About Richard Imberg

Richard Imberg ran the Siloah Clinic in Gümligen near Bern in the 1950s. This clinic was the former Christian convalescent home “Lindenhof” (1897), which was later (1918) taken over by the Diaconia Association of the Federation of Free Evangelical Churches. In 1934, under Richard Imberg, the facility became independent and was continuously expanded until it became the Siloah Clinic in 1955 and the Siloah Foundation in 1991 (Source: Community Pages of the Church of Muri-Gümligen, July 2005). In 2005 the deaconess communities Siloah Gümligen and Bern merged (today: Berner Diakonissen).

The language of Richard Imberg seems a bit old today. The sentences are often long, some expressions are no longer known, words have changed and the like. The challenges today are different than they were in his time. I kept it largely as it was written. The way of looking at faith, however, is alive and kicking and in all essentials the same then as now.

Google Books has a list of books and writings by Richard Imberg written between about 1930 and 1960.

Quotes from “Theology for Everyone

• When John says, “Let us love Him,” he adds by way of justification, “…for He first loved us”(1Jn 4:19). Everything begins with this first of God. – Richard Imberg
• We should not really be surprised that the “righteous” and “pious” of all times have misunderstood and rejected Jesus. It simply takes grace to recognize grace. – Richard Imberg
• Only through [Jesus Christus], and through Him alone, do we know who God is in truth, and that He, whom we could also imagine by virtue of our own thinking to be almighty, holy and just, is love . – Richard Imberg
• For this purpose we were given freedom, which we then also bravely abused, but with no other success than to offer God the possibility to reveal Himself against our self-love and selfishness as the completely Other, namely as the infinitely loving One. – Richard Imberg
• On the cross … all sin and enmity was exhausted. In the crucifixion of the Son of God, we played our last card against God and – thank God! – lost – Richard Imberg

• The question of a life really worth living is at the same time the question of the real human being. – Richard Imberg
• A desirable life, because truly satisfying, is a life of freedom, free from fear and therefore free for the neighbor. – Richard Imberg
• Therefore, his [Christi] life is also in truth fulfilled life, in his being there as God for man, as man for God. – Richard Imberg
• True life consists in the freedom by which we determine ourselves to obey, based on the knowledge of God’s love and in the power of that love. Where this happens, the Word of God, which is Jesus Christ, has been heard. But where this happens, we also listen to our fellow man, to whom our obedience first acquires practical meaning. – Richard Imberg
• It sounds simple when Paul writes to Timothy: “But the ultimate goal of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith”(1 Tim. 1:5). But it is not that simple. – Richard Imberg
• God wants not only to be understood by us, but also to be loved by us – and even more so. – Richard Imberg
• That some gospel preaching does not really bring about love for God is not to be wondered at. How can you love when you should fear? – Richard Imberg

• Priests have always known how to make themselves indispensable to people. And numerous are those who, for the sake of their own influence, keep others in immaturity before God. This should not be. – Richard Imberg
• What use can all moralizing be, when – according to Phil 2:13 – God [selbst] must and will work in us to will and to accomplish? – Richard Imberg
• The path to freedom leads through the knowledge of God’s love. – Richard Imberg
• The way to God’s freedom is through the knowledge of God’s love. This is truly simple. But perhaps all too simple. Or is it because in our selfishness we have so much trouble trusting the selflessness of divine love? – Richard Imberg
• With God, things often find a completely different assessment than with us. Not what we are with us [selbst], but what Jesus is to us, and what we are to be – by grace – for Him, that determines our position with God. One could also say: With God, it is not man who is valid, who wants to serve Him (and often only seeks his own honor in this), but man, who needs God. – Richard Imberg.
• God wants to be for us in all circumstances. That we allow ourselves to be served, that we allow ourselves to be served by God, in this we “serve” God. – Richard Imberg
• If we think it through, the only thing we can bring to God, but also the only thing He looks for in us, is: Gratitude. – Richard Imberg
• The way to the knowledge of God’s love is through the knowledge of our guilt. The greater the guilt, the forgiveness sought and received – so it says in this parable (Luk 7:36-50) – the greater the love. But perhaps there is another way: that of insight into the love of God that embraces the universe. – Richard Imberg
• We love God not only because He forgives us personally, but because we have come to know the love with which He loves all creation in Christ and has reconciled it to Himself. – Richard Imberg

• Where freedom is asserted as absolute freedom, as a freedom that God can deny forever, one is no longer talking biblically, but philosophically. – Richard Imberg
• But now God, within and enclosed by His freedom, has given us freedom. We are allowed to live our lives. We also get to make our choices. We are allowed to do our follies, to have our mistakes, and therefore, in a certain sense, we are also the “maker of our own fortune”. For this, God, in His perfect freedom, has given us freedom. But, whatever we decide, whatever right or probably often foolish use we make of our freedom, it is always [unter] of God’s freedom. – Richard Imberg
• In His activity, in His action in Jesus Christ, God wants to be recognized as the Almighty, but as the Almighty Loving. “This is life eternal, that they may know you, who alone are true God, and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ”(John 17:3). – Richard Imberg
• God’s plan of salvation is not only for our salvation from self-inflicted ruin, but for the revelation of God who, as the only one who is free in truth, makes our abuse of freedom a revelation of his love, which “does not allow itself to be vomited”, which “does not impute evil”, which “never ceases”(1Cor 13). – Richard Imberg
• Thus, God’s plan of salvation is not an emergency provision. From the beginning, it is clearly and centrally about the Passion of God. – Richard Imberg
• Thus … the central content of the proclamation of the Gospel is Christ Himself. It is the end of an old creation, but also the beginning and content of a new one. – Richard Imberg
• It is about the reality of a new creation in which we participate through the Holy Spirit and in faith. The essence of this creation, however, is love. Not new forms, not new statutes and orders, but simply love. “He who loves is born of God and [kennt] God”(1Jn 4:7). – Richard Imberg

• Now, however, the content of Christianity is nothing other than Jesus Christ Himself. So we are not dealing with any piety out of disposition or need, nor with any truth, but with the revelation of God as it confronts us in Jesus Christ and as we are able to receive it only through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. – Richard Imberg
• I’m not saying anything new here. But we do well to keep our minds on the center of the Good News, that is, to keep alive the living memory that the Gospel is about Jesus Christ. – Richard Imberg
• God meets us. He meets us in the man Jesus of Nazareth. So it is not about any concepts, contents, exercises and expressions of our piety and it is not about the knowledge of even the highest and deepest truths, but about the living communion with God Himself. – Richard Imberg
• Why should being a Christian not be so natural, so carefree, such a life freed from all human solemnity? – Richard Imberg
• While the disciples make a theological problem out of the blind man’s misfortune(Jn 9) and want to know who sinned, “this man or his parents”, Jesus sees the man in his need. The neediness of the human being goes to his heart. For Him, as in every case, this is the mercy of God. – Richard Imberg
• This is the first thing, this is also the center and the goal of all preaching: the good news of the grace of God. – Richard Imberg
• Because we have died with Jesus Christ and we may know ourselves risen with Him, therefore we stand in another, completely new area of life. This is the reason for our foreignness on this earth. – Richard Imberg
• Living Christianity is not a thing in itself, consists neither in correct doctrine nor in impeccable church orders (they already have their meaning somewhere), but consists of people who keep in mind that “Jesus Christ rose from the dead” (2Tim 2:8), who themselves have become firstfruits of a new creation: Sons of God. – Richard Imberg
• Resignation is the most miserable of all possible attitudes toward the world and life. – Richard Imberg
• What a deliverance to know that God has taken care of all our life problems long before there were any for us! – Richard Imberg
• The more we truly become children who count on the Father’s love and live in the fellowship of His dear Son, our Lord and brother Jesus Christ, the more natural and genuine our lives will be. – Richard Imberg

• Let it be said in all seriousness that “faith is not for everyone” and that no one can believe in the true sense of the word, i.e. trust God, count on God, except those to whom God Himself gives the grace of faith. – Richard Imberg
• Therefore, beware of preaching the faith – except as a judgment on one’s own small faith – who is not also willing to be led along paths that can only be walked by the hand of God. – Richard Imberg
• The Gospel is not about a doctrine of salvation, but about the Savior. It is not about “faith” and knowledge, but about trust based on love. – Richard Imberg
• The Good News is recognized only by those who live it. – Richard Imberg
• I am crucified with Christ. That is radical. This actually goes to the root. – Richard Imberg
• Paul admits that he is still there despite being crucified with him. It still exists. But it has now with its existence a quite strange relationship. His I, as the center of all relationships with himself, has undergone a transformation. Paul has a new relational center for all that concerns himself: Christ in me. This is meant in a very matter-of-fact way. – Richard Imberg
• It does not even occur to Paul to say that he hopes to receive eternal life one day as a reward for his faith or because of his decision to believe. Thus, it is the conception of a Christianity that has become a “religion”, a “Christian religion”. – Richard Imberg
• If the judgment has not been executed on myself, I have not yet reached the resurrection. – Richard Imberg (Note: figuratively, about being “crucified with”).
• Because Paul lives in this wonderful and sober reality, that is why we are so comfortable with him. But enormous perspectives open up to him, which show him the whole universe as enclosed by God’s love and destined and prepared for the reception of this love. – Richard Imberg
• “To live by faith alone” means in truth: to live entirely by in and of grace. – Richard Imberg

• What is good for personal life, however, becomes a questionable matter as soon as it is generalized. – Richard Imberg
• We, believers by grace, are also told by Scripture to “put on Christ.” … We are not only to cover Christ, but the exhortation means that we should now also show outwardly what we have become inwardly through grace. – Richard Imberg
• No one can hinder God’s work. – Richard Imberg
• Faith does not need to see anything. He knows who he trusts. “We walk by faith and not by sight”(2 Cor. 5:7).
• Let us be thankful that we may address each person as belonging to Jesus Christ. God does not renounce any of His human children. He does not pass anyone by. And none he gives away. In Jesus Christ, He has taken care of us all and confirmed His right of ownership over us. The church is the part of the people that knows this by grace. – Richard Imberg
• As we need grace to know grace, so we can live in grace only through grace. – Richard Imberg

• The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of faith, that is, He creates confidence in us toward Him who is our justification, sanctification, and redemption(1 Cor. 1:30). He is the Spirit of peace because He shows us Him who is our peace(Eph 2:14). And He is the Spirit of joy, because it is He who not only enables us to cry, “Abba, dear Father!”(Rom 8:16), but also guides us into all truth(Jn 16:13) and fills us with the spirit of sonship(Gal 4:6). – Richard Imberg
• Give yourself to the love that loves you from eternity and be what you are allowed to be: a child that the Father has taken by the hand to walk with him the wonderful and often strange path that we call life and whose goal is Himself. – Richard Imberg
• True worship is based on fellowship of the Spirit. – Richard Imberg
• Were we not also blind to God? – Richard Imberg
• Are we sure that we have understood the essence of the new era that has lifted with Jesus Christ, the reason, content and meaning of which is Himself? Is everything legal, is all our own activity dismissed from our lives and gone? In truth, are we resting in God? Do we let his grace be enough for us? – Richard Imberg
• The central content of the message of grace is reconciliation. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their sin to them, but establishing among us the word of reconciliation”(2 Cor. 5:19). – Richard Imberg
• What message do you think the world needs more today than reconciliation? – Richard Imberg
• There is – thank God – nothing [mit mehr Gewissheit] and also nothing more comforting than the goodness of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. – Richard Imberg
• Isn’t it unheard of and “unbelievable” that God does not let us search for Himself, but that He searches for us and finds us? – Richard Imberg