to do and suffer all things; one cause of so many religious exercises, which are many thousand times more difficult than faith, but which are all devised only in order that they might take the place of faith. Accordingly, the art of faith is a narrow way and narrow gate which so few find (Matthew 7:14), because in point of fact it depends on nothing except that we want to let ourselves be helped; since the whole plea in Christ’s stead consists only in that we should allow ourselves to be reconciled (2 Corinthians 5:20). Thereafter, free grace makes, gives, and does all the rest. (A secret hidden from most people!) They do not understand it, because they are either too superficial or too melancholy, and prefer to let themselves be morose and bitter. God wills to bestow grace upon all sinners on account of Christ, and by grace to cast natural sin and natural religion into a heap.
The genuine sinner has the first, greatest, and more direct claim and comes nearer and more easily to grace. When a scoundrel is converted it is a plain miracle; but when a pious person is saved, it is a double marvel and an extraordinary success. Scripture says Christ died thus for the godless (Romans 5:6); and he himself speaks along the same line when he says he did not come to call the righteous (Luke 5:32). By nature we are all equally sinners and equally godless before God; but this situation is so concealed and so hidden by means of reason and education that people often no longer know themselves. One person condemns another wholeheartedly for being a sinner, and ignores the fact that he condemns himself along with the other. “You are the man of death,” said Nathan to David, who had thought to condemn another. Many a person has had neither opportunity nor provocation to sin, and therefore could not become aware of the true condition of the heart; should such a one have time, occasion, training, and capacity, they probably will sin more crudely and abusively than all others; since sin is truly planted in the heart of one and all, only more disguised, more hidden, more deceptive and more dangerous [in those who believe themselves to be without sin]. Indeed, such people express greater enmity toward the Savior, greater unbelief, and greater fury over the propriety of grace.
Generally speaking it is a bad method to pass judgment on people solely because of what they do; but it is even worse to conclude from the omission of one act or another that nothing of the evil inclination is left.4 “The Lord looks upon the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Deeds belong in the worldly court of law, and must be judged and punished there, which is nothing either more or less than fair. But the divine jurisdiction goes deeper, to the very heart and motive, in judging good and evil things.5
Therefore, we must come to Jesus as sinners, and declare ourselves, according to our hearts and minds, to be godless, fornicating, drunken, insolent, ferocious or lying people, and that disposition and mind will be changed, [we must] seek the grace and blood-won justification of the One who makes the godless righteous. The most innocent, the most pious, the person who has probably been so blameless from the moment of emerging from the womb to the present that one would have to take him for an angel on account of his good training, in relation to whom one neither hears nor sees anything evil, this very person [bears] the same appraisal and damnation as the most immoral sort of human beings among [us]. None is better on account of his little tidbit of good, and none is more wicked because of his many evil acts. All need grace, mercy, and a Savior’s blood; before God none [of our works] carry any weight, neither our scampering and running about, nor our repentance and improvement, but rather his mercy alone, Christ’s atonement, satisfaction, and reconciling offering on the cross. To be sure, one can abuse this precious truth in the direction of safety and irresponsibility; but nevertheless it is and remains the truth pure and simple. This even produces unity in religion, but is, as far as that goes, almost the only true and proper controversy about reality. This also makes the leading and tending of souls concise and easy. If each one understands himself to be a sinner in his own way, and humbles himself before grace, then befalls him what is meant for the eminent and well deserving.
There are so many different kinds of people, and Satan has bound them by means of so many different kinds and modes of evil, or deceived them with various appearances of good, that one could certainly not disentangle them from each other, if there were not also a universal sickness for which a medicine was suitable. But thus one can now say to souls, that all human beings require grace, the respectable just as much as the profligate, so that all need Christ’s blood, which alone cancels the future wrath, conquers Satan and hell, cleanses the heart, cures injuries, pulls the love of sin out by the roots, and can produce all good.
We are sinners in our best works and actions as well as with our greatest acts of sin. No intention, no matter how good, helps without Christ, either to free from sin, or to be godly and do good. Consequently, one must really concern oneself only about faith in Christ, but let all other things quickly go; and forget about them like a child. And Jesus must become our faith, our love, and our hope, the only object and purpose of our life: all thinking, speaking, and desiring must become completely his; then they are right and fitting before God because of Christ.
In faith we need not tremble like the devils, but instead can be sincere and confident like children.
1. In this speech Count Zinzendorf expresses his theological opposition to so-called rational or natural religion. Intellectuals in the eighteenth century found very appealing the idea that all actual, historical religions share a common core. This core was thought to consist of a simple set of religious ideas that constituted the truth of any and all religion. Thus, the actual teachings and practices of a religion were not to be taken seriously except insofar as they expressed these core ideas. Lord Herbert of Cherbury set forth the core in this way: 1) there is one supreme God; 2) this God ought to be worshipped; 3) the connection between piety and virtue is the most important part of religious practice; 4) people must repent of their wickedness and vices; and 5) there is reward or punishment after this life (cf. Cherbury’s little book De Veritate, published in Paris in 1624). These tenets were thought to be rational because they were imagined to be discoverable within every religion by all truly rational people. They were said to be natural because they were thought to be written into the fabric of nature. There are several telling philosophical and anthropological objections to this view. But Zinzendorf found it religiously and theologically objectionable from the perspective of Christian teaching. Some of his reasons appear in this speech.
2. The Count grants the advocates of rational or natural religion this point: existence itself drives us to be religious. Every person organizes life, and must do so, according to some fundamental convictions and commitments. By means of these one unifies personality and life, makes sense of experience, and understands the self’s role in the cosmos. The object of these commitments and convictions is that which concerns us ultimately, on which our being or not being depends, i.e., our god. Zinzendorf notes here in his own way that all people recognize a god, a high essence or Supreme Being, a main thing in life. But simply to have a god of some sort, even a highly moral one, is not enough to grant participation in what Christians call salvation. Even atheists can be very religious about their atheism! But one must know the true God. It is only the true and actual God who is able to save.
3. This way of talking about sin and godliness belongs fully to the ancient Christian tradition. It appears in classical form in the writings of Augustine, the great bishop of Hippo in North Africa from the late fourth century to the early fifth century. He had said it like this: “When humanity by free will sinned . . . the freedom of the will was lost . . . Accordingly, the one who is the servant of sin is free to sin. And hence [one] will not be free to do right, until, being freed from sin, [one] shall begin to be the servant of righteousness. And this is true liberty . . .” Enchiridion, chapter 30. Thus, for Augustine, apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ, one is free only to sin. Even the virtues of the pagans are but splendid vices because their acts do not proceed from faith in Christ (Romans 14:23) and thus can only be sin. But once having been freed by God’s grace in Jesus, once having been delivered from bondage
