Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge is one of the greatest theologians the Netherlands has brought forth until now. He has been characterised as an irregular theologian. He did not write a systematic theology. Apart from his doctoral dissertation he wrote only a few minor theological treatises. The theology of Kohlbrugge we learn from the many sermons he preached, which were published during his lifetime and after his death. Besides his sermons, he produced three catechisms which are of great importance to an understanding of his theological position. His life was full of sorrows and disappointments. In his life, we can see the truth of the apostolic principle: 'Death works in me and life in you'. Kohlbrugge was a real comforter of mourners. He was a man who knew by experience that the Word of God is 'the power of God unto salvation', and so he ministered it to others.

Kohlbrugge was born in 1803 in Amsterdam, though, in fact, the name Kohlbrugge is a German name. His forefathers came from Germany. Like many of their countrymen, they came to Amsterdam attracted by the many commercial activities of the city. Kohlbrugge's parents belonged to the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church. Because of the liberalism which invaded the Evangelical Lutheran Church, this group had seceded from it. The Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church was a denomination having its strength mainly in and around Amsterdam. Since the days of the Reformation, there had been a small Lutheran church in the Netherlands. Especially in Amsterdam, the Lutherans were a large group, because of the many immigrants who came from Germany. Kohlbrugge's mother belonged originally to the Dutch Reformed Church, the national Reformed church of the Netherlands, which was until 1795 protected and supported by the government.

As a young boy Kohlbrugge often stayed with his grandmother Anna van Teerhuis-van der Horst. She told her grandson about the necessity of regeneration, pointing him to the pictures of The Pilgrim's Progress that were found on the tiles of the hearth and chimney. After he had finished his secondary schooling Kohlbrugge started to study theology at the University of the city of Amsterdam. During his studies, he came under the influence of the reigning cultural and theological climate which was far away from orthodox Protestantism. He embraced a kind of Platonized version of Christianity. However, when he had almost finished his studies, Kohlbrugge felt more and more distressed. He sought help in the writings of mystical theologians but could not find it.

While he was preparing his first sermon (the text being Romans 5:1) it pleased the Lord to give him the saving knowledge of Christ. Kohlbrugge himself said that the Lord gave him faith and assurance just in a moment, 'like the lightning of the thunder'. This happened in 1825. Speaking about his conversion Kohlbrugge testified:

Power I have not to save myself; I found no power in myself to keep God's commandments. No matter how much I tried to attain it, I found no power in myself to turn myself to God; no power to utter a single cry; no power to break with just one small sin, weak as the web of a spider or as a thread that has been perished; no power to resist the world and its indignity; and there where I was without power I have experienced that the Lord is the power of all his people ... I have never been strong but in the Lord. Glad I have never been, but in the gladness of the Lord.

When he started to preach as a theological candidate, his sermons struck people by their depth in the knowledge of sin and salvation. In Holland and especially in and around Amsterdam there was a revival of interest in orthodox and experiential Christianity, not least in aristocratic circles. People from these circles enjoyed the preaching of the young theological student and considered him an experienced believer.

In 1826 Kohlbrugge became an assistant minister of the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church of Amsterdam. In this position, he came into conflict with one of the senior ministers, the Rev. D. R. Uckermann. The liberal climate that had brought the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church into existence as a separate body had also infected the denomination itself. Kohlbrugge objected to the fact that Uckermann did not teach in clear terms the total depravity of man and the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. He wrote a notice of objection, and presented it to the consistory (the board of ministers and elders that governed the congregation). The result was not that Uckermann was reproved, but that Kohlbrugge was suspended as assistant minister. The suspension also created a real tension in the relationship between Frits Kohlbrugge and Cato Engelbert, an orphan from a wealthy family. They had become engaged on 8 September 1825. Her uncle who held a leading position in the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church of Amsterdam, requested that Kohlbrugge should express his regret that he had attacked Uckermann. He advised his mother (the grandmother of Cato) not to give consent for Cato to marry Frits Kohlbrugge. Had she done so, this would have caused several financial and legal difficulties over Cato's possessions. Amazingly enough, this worked out in a completely different way.

After his suspension Kohlbrugge went to Utrecht to write a dissertation. His subject was Psalm 45. After a serious illness, he added to the philological part a theological one in which he defended the view that the psalmist spoke about Christ and his church. The theological professors of the university of Utrecht objected to this view, but Kohlbrugge defended his thesis in a masterly way. The result was that on 4 June 1829 he was promoted to the doctorate with the designation 'cum laude'. That very day Cato spoke in Amsterdam with her grandmother about how her fiancé defended his doctoral thesis. The grandmother, knowing something about the spiritual climate at the university at that time and the academic objections against the view that Psalm 45 speaks about Christ and his church, asked: 'How does Frits explain this Psalm?' Cato told how Frits had stated that this psalm points to Christ. Then came the reply: 'If he is not ashamed to defend Christ and his Bride, I am not ashamed of him.' So she gave her consent for the marriage.

The couple decided to live in Utrecht. Two children were born there. Kohlbrugge gave private lessons and he studied hard. He also gave Bible lectures in his own house and in the houses of others to people hungering for the truth. Through Reformed writings, especially those of Calvin and Olevianus, he became more and more convinced that the Reformed position on predestination was more in accordance with the Scriptures than the view of later Lutheran orthodoxy. This was the reason why he applied for membership in the Dutch Reformed Church. This request started a real drama. Again and again the decision was delayed and finally a special act was passed by the synod of the Dutch Reformed Church, which was directed especially against Kohlbrugge. That act stated that one could not apply for membership of the Dutch Reformed Church without a letter of good behaviour from the denomination to which one originally belonged. The real reason for refusing Kohlbrugge membership in the Dutch Reformed Church was the fear of the ecclesiastical authorities that Kohlbrugge, with his powerful preaching of the gospel, would disturb the peace of the national church.

Kohlbrugge was also severely disappointed with his friends who belonged to the circle of the 'Reveil' (a revival movement among Dutch aristocracy; he converted Jew, Isaac Da Costa, being one of the main representatives). They expressed their disapproval about the decision of the synod but did nothing to help their friend. Within four years of their marriage, Cato Engelbert died of tuberculosis. On her deathbed she came to full assurance of faith through the words of Ezekiel 34:31: 'And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.'

During the sickness of his wife Kohlbrugge's own health deteriorated. After her death, he went on medical leave to Wuppertal in Germany. In Elberfeld, a city in Wuppertal, he came in close contact with one of the local pastors, Gottfried Daniel Krummacher, an uncle of the famous Bible expositor Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher. He preached in Elberfeld and the surrounding area sixteen times. During the centuries, the spiritual climate in the churches of Wuppertal was strongly influenced by pietism in its various forms. In the beginning of the nineteenth-century revival, Christianity of a perfectionist type made its way to Wuppertal. We need to know that to understand the background of what became Kohlbrugge's most famous and most debated sermon. While G. D. Krummacher was ill, Kohlbrugge led a service in Elberfeld on Wednesday, 31 July 1833. The text of his sermon was Romans 7:14: 'For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.' In this sermon he said:

Throw away all your crutches of sanctification, far away from you. It is impossible, with them, to climb upon mount Zion. Rip off the rags wherewith you cover your wounds and show yourself as you really are, to him who is holy and just – Hear what the Scripture says: "(God) who justifies – not those who love, not the saints, the just, the pious, no, no – the ungodly." The Apostle testified not: "I made reasonable progress in sanctification." No, but despite his Pharisaic past, and to console his distressed heart he writes down: "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin" – Christ knows to sanctify us only in this way, when we confess: "I am carnal and black." His Word is true above all other things: "I see no stains in you, just in this way you are lovely and holy in Me."

Kohlbrugge's sermon was a strong protest against all forms of legalism and human activism in sanctification. During the preparation of this sermon, the spiritual struggle in Kohlbrugge's own life came to a climax. Since his conversion, he had tried to become more and more holy. Studying Romans 7:14 he realised that he had lacked until then a clear view of the evangelical nature of sanctification. What struck him was the comma in the translation of Romans 7:14. The Apostle Paul, being a real believer, testified of himself that he was carnal (comma) sold under sin. Until then Kohlbrugge thought that a believer is sold under sin insofar as he is still carnal. Now he rejected this partial interpretation of the words 'sold under sin'. The complaint of every believer remains during his whole life that he is 'carnal, sold under sin'. Even our most holy works are stained with sin and self-righteousness. One of the most essential parts of sanctification is realising that and confessing that. To Kohlbrugge himself, his deeper insight into the evangelical nature of sanctification was like a second conversion.

Nevertheless, after publication his sermon gave rise to a fierce controversy in the Netherlands. His friend Da Costa accused him in an open letter of antinomianism. Kohlbrugge wrote an open letter back to Da Costa denying this accusation. Instead he accused Da Costa that he was not free from the stains of legalism and unholy activism. Da Costa needed to ask the Lord to show him what sanctification is. The tone of Kohlbrugge's letter was regrettably not free from bitterness but he made a valid point.

For Kohlbrugge, sanctification is not a process of growth in man, but an increasing dependence upon Christ to bear fruit in him. Essential to real sanctification is the element of confession that we fail even in our most holy endeavours. To Kohlbrugge the Christian is a man who realises that he is unholy in his most holy endeavours, but who also knows that he is holy in Christ. We can say that there was a certain one-sidedness in Kohlbrugge's presentation of sanctification, but it can be a healthy counterbalance.

Kohlbrugge became in his teaching, a real comforter to mourners, an encourager of those who struggled with their own sinfulness and weakness. In his open letter to Da Costa he stated rightly that there was a people in the country that understood his message, people who really walked with the Lord but could not consider themselves as holy, but poor sinners standing in need of Christ even in respect of their own sanctification.

One of Kohlbrugge's objections against later Reformed orthodoxy was that it tended to separate sanctification and justification more than the first Reformers. The first Reformers always went back from sanctification to justification. For them, justification was more than just an act. They stressed that the consolation of justification is received by the believer every time he puts faith in Christ. This emphasis we find also in the writings of Kohlbrugge.

In the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), a work much appreciated by Kolhbrugge, the question 'How are you righteous before God?' is answered in the following way:

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ: that is, although my conscience accuses me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil; yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience with which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.

Here we find summarised what also Kohlbrugge taught about justification, especially in its relation to sanctification.

For people adhering to the Reformed faith there is the danger of a certain kind of triumphalism, acknowledging justification by faith alone but giving the impression that the life of sanctification is a kind of repayment to the Lord, done by ourselves. The teaching of Hermann Kohlbrugge forms a healthy antidote against this mentality. He can teach us that a Christian always remains a poor sinner trusting in Christ, a debtor to mercy alone.

The emphasis Kohlbrugge placed we find in England in the writings of men like Walter Marshall, in his book The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, and in William Romaine's book The Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith. We may also here include John Newton. Newton was one of the writers quoted by Kohlbrugge in his open letter to Da Costa. The following lines of Newton's hymn exactly express Kohlbrugge's view:

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love, and every grace;
Might more of his salvation know,
And seek more earnestly his face.

I hoped that in some favoured hour,
At once he'd answer my request;
And by his love's constraining power,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart,
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

'Lord why is this', I trembling cried;
'Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?'
Tis in this way,' the Lord replied,
'I answer prayer for grace and faith'.

The further facts of Kohlbrugge's life can quickly be told. On 31 October 1834 he married Ursuline Phippina, baroness of Verschuer. His second wife belonged to a Dutch noble family touched by the influence of the 'Réveil'.¹ She bore him a daughter who was named Anna after her grandmother. The baroness of Verschuer was a good mother to Kohlbrugge's sons. Being spiritually united to her husband she had a moderating influence on his irritable nature. From 1834 to 1845 the family continued to live in Utrecht.

In the year of Kohlbrugge's marriage the first secession from the Dutch Reformed Church took place. In that year the Rev. Hendrick De Cock was suspended as minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. The formal reason was that De Cock had not observed certain rules of church order, but behind it was a strong aversion among the ecclesiastical statesmen of the Dutch Reformed Church against De Cock's outspoken proclamation of the doctrines of free grace. Kohlbrugge wrote a letter to De Cock advising him to form a congregation, born out of temporary necessity, and to continue to preach. De Cock did not follow that advice but, with a few other ministers, left the national church, declaring that church to be in her totality a false church, and formed a separate body which came to be known in due time as the Christian Reformed Church.

Kohlbrugge was sure that the ecclesiastical statesmen had treated De Cock in a dishonest way and he felt united with him in the doctrines of free grace. Nevertheless, he could not follow De Cock and his fellows in their ecclesiastical separation. When in 1839 he was invited by one of the leaders of the Christian Reformed Church to join this body, he decisively refused, stating his reasons in an open letter. He felt that his insight into the evangelical nature of sanctification was not well understood in the circles of those who separated from the national church. He saw in the forming of the new denomination too much of the triumphalism against which he had testified so clearly.

Kohlbrugge was afraid that the leaders of the Christian Reformed Church were too much of the opinion that they could form a sound denomination and were not really depending on the working of the Spirit of God alone to revive his church. Although he was not accepted by the national Dutch Reformed Church he felt a deep love for that church which was so closely related with the existence of the Netherlands as an independent nation and had been such a blessing for the Dutch nation during the centuries. His prayer was that the Lord himself, according to his eternal covenant of grace, would build up his church in the Netherlands. Later in life his attitude towards the brethren who had left the national church became milder. Once he declared that, as a minister, he could only serve the Dutch Reformed Church; but, as a parishioner, he would just go where the grass was greener. In this way, he gave advice to friends who asked him where they should go to church.

Kohlbrugge made several visits to Germany after his first visit of 1833, but he was not in Elberfeld again until 1845. When resting that year in Godesberg he was invited by old friends to become a pastor of an independent group. Several people in Elberfeld who loved the truth of free and sovereign grace were dissatisfied with the union between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Germany which came into existence under pressure of the government. Among other things, they could not agree with the liturgy that was mandatory in the services of the united church. They felt it to be a betrayal of their Reformed heritage. At first, Kohlbrugge hesitated to accept the invitation, but his wife said: 'All must be done that souls may be saved'. So Kohlbrugge went to Elberfeld. To the newly-formed congregation belonged several members of the influential family named Von der Heydt. They had their connections in Berlin. Through these connections, King Wilhelm Friedrich IV of Prussia gave the group a licence to come together under the name Dutch Reformed Congregation. Kohlbrugge himself justified his becoming a pastor of an independent congregation as a means in the long term of restoring the unity of the church. He always had a warm heart for the national churches both in the Netherlands and Germany. When in due time several theological students came to Elberfeld to make contact with Kohlbrugge he advised them to seek a place in the national churches.

The preaching of Kohlbrugge in Elberfeld was richly blessed. Until the end of his life he served the congregation there. During the years, many friends from the Netherlands came to Elberfeld for some days or weeks to benefit from his preaching. Many of his sermons appeared in print. Translated into Dutch, they found their way to lovers of the doctrine of God's unmerited grace revealed to save poor sinners. Some of the bundles of Kohlbrugge's sermons were translated into English. Spurgeon named one of them in his Commenting and Commentaries, noting that 'we do not find German modern theology here'. But Spurgeon seems not to have realised the theological significance of Kohlbrugge's message on justification and sanctification in their mutual relationship.

Because Kohlbrugge took church discipline seriously, internal struggles were felt during a certain period. Several people left the congregation, but those who remained became more closely united to their pastor and to each other. Kohlbrugge preached the Word with gladness and felt more and more at home in Elberfeld. In 1856 his daughter-in-law, who lived with her husband Gerrit Kohlbrugge in Vianen in the Netherlands, took the initiative to ask the local pastor to invite her father-in-law to lead a service. Although theologically not of one mind with Kohlbrugge, the pastor agreed and so on the Lord's Day, June 28, 1856 Kohlbrugge preached for the first time in the Netherlands since he was suspended as an assistant minister of the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church, and now in the national Dutch Reformed Church. Just before the service started his son Gerrit, who was spiritually closely united to his father, showed the first signs of what proved to be an irrecoverable mental illness. Nevertheless, Kohlbrugge was enabled to preach the Word of God with freedom. His sermon was on Genesis 3. The service lasted about two hours and yet the people listened attentively until the end. He proclaimed the old gospel message that God in his love seeks and saves sinners in their lost condition although they have deserved nothing but hell. The ecclesiastical governing boards of the Dutch Reformed Church did not take measures against the pastor or the consistory of Vianen and so from that time onwards Kohlbrugge regularly preached from the pulpits of the Dutch Reformed church when he visited the Netherlands.

In 1865, a correspondence started between Kohlbrugge and Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was converted from liberalism as a young minister in his first congregation. He was a highly talented man. Kuyper and Kohlbrugge met each other for the first time in 1868. They spoke about the ecclesiastical situation of the Dutch Reformed Church. Kuyper wanted to reform the national church. His ideal was a church consisting only of people who were born again. Kohlbrugge stressed that ultimately only the Lord knows who are his and that the church is there where the gospel of free grace is proclaimed to lost sinners. To Kohlbrugge, the foundation and starting point both of personal spiritual and ecclesiastical life is not man's faithfulness, nor even the faithfulness of believers (which seemed to be the consequence of Kuyper's position), but God's faithfulness to his own covenant. Although there was a difference of emphasis, between Kuyper and Kohlbrugge, Kuyper had a deep respect for him as a man owned by God, a witness of God's free grace and a Christian in the best sense of the word. Kohlbrugge appreciated Kuyper, but said once to a friend that he thought Kuyper understood yet but little of the mysteries of salvation that the Lord teaches his people. When Kuyper became a minister in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, he invited Kohlbrugge to preach in the Southern Church. So the man who had been rejected and despised, could again, after many years, preach the gospel in the city of his birth. For Kohlbrugge, this was a very moving experience. He felt the faithfulness of the Lord in it and regarded it as a sign that the Lord owned his ministry. One and a half-hours before the service started the church was completely packed. Some three thousand people came to hear the sermon. It was based on Psalm 68:19-20:

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.

In 1866 Kohlbrugge's second wife passed away, dying triumphantly in the Lord. His beloved daughter, Anna, died in 1873 in the home of her father in Elberfeld. Anna was married to one of the spiritual sons of her father: Eduard Bohl who became Professor of Systematic Theology in Vienna, Austria, teaching theology in agreement with the insights of his father-in-law. Anna had always been a great help to Kohlbrugge. After her death, he felt more and more lonely, longing to depart and to be with Christ. In these days, he wrote to a friend: 'I walk through the streets of Elberfeld a dead man among the living'. His health eventually failed. On 29 November 1874, he preached for the last time. On 5 March 1876, he died in the arms of the Rev. Julius Kunzli, his friend and successor as pastor of the congregation of Elberfeld.

The life of Kohlbrugge was full of conflicts, struggles and trials. In that way, the Lord prepared him to be able to comfort those who were in any trouble by the comfort wherewith he had been comforted by the Lord himself. Kohlbrugge preached the law in its condemning power and against that dark background the gospel as the message of complete salvation. He stressed again and again that the gospel is not a new law but the fulfilment of the law. In his strong emphasis on the condemning power of the law, we feel his Lutheran background. He never denied that the law is also given as a rule of thankfulness for believers but, in accordance with the teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism, he also stressed that in the life of sanctification the law is in the first place preached to us in order that we, as long as we live, may learn more and more to know our sinful nature. As a result we more earnestly seek forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ.

I already mentioned the different spiritual atmosphere of the teaching of Kohlbrugge and Kuyper. After Kohlbrugge's death, Kuyper forced a breach and left the national church in 1886. The denomination he formed fused within a few years with the Christian Reformed Church. Before he left the national church, Kuyper had already formed the Free University of Amsterdam. He became a member of parliament and organised a Christian political party. From 1901 to 1905, he was prime minister of the Netherlands. Kuyper considered himself as a neo-Calvinist, bringing Calvinism in contact with the spirit of the age. He emphasised what he called the cultural mandate of the Christian. All areas of life had to be conquered for Jesus as King.

Without denying Kuyper's fine qualities and the validity of his insights, some saw his teaching as encouraging the Reformed triumphalism and evangelical legal activism which Kohlbrugge so much dreaded. His teaching undermined the experimental piety fostered in the Netherlands by the Dutch Second Reformation. Already in 1916, one of the ministers of the denomination formed by Kuyper himself, complained that he was afraid of what was happening. Many of the people of his denomination were going out to win all areas of life for Jesus and propagating everywhere the Reformed world and life view. But they had lost the battle in the most important area, that of the heart and personal reconciliation with the Lord. He said that they felt themselves, with all their Reformed convictions, all too much at home in this world, and were estranged from the life of pilgrimage which their forefathers had understood so well.

The spiritual heritage of Kohlbrugge was preserved by a minority within the national church, a church that was as a whole deeply influenced by liberalism, or a mediating theology oscillating between liberalism and orthodoxy. In the course of the years, the writings of Kohlbrugge were appreciated more in the circles of the smaller denominations which came into existence among those who left the national church. Their spirituality was more closely connected to the Dutch Second Reformation than that of the denomination of which Kuyper was the founder.

In the writings of Kohlbrugge we find the same experimental emphasis as in the writings of the Dutch Puritans. At the same time we must say that his teaching can be regarded as a corrective, especially to the last stage of the Dutch Second Reformation. In that last stage preaching became excessively introspective. The marks of grace were emphasised at the expense of the Cross of Christ as the only ground of salvation and faith in Christ as the means to give us a share in Christ's work. Kohlbrugge preached the complete reliability of God's promises.

Sometimes Kohlbrugge has been interpreted in a way which is not consistent with his real teaching. Because of his strong emphasis on the promises of God, some have interpreted his theology as if he denied the importance of religious experience. He was made a kind of forerunner of Karl Barth for whom the meaning of the Christian life was purely objective. This neo-Kohlbruggianism is at variance with the real and deepest intentions of Kohlbrugge himself. In Kohlbrugge's teaching the consolation of the objective character of God's promises is always placed against the background of the condemning power of the law. It stands in the context of conviction of sin and anguish. In this anguish the sinner saved by grace testifies: 'My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name'. Barth denied the historicity of the Fall of Adam. The least we must say is that his theology tends to universalism. To Kohlbrugge, the historicity of the Fall was essential for real spiritual life. He was sure that we could only understand the work of the last Adam in relationship to what the first Adam did. Everywhere in his writings he makes clear that God's grace is particular.

One of the sayings of Kohlbrugge recorded on his death-bed was: 'My dear children, hold fast to the teaching of the Catechism of Heidelberg'. In the first answer of that Catechism it is declared that the only comfort of a Christian is that he belongs to Christ as his complete Saviour. In the second question and answer, it is made clear to us in what way that comfort becomes our personal possession. We have to acknowledge for the first time in our lives and again and again our sin and misery; we have to trust in Christ alone as Saviour, who gives complete deliverance from sin to all his people. Because we are delivered, we have to be filled with gratitude. Gratitude is not a legal activity but a gospel grace. Being saved by grace, it is impossible not to be filled with gratitude and not to regard God as the God of complete salvation. It is the deepest desire of a Christian to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. This was Kohlbrugge's emphasis and it should be ours too.