經文: 「上帝……樂意將祂兒子啟示在我心裡。」— (聖經·加拉太書 1章15b-16a節)
當我們研讀耶穌生平,學習認識敬拜祂,會發現我們思想環繞著五個主題:道成肉身的耶穌,釘十字架的耶穌,坐寶座的耶穌,內住的耶穌,榮耀再來的耶穌。若說道成肉身的耶穌是種子,釘十架的耶穌就是埋在土裡的種子;升天坐寶座的耶穌,就是已發芽生長的種子直到天庭;然後藉著聖靈的運作,內住信徒心中;最後耶穌再來的時候,就是果實收成的時候。
保羅教導我們,上帝樂意將祂的兒子基督耶穌,啟示在我們心中,因此保羅說:「乃是基督在我裡面活著。」(加拉太書 二20),這樣生活的特色是,算自己的「老我」是與耶穌同釘十架,是死的;因此他能夠說:「現在活著的,不再是我,乃是基督在我裡面活著。」(加拉太書 二20)。
在耶穌裡保羅治死「老我」,就像十字架是耶穌的標誌 ——「寶座上被殺的羔羊」—— 因此保羅裡面基督的生命是與釘十架的主不可分割的,這事實是如此確實完整,以致於保羅敢這麼說:「我斷不以別的誇口,只誇我們主耶穌基督的十字架,因這十字架……我已經釘在十字架上。」(加拉太書 六14)。
若你問保羅,現在活著的不再是他自己,乃是耶穌在他裡面活,那麼他本身的責任何在?他的答案會是這樣:「我如今在肉身活著,是因信上帝的兒子而活,祂是愛我,為我捨己。」(加拉太書 二20),藉著聖靈的幫助與門徒的信心,耶穌的生命時時刻刻與愛祂的門徒同在,祂也負全責讓門徒能活出得勝的生命。
這些就是保羅所傳講信息的重點,他請眾信徒為他禱告,好使他能在外邦人中傳講解開「基督的奧祕」,也能把福音的奧祕及這榮耀的盼望傳講的明白。內住的耶穌是信心生活的奧祕,是保羅生活與工作的目標,是他服事的力量,也是他榮耀的盼望。讓那些完全仰望依靠上帝的信徒,能相信並經歷到耶穌的同在與內住,領悟到這正是「以馬內利」的上帝,也是給屬祂的百姓最好的禮物。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 7月20日)
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
(圖片版權屬「大同村教會」所有,在此僅供分享福音用途。)
『 Paul: CHRIST Revealed in Him 』
Scripture: “It was the good pleasure of God . . . to reveal His Son in Me.” —(Galatians 1:15b-16a)
In all our study and worship of Christ we find our thoughts ever gathering round these five points: The Incarnate Christ, the Crucified Christ, the Enthroned Christ, the Indwelling Christ, and Christ coming in glory. If the first be the seed, the second is the seed cast into the ground, and the third the seed growing up to the very heaven. Then follows the fruit through the Holy Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart; and then the gathering of the fruit into the garner when Christ appears.
Paul tells us that it pleased God to reveal His Son in Him. And he gives his testimony to the result of that revelation: “Christ liveth in me” (Gal. ii. 20). Of that life he says that its chief mark is that he is crucified with Christ. It is this that enables him to say, “I live no longer”; in Christ he had found the death of self. Just as the Cross is the chief characteristic of Christ Himself — “A lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne” — so the life of Christ in Paul made him inseparably one with his crucified Lord. So completely was this the case that he could say: “Far be it from me to glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which I am crucified to the world.”
If you had asked Paul, if Christ so actually lived in him that he no longer lived, what became of his responsibility? the answer was ready and clear: “I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” His life was every moment a life of faith in Him who had loved him and given Himself so completely that He had undertaken at all times to be the life of His willing disciple.
This was the sum and substance of all Paul’s teaching. He asks for intercession that he might speak “the mystery of Christ”; “even the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. ii. 2; i. 27). The indwelling Christ was the secret of his life of faith, the one power, the one aim of all his life and work, the hope of glory. Let us believe in the abiding presence of Christ as the sure gift to each one who trusts Him fully.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 20 July 」