10月9日 振作

将肢体献给义作奴仆,以至于成圣。(罗六19)

我不能救自己,叫自己成圣,也不能赎罪;我不能救赎世界,把歪的弄直,把不纯的变为纯净,把不洁的变为圣洁。这完全是神至高无上的作为。我对主耶稣成就的一切,有没有信心呢?他成就完全的救恩,我有没有时刻谨记?最重要的不是作什么,而是相信。基督的救赎不是一个经验,乃是神透过基督成就的大作为,我要把信心建基其上。若我的信心寄托在自己的经历上,就产生最不合圣经的模式--一个孤立的生命,因为我只注视自身的洁白。要提防那种不以主的救赎为根基的敬虔,这生命毫无用处,只是避世的退隐,对神无用处,对人也无裨益。要以主耶稣来衡量每一种经历。除非我们把所有事物建基在主的救赎上,否则一切所作的都不能讨神喜悦。

主耶稣的救赎必须在我的生活上产生实际自然的功效。每次我顺服,神就在我这一方,他的恩典与我天性的顺服就契合为一了。顺服就是把一切都投在主的救赎上,于是就立即得着神恩典的悦纳。

提防那些否定天然人性的敬虔自守,因这只是个假壳。要经常去到救赎的案前,问自己:在这件或那件事上,(在我身上的)救赎大工有被显明出来吗?

祈祷◆主啊,我来到你的面前,求你自己像一团火那样四面护卫我,而你的荣耀就在其中。这个祈求听起来全属自私,可是,我却不懂得用别的方法来表达。噢,主啊,你是最清楚知道的。

October 9 Pull Yourself Together

“Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” Romans 6:13-22

I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I can not make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement, am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it. If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce that most unscriptural type, an isolated life, my eyes fixed on my own whiteness. Beware of the piety that has no pre-supposition in the Atonement of the Lord. It is of no use for anything but a sequestered life; it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every type of experience by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the pre-supposition of the Atonement.

The Atonement of Jesus has to work out in practical, unobtrusive ways in my life. Every time I obey, absolute Deity is on my side, so that the grace of God and natural obedience coincide. Obedience means that I have banked everything on the Atonement, and my obedience is met immediately by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

Beware of the piety that denies the natural life, it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the bar of the Atonement – where is the discernment of the Atonement in this thing, and in that?