Preface

Christ is our Way in which we should walk; He is the Truth which should always be found in us; He is our Life. How then can we extend our members original: Gliedmassen; refers to the physical body and its faculties being used as "instruments" of sin or righteousness. toward unrighteousness, which is death? Therefore, no one comes to the Father except through Christ; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

To come to the Father through Christ and to know Him is nothing other than to have a free, detached, and God-surrendered will—claiming neither this nor that for oneself, holding pleasure and pain as one and the same, and thinking, speaking, doing, and knowing nothing but what is fitting for God, in the form and manner of Christ Jesus, the firstborn among the children of God.

Regarding this, see the little book called the German Theology original: Teutsche Theologia; an influential 14th-century mystical treatise that emphasizes the imitation of Christ and the abandonment of self-will. Martin Luther was a famous admirer of this work., especially in the final chapters regarding the saying in John 6 While the author cites John 6, the quote "No one comes to the Father except through me" is found in John 14:6.: No one comes to the Father except through Me. Therefore He says: "Whoever wishes to be My disciple, let him deny himself and follow Me." Those, however, who follow Him as His faithful disciples have eternal life, for they recognize in Christ the Father as a true GOD, and through the Holy Spirit recognize Him whom the Father has sent, Jesus Christ.

Therefore all boasting should [be cast] far