和他一同埋葬……一举一动有新生的样式。(罗六4)
一个人要经历完全的成圣,不能不先经过“白色的葬礼”——旧生命的埋葬。若没有这死的转捩点,成圣只不过是幻影。必须有一次“白色的丧礼”,死才有复活——复活在耶稣基督的生命里头。什么都不能摇动这生命,这是与神合一的生命;而我们的目的只有一个,就是为他作见证。你真的来到生命的尽头了吗?在情绪上你固然时常会来到,但是否真真正正面对它?你不可能兴兴奋奋地死去。死的意思是你不复存在。你有没有答应神,让往日那竭力挣扎、热情充沛的信徒经历成为过去?我们往往巡视坟场的四周,始终不肯死去。我们并不是要竭力求死,乃是“受洗归入他的死”。
你行过你“白色的葬礼”没有?还是在与自己的灵魂愚弄嬉耍?你生命中有没有一个地方标明“末日”?有没有一个地方让你想起当日所受的管教,心中万分感激地说:“是了,就在那时,在那‘白色丧礼’中,我与神立了约”?神的旨意是叫我们成圣。当你一旦觉察到神的旨意是什么,就十分自然地进到成圣的地步。你愿意现在就行那“白色丧礼”吗?你能否向神首肯说,这一天是你在地上的最后一天?首肯的时刻是在你手上。
祈祷◆“非圣洁没有人能见主。”主啊,感谢你,赐下这句话。倘若你不是圣洁的,那会是何等可怕!有些时候,我们是多么容易坠入一个较松散、较卑贱的生活中了;感谢你藉着圣灵的叹息提醒我——我何其渴望它们能带领我与你面对面。宽恕我的迟缓,我需要那么久,才醒悟某些事情。
January 15 Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”— the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my 'white funeral', that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God's will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.