God’s grace is new every day, and we can always rejoice in God’s salvation. I have received your good letter from Sætersdalen, and I gather that you are still quite weak from your bicycle accident.

God’s grace has been with me mightily here on board. He has stood by me in everything, so I have been able to lead a quiet and peaceable life. The books by Jessie Penn-Lewis that you gave me are excellent; I have read them several times. It is a pleasure to read many things there that God has also revealed to us.

In 2 Cor. 5:19 it is written that God has committed to us the word of reconciliation. This is the word of the cross, because on the cross He abolished the enmity and made both one. In other words, God has committed the word of the cross to us, that word which is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. But to us it is the power of God. So this means that God has committed His power (the power of God) to us. He has given us His Holy Spirit. Jesus offered Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit. It is in the power of an eternal Spirit that we can offer ourselves. We are members of His body and are offered in the power of an eternal Spirit. This sacrifice is pleasing to God, and we have access through the veil—that is, His flesh. “For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.” Heb. 9:17. But He who established the cross and death in the body has also established a life there. For it is written that everyone who believes in Christ has passed from death to life. “Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” We are all children of God through faith in His name, and God doesn’t have dead children; He has living ones: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” The process of death and suffering which is now taking place in the body pertains completely and entirely to the body as a body. Jesus trod the winepress alone. We must suffer our way through alone, each one individually with Christ. This fellowship can only be shared by two—it is always the individual and Jesus, just as it was always Jesus and His Father (the eternal Spirit) in the days of Jesus’ flesh. Because Jesus suffered, He shall divide the spoil with the strong [He shall receive the many as His spoil, Norw.]. However, one thing has already taken place: Christ (the Bridegroom) has left father and mother and has been joined to His wife (the bride) as one flesh with her, because these two are to become one. If it is possible to unite two elements into one through a chemical process, how much more so for God to make the two into one. Eph. 5, from verse 30.

This cross and all this suffering are being borne in the body (the body of Christ), wherein lies all potential for development, where the whole fullness of God is hidden, and where all the truth that the Spirit possesses dwells. That is why the world is unable to share in this suffering, because we must be baptized by one Spirit into one body. The entire body of Christ is in itself dead, but it is part of our education to walk on the way, just like the Master did. We will only receive as much glory in the resurrection as we have gained through the growth of the body in the Lord. By being in the body of Christ, we partake of the first resurrection; then the second death has no power over us. But what is the second death? It is that death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire; this is the second death. But since we are now in the body, and Christ is the Savior of His body, we are saved from the second death, because death no longer has dominion over us. We have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.

It is common to speak about Christ as being our substitute, but that is not entirely correct. Because if He really was just our substitute, then we could remain as we are. No, He isn’t our substitute, He is “the way,” and we have to walk on this “way” ourselves if we want to progress. We must be mindful that Christ did not walk on the way for us so that we could avoid doing so. This is the teaching of those who are enemies of the cross.

Fall is drawing near. We’ll be joining the squadron on the 26th of this month, and we will be on duty until September 26. Right now we’re anchored approximately 50-70 km north of Stavanger. I highly doubt that the trip to Copenhagen will work out, since I do not want to be dependent on Plum’s money. He is not free enough to give this money as though he had not done so.

Hearty greetings to you all with 1 Thess. 3:8.

Your brother,

Address: Bergen