreign influences outside of God.
Now notice! If you love righteousness since it is righteousness that is in you or over you, then you do not love righteousness as it is in yourself and as it is simply. Otherwise, you are taking only part of righteousness. If God himself is righteousness, then take. However, you still do not love God if He is simply righteousness.
Therefore, you should take righteousness as it is in itself. Then, you will take righteousness as it is of God. You will then always work in righteousness, and it will work through you. You should also take on yourself goodness, wisdom, love, and those characteristics attributed to God. These should characterize your life in contrast to other opinions. Then you will know a true unity with the Son and the Father. May God help us to this simplicity! Amen.
- translated from German to English by Laura Glassel
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