REDEMPTION Accomplished and Applied
part 2-section 7《再思救赎奇恩》第二部分第7讲
主讲:林慈信牧师_校对:刘加立_文字:Cherry
Chapter 3: Regeneration. Continued.我们继续讲第三章:重生。Born of Spirit.从灵而重生。
It needs to be particularly noted what is implied in this familiar expression “born of the Spirit.”我们特别需要注意“从灵而生”这个我们常常听到的这句话里面有什么含义。It is not quite certain whether the exact meaning of the word rendered “born” is that of begetting or bearing.我们不太确定而生、出生这个字精准的意思是指父亲生,还是母亲所生的。According to the usage of the New Testament it could be either.按照新约的用法两者都有可能。If it is the former假如是前者的话,then the thought is patterned after the action of the father in human procreation–the men begets.从灵而生的意思就是按照人类的父亲的那个繁殖的意思,某某人,某某男人生了一个孩子。If it is the latter,假如是后者的话,then the thought is patterned after the action of the mother–那么从灵而生这个生就是按照人类的母亲的那个行为,就是the woman bears, the child is born of the mother母亲,或者这位女人生产,孩子是由母亲所生出来。
We can not be certain which of these more precise meaning is in view here.我们不能够确定究竟是哪一个精准的意思是这里的意思。But it makes no essential different to the truth expressed.但是呢对于这里所表达的真理是没有什么很重大的关系的。Whether we think of being begotten of the Spirit or of being born of the Spirit,不论我们是在想从圣灵而生,好像父亲有个儿子,或者是由圣灵所生产出来,总之有一件事情是确定one thing is certain–we are instructed by our Lord that for entrance into the kingdom of God we are wholly dependent upon the action of the Holy Spirit,有一件事情肯定的,我们的主耶稣教导我们:若要进入到神的国,我们完全是依靠圣灵的工作,an action of the Holy Spirit which is compared to that on the part of our parents by which we were born into the world.圣灵的工作,是有点像我们的父母亲的作为,我们借助我们的父母亲所做的,我们生出来,进入到这个世界。
We are as dependent upon the Holy Spirit as we are upon the action of our parents in connection with our natural birth.我们在重生这件事情上,依靠圣灵,就正如我们在这个地上生出来完全是依靠我们的父母亲。We were not begotten by our father because we decided to be.我们不是因为我们决定如何,因此我的父亲把我们生出来。And we were not born of our mother because we decided to be.我们也不是因为自己决定如何,因此我们的母亲把我们生出来。
We were simply begotten and we were born.很简单的,我们的父亲生我们,我们的母亲生我们出来。We did not decide to be born.我们不是做一个决定要生出来。This is the simple but too frequently over-looked truth which our Lord here teaches us.这里我们主耶稣所教导我们的,就是一个很简单的真理,但确实太经常忽略的真理。we do not have spiritual perception of the kingdom of God我们并没有属灵的眼光能够看到神的国,nor do we enter into it because we willed to or decided to.我们进入神的国也不是因为我们的意志、意旨如此,或者我们决定如此。If this privilege is ours it is because the Holy Spirit willed it假如我们有这个的特权进入到上帝的国,那是因为圣灵的意志,圣灵决定这样子,and hear all rests upon the Holy Spirit’s decision and action.重生这件事情上,一切都在乎于圣灵的决定和圣灵的作为。
He begets or bears when and where he pleases.圣灵把我们生出来,不论好像父亲生还是母亲生,按照祂所喜悦的时间,按照祂所喜悦的地方。Is this not the burden of verse 8?第八节的重点岂不就是这点吗?Jesus there compares the action of the Spirit to the action of the wind.耶稣在第八节把圣灵的作为与风所做的比较。The wind blows–风吹,风就是会吹,–this serves to illustrate the factuality, the certainty, the efficacy of the Spirit’s action.风吹就说明了圣灵的工作是事实,圣灵的工作确定是事实,圣灵的工作是大有功效的工作的。The wind blows where it wills,风是随着自己的意思吹的,–this enforces the sovereignty of the Spirit’s action.这里就更加的强调圣灵的工作祂这个的主权。The wind is not at our beck and call;风不是跟我们的吩咐的neither is the regenerative operation of the Spirit圣灵重生的运行也不是遵守我们的吩咐。“Thou canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth”– 你不知道祂从哪里来,也往哪里去–the Spirit’s work is mysterious.圣灵的工作是奥秘。All points up the sovereignty, efficacy, and inscrutability of the Holy Spirit’s work in the regeneration.一切都指出圣灵重生的工作的主权,圣灵重生工作的大有功效,有效性,圣灵重生的工作的不可测度的奥秘性。
It is the Holy Spirit who effects this change.做成这个生命中的改变的是圣灵。He effects it because he is the source of it.圣灵实行了重生,因为祂是重生的来源。He effects it by the mode of generation.圣灵实现的重生,透过生出这种形式的动作。And since he effects by this mode既然圣灵用生出这个方法来做成重生he is the sole author and active agent.因此圣灵是唯一那位使人重生的那一位,圣灵也是主动的重生人的那位he is the sole author and active agent。It has often been said that we are passive in regeneration.我们常常会说:我们在重生是被动的。This is a true and proper statement.这句话是对的,是正确的。
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For it is simply the precipitate of what our Lord has taught us here.因为这句话只不过是我们的主再这里这段经文所教导我们的结果。We may not like it.可能我们不喜欢这个真理。We may recoil against it.可能我们会厌恶、回避这个真理。It may not fit into our way of thinking这个真理可能不符合我们的思想的方式,and it may not with the time-worn expression which are the coin of our evangelism.也可能不符合我们近代多年来用惯了的布道的术语。But if we recoil against it,假如我们厌恶,退避的话,we do well to remember that请记得,对你有好处,的记得什么,this recoil is recoil against Christ.这个厌恶是厌恶基督。And what shall we answer when we appear before him whose truth we rejected and with whose gospel we tampered?我们这样子来拒绝基督的真理,我们这样子来篡改基督的福音,当我们站在祂面前的时候,我们要怎么回答祂呢?But blessed be God that the gospel of Christ is one of sovereign, efficacious, irresistible regeneration. 但是我们称颂上帝,基督的福音是主权的重生、大有功效的重生、不可抗拒的重生的福音。
If it were not the case若不是这样的话,that in regeneration we are passive 若是是不是我们在重生这件事是被动的话呢,the subject of an action of which God alone is the agent,假如事实不是说我们都是唯独上帝做成的大工的受者、被动的对象的话呢,there would be no gospel at all.那么就简直就没有福音可言。For unless God by sovereign, operative grace had turned our enmity to love and our disbelieve to faith we would never yield the response of faith and love.因为除非上帝用祂主权的、在我们里面运行的恩典,使我们的敌意转化为爱、是我们的不信转化为信,除非是这样子,不然我们永远不会拿出信和爱的回应。
John 3:5 sets forth the two aspects from which the new birth must be viewed–约翰福音第三章第5节,指出我们要从两个不同的角度来看新生、来看重生,第一方面–it purdes away the defilement of our hearts 重生洁净我们心中的污秽、玷污,第二and it recreate in newness of life.第二它再创造生命,成为新的生命。The two elements of this text — “born of water” and “born of the Spirit’这段经文的两个要素, “从水而生”, “从灵而生”–correspond to the two elements of the Old Testament counter-part:是相对于旧约相等的经文的两个要素,
(Ezek,36:25,26,以西结书36:25-26) “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:from all your filthiness, and from all your idols,will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an new heart of flesh”(以西结书36:25-26:)“我必用清水洒在你们身上,你们就洁净了,我要洁净你们使你们脱离一切的污秽,去掉一切的偶像,我也要赐给你们一个新心,将新灵放在你们里面,又从你们的肉体中除掉石心,赐给你们肉心。”
This passage we may properly regard as the Old Testament parallel of John 3:5我们正确地把这段经文,就是以西结书36章25章26节看为是约翰三章第5节的平行的平衡的经文and there is neither reason nor warrant for placing any other interpretation upon “born of water” than that of Ezekiel 36:25:因此,我们没有任何的理由支持我们说 “从水重生”只可以从,以西结书36:25这个角度去理解,不可有别的解释,Ezekiel 36:25: “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.” “必用清水洒在你们身上,你们就洁净了。” These elements, the purificatory and the renovatory, must not be regarded as separable events.洁净的这个要素,和更新使生命成为新的这个要素这两个不可以看作是分开的两件事。
They are simply the aspects which are constitutive of this total change,洁净和再生,或者更新,只不过是这一件事,这个完全的改变本质上的两个层面,by which the called of God are translated from death to life透过这两个层面的改变。蒙上帝所召的人,就转化,出死入生,and from the kingdom of Satan into God’s kingdom,从撒旦的权势国度进入到上帝的国度,a change which provides for all the exigencies of our past condition这个转变就处理我们过去的状态一切的困围and the demands of the new life in Christ,也满足了在基督里新的生命一切的条件,a change which remove the contradiction of sin这个转化、这个改变就除掉罪,是如何与上帝矛盾,触怒上帝and fits for the fellowship of God’s Son.这个改变使我们适合与上帝的儿子相交、与祂有份。
It was the apostle John who recorded for us our Lord’s discourse to make Nicodemus.为我们记录我们的主与尼哥底母的对话的是使徒约翰。John had learned its lesson well约翰把这个功课学好了,and particularly the lesson that regeneration is the act of God and of God alone,特别重生是上帝所作的作为,唯独上帝所作的作为,特别是这个教训,that men are born again “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”(John1:13,约翰福音第一章第13节:)“这等人不是从血气生的,不是从情欲生的,也不是从人意生的,乃是从上帝生的。”(约1:13) He has inscribed this teaching indelibly upon his first epistle, also.他也把这个的教训刻印在他所写的约翰一书,永不可磨灭。Explicit reference to the regeneration appears in that epistle on several occasions,约翰一书有好几次明文的指到重生(1 John 2:29;3:9;4:7;5:1,4,18.约翰一书二章29节,三章第9节,四章第7节,五章的第1节第4节和第18节)。
The leading emphasis in these passages is 在这好几段经文里,最主要所强调的upon the fact there is an invariable concomitance or co-ordenation of regeneration and other fruits of grace. 所强调的就是,重生必定有其他的恩典所结出的果子伴随着,与他相互相成的,协调的。In 2:29在约翰一书第二章29节,it is the concomitance (togetherness) of the divine begetting and doing righteousness;二章29节我们看到,上帝所生,和行公义是同时的,是放在一起的,in 3:9 of the divine begetting, on the one hand, and not doing sin and incapacity to sin, on the other;第三章第九节我们看到,一方面是由上帝所生,另外一方面是不犯罪,也不能犯罪。这两方面是一起的,in 4:7;约翰一书第四章第七节,of the divine begetting and love;上帝所生和有爱心是在一起的,in 5:1约翰一书第五章第一节,of the divine begetting and believing that Jesus is Christ;上帝所生,然后相信耶稣就是基督是一起的;in 5:4在第五章第4节of the divine begetting and overcoming the world;由上帝所生和胜过世界是在一起的,in 5:18 在第五章第18节of the divine begetting and not sinning and immunity to the touch of the evil one.上帝所生和不犯罪,也是从那位恶者的影响免疫的这两件事是放在一起的。
As we shall see you later,我们会在下文看到,this is a very significant emphasis 这里所强调的是非常重要的一件事,and warns us against any view of regeneration which abstracts it from the other elements of the application with redemption.就警告我们,我们不要采某一种的重生观,让重生和其他的施行救赎的要素,把它抽离出来,意思就是说,重生的一定是与信、爱、顺服、不犯罪等等连在一起的,不要把它抽离出来。
In most of these passages all that is expressly stated is this truth of the invariable concomitance of regeneration and these other blessings of grace.在这好几段的经文的大部分,明文所说出的只不过是重生和这些其他的恩典的福份必然是在一起的。But in 3:9但是在第三章第九节we are expressly informed of something else,第三章第九节明文地告诉我们另外一件事,是什么呢,namely, the relation which regeneration sustains to the other particular graces mentioned in that text.就是重生和这些其他经文提到的那些的恩典,那些的美德之间究竟是什么关系。(3:9)“Everyone who is begotten of God does not do sin; because his seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God.”(第三章第9节):“凡从上帝生的就不犯罪,因为上帝的种存在他心里。他也不能犯罪,因为他是由上帝生的。”
We will continue to explain the meaning of 3:9 is and how it provides something else.我们下一讲继续讲第三章第9节的意思,它如何是在说出另一方面的真理。
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