經文: 「不要叫上帝的聖靈擔憂；你們原是受了祂的印記，等候得贖的日子來到。」(聖經·以弗所書 4章30節)「你們要思念上面的事，不要思念地上的事。因為你們已經死了，你們的生命與基督一同藏在上帝裡面。」(聖經·歌羅西書 3章2-3節)
「從前所交託你的善道，你要靠著那住在我們裡面的聖靈牢牢地守著。」(提摩太後書 一14)如同亞當在伊甸園選擇「背棄」屬天的生命那樣，一個得蒙救贖的人，理當選擇「釘死老自己」，向「敗壞的天性」說「不」，這才是一條通往屬天生命的十字架道路。我們終其一生都當不斷向自己死，每時每刻選擇向上帝而活，也就是說凡事勿依賴自己的能力，只單單地仰望上帝。
你是否很興奮地想到，自己已經發現這些真理，就像你找到地上的珍寶了；但別忘了，若你不變賣你的所有去買它，這珍寶還不能屬你所有。「老我」是你所擁有的，而這「老我」裡面毫無良善可言；因此這「老我」必須完全被棄絕、釘死，屬天的生命這珍寶才能成為你的。「老我」是與上帝為敵，被它所接觸碰到的都會遭敗壞破損；因為老我是滋養罪惡的溫床，若將內在的老我治死，外在的仇敵也將被制服。
所有真實的宗教，都有共通的真理基礎，即克服敗壞老亞當的肉體生命，也就是完全的治死老我；上帝的兒子呼召我們，走十字架的道路，向世界死，向上帝活。當我們用意志選擇棄絕自己，將自己交託給上帝時，我們就可不再以自我為中心，並遠離驕傲、嫉妒、與仇恨了。
若把這些真理，只當作頭腦認知的教義，或外表假裝聖潔的樣子，卻沒有完全向老我死，那麼追求成聖的理想，不過是個空中樓閣；想向上帝活，卻又不願釘死老自己，如此是絕對無法走十字架的道路；就像一粒麥子，若不埋在土裡死了，就絕對不可能結出子粒來。 要過一個聖潔虔敬的生活，向老我「完全死透」是根本之道，因為「死」在我身上發動時，「生」才能同時在身上發動。若我們不肯帶著憂傷痛悔的心，不肯破碎老我，就無法成聖，因為沒有拆毀，那有建造！
我們的羔羊耶穌若沒有死在十字架上，上帝就沒有機會將祂從死裡復活、高舉祂升天，坐在父上帝的右邊。藉著祂的受死、復活，就為世人開了一條又新又活的路，讓我們可以坦然無懼地來到祂施恩寶座前；因此，我們也當與耶穌同死同復活，經歷老我釘十架的道路，如此才能嚐到上帝同在的滋味。要體會上帝同在的喜樂，與聖靈在我們心中運行的能力；惟一的秘訣，就是不斷宣告，我每時每刻向己死，並且向上帝而活。總之，破碎自己，讓上帝建造這個我，是成聖的不二法門。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 8月27日)
作者：慕安德烈
編輯：榮華興
『 Continual self-denial 』
Scripture: “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” — (Ephesians 4:30) “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” — (Colossians 3:2-3)
“A Spiritual look is a call to as real and total a death to the life of corrupt nature as that which Adam died in Paradise was to the life of heaven. To the end of four lives every inch of our road is to be made up of denial and dying to ourselves. To think of anything but the continual total denial of our earthly nature is to overlook the very thing on which all depends.
“You rejoice in thinking that now in knowing these truths you have found the Pearl of great price. But notice, it is not yours till you sell all that you have and buy it. Now self is all that you have; you have no good of your own, nothing is yours but this self; and all this self is to be parted with before the pearl is yours. That is, die to all thy possession of self; all of it is to be given up; it is an apostate nature, a continual departure from God; it corrupts everything that it touches. All evil tempers are born and nourished in self. Die to this self, to this inward nature, then all outward enemies are overcome.
“The true ground of all true religion is: it means nothing but to overcome that earthly life which overcame Adam in the Fall. Therefore you must know that the one thing needed is to die to all the life that we have from this world. The Son of God calls us to die to this life and take up His cross. When the human soul turns from itself, and turns to God, dies to itself and lives to God in the Spirit and tempers of the holy Jesus, then only it is delivered from covetousness and sensuality, from a worldly spirit, from all self-interest and self-exaltation, from all hatred and envy.
“To think of anything in religion, or to pretend to real holiness, without totally dying to this old man, is building castles in the air. To think of being alive in God, before we are dead to our own nature, is as impossible as for a grain of wheat to be alive before it dies.
“The total dying to self is the only foundation of a solid piety. Thus alone does the spiritual life begin at the true root, grows out of death, and is born in a broken heart, a heart broken off from all its own natural life.”
Our blessed Lord Jesus could not be raised from the dead into the glory of the Father’s right hand until He had died on the Cross. This is the new and living way which He opened up through the rent veil of the flesh into the Holiest of All. And it is in this new and living way with our flesh also crucified and given over to the death, that we can enter into the life and the joy of God’s presence here upon earth. The continual denial of self is one of the secrets of the continual enjoyment of God’s presence and power working in our hearts.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 27 August 」
