A Letter to Margaret, Wife of Rein Edes

Chosen beloved sister in Christ Jesus, mercy, grace and peace be to you! Most beloved sister, whom I sincerely love in Christ. From your beloved husband’s letter I understand that all through the winter you have been a sick and afflicted child, which I very much regret to hear. But we pray daily: Father, your will be done. By this we commit ourselves to the Father, to deal with us as is pleasing in his blessed sight. Therefore bear your affliction with resignation. For all this is his fatherly will for your own good, that you may put your trust in the eternal living God alone, and not in any perishable things. Be consoled in Christ Jesus; for after the cold of winter comes summer, and after death comes life. O sister, rejoice that you are a true daughter of your beloved Father. Soon the inheritance of his glorious promise will be due; a little while yet, says the word of the Lord, and he who is coming will come, and his reward will be with him. May the almighty, merciful God and Lord, before whom you have bent your knees to his honor, and whom you have sought according to your weakness, grant you a strong and patient heart, a bearable pain, a lovely refreshment, a gracious cure or a godly departure, through Christ Jesus, whom we daily expect with you, my beloved sister and child in Christ Jesus.

Secondly, I understand that your conscience is troubled because you have not walked, and do not now walk, in such perfection as the Scriptures direct us. On this account I write the following to my faithful sister, as a brotherly consolation, from the true word and eternal truth of the Lord. The Scripture, says Paul, has concluded all under sin. There is no man on earth, says Solomon, who does righteously and does not sin, Ecclesiastes, chapter 7. In another place: “A just man falls seven times, and rises up again,” Proverbs 24, verse 16. Moses says, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty,” Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7. O dear sister, observe: he says that none are guiltless before God. Again, David says, “Lord, do not enter into judgment with your servant; for in your sight no man living shall be justified”; “If they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin)”; “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags.” Christ also says, “There is none good but one, that is, God”; “The evil which I would not, that I do”; “In many things we all offend”; “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” Psalm 143, verse 2; First Kings 8, verse 46; Isaiah 64, verse 6; Matthew 19, verse 17; Mark 10, verse 18; Romans 7, verse 19; First John 1, verse 8.

It is plain from all these Scriptures that we must all acknowledge ourselves to be sinners, as we in fact also are, and that no one but Christ Jesus alone has perfectly fulfilled the righteousness God requires. Therefore no one can approach God, obtain grace and be saved except by the perfect righteousness, reconciliation and advocacy of Jesus Christ, however godly, righteous, holy and blameless he may be. We must all acknowledge, whoever we are, that we are sinners in thoughts, words and works. Indeed, if we did not have the righteous Christ Jesus before us, no prophet or apostle could be saved. Therefore be of good cheer and be consoled in the Lord. You can expect no greater righteousness in yourself than all the chosen of God have had in them from the beginning. In and by yourself you are a poor sinner, and by the eternal righteousness banished, accursed and sentenced to eternal death; but in and through Christ you are justified and pleasing to God, and accepted by him in eternal grace as a daughter and child. In this all the saints have consoled themselves: they trusted in Christ, counted their own righteousness unclean, weak and imperfect, approached the throne of grace with contrite hearts in the name of Christ, and prayed to the Father with firm faith: O Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, Matthew, chapter 6; Luke, chapter 11.

It is a very precious word that Paul speaks: “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly”; indeed, while we were still ungodly, and by this he shows his love toward us. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life,” Romans 5, verses 6 and 10. See, my chosen, beloved child and sister in the Lord, this I write from the sure foundation of eternal truth. I hereby pray and desire that you will wholly commend all your doings, outward and inward, to Christ Jesus and his merits, believing and confessing that his precious blood alone is your cleansing; his righteousness your piety; his death your life; and his resurrection your justification. For he is the forgiveness of all your sins; his bloody wounds are your reconciliation; and his invincible strength is the staff and consolation of your weakness, as we have often shown you from the Scriptures in former days, according to our small gift. Indeed, most beloved child and sister, so long as you find and feel in yourself such a spirit, one that desires to follow what is good and abhors what is evil, even though the remnant of sin is not entirely dead in you, as all the saints from the beginning also complained, so long you may rest assured that you are a child of God, and that you will inherit the kingdom of grace in eternal joy with all the saints. “By this we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit,” John 4, verse 13. I sincerely pray that you may by faith rightly understand this foundation, to the refreshment, strengthening and consolation of your conscience and soul, and remain firm to the end. I commend you, most beloved child and sister, to the faithful, merciful and gracious God in Christ Jesus, now and forever. Let him do with you and with all of us according to his blessed will: either in the flesh, to remain a little while longer with your beloved husband and children, or out of the flesh, to the honor of his name and the salvation of your soul. You before and we after, or we before and you afterward. Separation must come one day. In the city of God, in the new Jerusalem, there we will wait for each other before the throne of God and of the Lamb, and there sing hallelujah and praise his name in perfect joy. Your husband and children I commend to him who has given them to you, and he will deal with them justly. The saving power of the most holy blood of Christ be with my most beloved child and sister, now and forever. Amen. [Note 1]

Your brother, who sincerely loves you in Christ.

MENNO SIMON.