Scripture: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” — [Romans 6:8]
The reason that God’s children live so little in the power of the resurrection life of Christ, is because they have so little understanding of or faith in their death with Christ. How clearly this appears from what Paul says: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him”; it is the knowledge and experience that gives us the assurance of the power of His resurrection in us. “Christ died unto sin once; but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God” (ver. 10). It is only because and as we know that we are dead with Him, that we can live with Him.
On the strength of this, Paul now appeals to his readers. “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (ver. 11). The words “even so reckon yourselves” are a call to an act of bold and confident faith. Reckon yourselves to be indeed dead unto sin, as much as Christ is, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word gives us a Divine assurance of what we actually are and have in Christ. And this not as a truth that our minds can master and appropriate, but a reality which the Holy Spirit will reveal within us. In His power we accept our death with Christ on the cross as the power of our daily life.
Then we are able to accept and obey the command: “Let not sin reign in your mortal body; but present yourself unto God, as alive from the dead; for sin shall not have dominion over you” (vers. 12, 13, 14). “Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness; present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Being now made free from sin, ye have your fruit unto sanctification” (vers. 18, 19, 22).
The whole chapter is a wonderful revelation of the deep meaning of its opening words: “How shall we, who died to sin, live any more therein ?” Everything depends upon our acceptance of the Divine assurance: if we died with Christ, as He died, and now lives to God, we too have the assurance that in Him we have the power to live unto God.
Scripture: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” “He believed God, Who quickeneth the dead.” — [Romans 4:3b,17a]
Let us now, after listening to the words of our Lord Jesus about our fellowship with Him in the cross, turn to St. Paul, and see how through the Holy Spirit he gives the deeper insight into what our death in Christ means.
You know how the first section of Romans is devoted to the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. After speaking (1:18-32) of the awful sin of the heathen, and then (2:1-29) of the sin of the Jew, he points out how Jew and Gentile are “guilty before God.” “All have sinned and come short.” And then he sets forth that free grace which gave the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (3:21-31). In chapter 4, he points to Abraham as having, when he believed, understood that God justified him freely by His grace, and not for anything that he had done.
Abraham had not only believed this, but something more. “He believed in God, Who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were.” The two expressions are most significant, as indicating the two essential needs there are in the redemption of man in Christ Jesus. There is the need of justification by faith, to restore man to the favour of God. But there is more needed. He must also be quickened to a new life. Just as justification is by faith alone, so is regeneration also. Christ died for our sins; He was raised again out of, or through our justification.
In the first section (down to chapter 5:11) Paul deals exclusively with the great thought of our justification. But in the second section (5:12 to 8:39) he expounds that wonderful union with Christ through faith, by which we died with Him, by which we live in Him, and by which through the Holy Spirit, we are made free, not only from the punishment, but also from the power of sin, and are enabled to live the life of righteousenss, of obedience, and of sanctification.
Scripture: “When Jesus had received the vinegar. He said: ‘It is finished.'” — [John 19:30]
The seven words of our Lord on the cross reveal to us His mind and disposition. At the beginning of His ministry He said (John 4:34): “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” In all things, the small as well as the great. He should accomplish God’s work. In the High-Priestly prayer at the end of the three years’ ministry, He could say (John 17:4): “I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” He sacrificed all, and in dying on the cross could in truth say: “It is finished.”
With that word to the Father He laid down His life. With that word He was strengthened, after the terrible agony on the cross, in the knowledge that all was now fulfilled. And with that word He uttered the truth of the gospel of our redemption, that all that was needed for man’s salvation had been accomplished on the cross.
This disposition should characterize every follower of Christ. The mind that was in Him must be in us-it must he our meat, the strength of our life, to do the Will of God in all things, and to finish His work. There may be small things about which we are not conscientious and so we bring harm to ourselves and to God’s work. Or we draw back before some great thing which demands too much sacrifice. In every case we may find strength to perform our duty in Christ’s word: “It is finished.” His finished work secured the victory over every foe. By faith we may appropriate that dying word of Christ on the cross, and find the power for daily living and dying in the fellowship of the crucified Christ.
Child of God, study the inexhaustible treasure contained in this word: “It is finished.” Faith in what Christ accomplished on the cross will enable you to manifest in daily life the spirit of the cross.
Scripture: “‘Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.’ And having said this, He gave up the ghost.” — [Luke 23:46]
Like David (Psalms 31:5), Christ had often committed His spirit into the hands of His Father for His daily life and need. But here is something new and very special. He gives up His spirit into the power of death, gives up all control over it, to sink down into the darkness and death of the grave, where He can neither think, nor pray, nor will. He surrenders himself to the utmost into the Father’s hands, trusting Him to care for Him in the dark, and in due time to raise Him up again.
If we have indeed died in Christ and are now in faith every day to carry about with us the death of our Lord Jesus, this word is the very one that we need. Just think once again what Christ meant when He said that we must hate and lose our life.
We died in Adam; the life we receive from him is death; there is nothing good or heavenly in us by nature. It is to this inward evil nature, to all the life that we have from this world, that we must die. There cannot be any thought of any real holiness, without totally dying to this self or “old man.” Many deceive themselves because they seek to be alive in God before they are dead to their own nature: a thing as impossible as it is for a grain of wheat to be alive before it dies. This total dying to self lies at the root of all true piety. The spiritual life must grow out of death.
And if we ask how we can do this, we find the answer in the mind in which Christ died. Like Him we cast ourselves upon God, without knowing how the new life is to be attained; but as we in fellowship with Jesus say, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit,” and depend simply and absolutely upon God to raise us up into the new life, there will be fulfilled in us the wonderful promise of God’s Word, concerning the exceeding greatness of His power in us who believe, according to the mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.
This indeed is the true rest of faith, that lives every day and every hour in the absolute dependence upon the continual and immediate quickening of the Divine life in us by God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
Scripture: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”—”I thirst.”—”It is finished.” — [Matthew 27:46b, John 19:28b,30]
The three first words on the cross reveal love In its outflow to men. The next three reveal love in the tremendous sacrifice that it brought, to deliver us from our sins and give the victory over every foe. They will still reveal the very mind that was in Christ, and that is to be in us as the disposition of our whole life.
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” How deep must have been the darkness that overshadowed Him, when not one ray of light could pierce, and He could not say, “My Father”! It was this awful desertion, breaking in upon that life of childlike fellowship with the Father in which He had always walked, that caused Him the agony and the bloody sweat in Gethsemane. “O My Father, let this cup pass from me.” — but it might not be, and He bowed His head in submission: “Thy will be done.” It was His love to God and love to man, yielding Himself to the very uttermost. It is as we learn to believe and to worship that love, that we too shall learn to say: “Abba, Father, Thy will be done.”
“I thirst.” The body now gives expression to the terrible experience of what it passed through when the fire of God’s wrath against sin came upon Christ in the hour of His desertion. He had spoken of Dives crying: “I am tormented in this flame.” Christ utters His complaint of what He had suffered. Physicians tell us that, in crucifixion the whole body is in agony with a terrible fever and pain. Our Lord endured it all and cried: “I thirst”; soul and body was the sacrifice He brought the Father.
And then comes the great word: “It is finished.” All that there was to suffer and endure had been brought a willing sacrifice; He had finished the work the Father gave Him to do. His love held nothing back. He gave Himself an offering and a sacrifice. Such was the mind of Christ, and such must be the disposition of everyone who owes Himself and his life to that sacrifice. The mind that was in Christ must be in us ready to say: “I am come to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” And every day that our confidence grows fuller in Christ’s finished work, must see our heart more entirely yielding itself like Him, a whole burnt offering in the service of God and His love.
Scripture: “Then said Jesus: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ ” — [Luke 23:34a]
The seven words on the cross reveal what the mind of Christ is, and show the dispositions that become His disciples. Take the three first words, all the expression of His wonderful love.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He prays for His enemies. In the hour of their triumph over Him, and of the shame and suffering which they delight in showering on Him, He pours out His love in prayer for them. It is the call to everyone who believes in a crucified Christ, to go and do likewise, even as He has said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you.” The law of the Master is the law for the disciple; the love of the crucified Jesus, the only rule for those who believe in Him.
“Woman, behold thy son!” “Behold thy mother!” The love that cared for His enemies, cared too for His friends. Jesus felt what the anguish must be in the heart of His widowed mother, and commits her to the care of the beloved disciple. He knew that for John there could be no higher privilege, and no more blessed service, than that of taking His place in the care of Mary. Even so we who are the disciples of Christ must not only pray for His enemies, but prove our love to Him, and to all who belong to Him, by seeing to it that every solitary one is comforted, and that every loving heart has some work to do in caring for those who belong to the blessed Master.
“Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” The penitent thief had appealed to Christ’s mercy to remember him. With what readiness of joy and love Christ gives the immediate answer to his prayer! Whether it was the love that prayed for His enemies, or the love that cared for His friends, or the love that rejoices over the penitent sinner who was bein? cast out by man, — in all Christ proves that the cross is a cross of love, that the Crucified One is the embodiment of a love that passeth knowledge.
With every thought of what we owe to that love, with every act of faith in which we rejoice in its redemption, let us prove that the mind of the crucified Christ is our mind, and that His love is not only what we trust in for ourselves, but what guides us in our loving intercourse with the world around us.
Scripture: “0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” — [Matthew 26:39b]
The death of Christ on the cross is the highest and the holiest that can be known of Him even in the glory of heaven. And the highest and the holiest that the Holy Spirit can work in us, is to take us up and to keep us in the fellowship of the cross of Christ. We need to enter deeply into the truth that Christ the beloved Son of the Father could not return to the glory of heaven until He had first given Himself over unto death. As this great truth opens up to us, it will help us to understand how in our life, and in our fellowship with Christ, it is impossible for us to share His life until we have first in very deed surrendered ourselves every day to die to sin and the world, and so to abide in the unbroken fellowship with our crucified Lord.
And it is from Christ alone that we can learn what it means to have fellowship with His sufferings, and to be made conformable unto His death. When in the agony of Gethsemane He looked forward to what a death on the cross would be, He got such a vision of what it meant to die the accursed death under the power of sin, with God’s countenance so turned from Him that not a single ray of its light could penetrate the darkness, He prayed that the cup might pass from Him. But when no answer came, and He understood that the Father could not allow the cup to pass by, He yielded up His whole will and life in the word : “Thy will be done.” O Christian, in this word of thy Lord in His agony, thou canst enter into fellowship with Him, and in His strength thy heart will be made strong to believe most confidently that God in His omnipotence will enable thee in very deed with Christ to yield up everything, because thou hast in very deed been crucified with Him.
“Thy will be done” ; let this be the deepest and the highest word in thy life. In the power of Christ with Whom thou hast been crucified, and in the power of His Spirit, the definite daily surrender to the ever-blessed will of God will become the joy and the strength of thy life.
Posted: 2022-06-22 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220621『與耶穌同死-Dead With Christ』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「我們若是與基督同死,就信必與祂同活。」— [聖經·羅馬書 6章8節]
上帝的兒女們為何很少有人經歷到耶穌復活的大能?這是因為他們不了解何謂與耶穌同死,或對這事實沒有信心。保羅清楚說到:「我們若是與基督同死,就信必與祂同活。」這是可以體驗的真理,叫我們可確知復活的能力在我們身上。「祂死是向罪死了,只有一次,祂活是向上帝活著。」(羅馬書 6章10節),這是因為我們與祂同死,就堅信可以與祂同活。
接著保羅又向基督徒懇切呼籲:「這樣,你們向罪也當看自己是死的;向上帝在基督耶穌裡,卻當看自己是活的。」(羅馬書 6章11節),這個「看自己是」是一個大膽活潑的信心舉動,且給我們一個確據,就是耶穌活在我們心中,這不是頭腦的一個認知,乃是聖靈在我們心中作見證,是實際可經歷到的;就是在每天的生活中,我們接受與耶穌同釘十字架的事實,同時經歷祂復活能力的運行。
如此我們就能接受並遵行上帝的命令:「不要容罪在你們必死的身上作王,使你們順從身子的私慾。罪必不能作你們的主,因你們不在律法之下,乃在恩典之下。」(羅馬書 6章12,14),「你們既從罪裡得了釋放,就作了義的奴僕。你們既從罪裡得了(羅馬書 6章18,22節)釋放,作了上帝的奴僕,就有成聖的果子,那結局就是永生。」
羅馬書第六章整篇都在反覆闡釋開宗明義第一節的經文:「我們可以仍在罪中,叫恩典顯多嗎?」當然不,一切都在於接受耶穌受死復活的確據,叫我們可以脫離罪的轄制,將自己獻給義做器皿,只單單地為上帝而活。阿們。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 6月21日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 Dead With Christ 』
Scripture: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” — [Romans 6:8]
The reason that God’s children live so little in the power of the resurrection life of Christ, is because they have so little understanding of or faith in their death with Christ. How clearly this appears from what Paul says: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him”; it is the knowledge and experience that gives us the assurance of the power of His resurrection in us. “Christ died unto sin once; but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God” (ver. 10). It is only because and as we know that we are dead with Him, that we can live with Him.
On the strength of this, Paul now appeals to his readers. “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (ver. 11). The words “even so reckon yourselves” are a call to an act of bold and confident faith. Reckon yourselves to be indeed dead unto sin, as much as Christ is, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word gives us a Divine assurance of what we actually are and have in Christ. And this not as a truth that our minds can master and appropriate, but a reality which the Holy Spirit will reveal within us. In His power we accept our death with Christ on the cross as the power of our daily life.
Then we are able to accept and obey the command: “Let not sin reign in your mortal body; but present yourself unto God, as alive from the dead; for sin shall not have dominion over you” (vers. 12, 13, 14). “Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness; present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Being now made free from sin, ye have your fruit unto sanctification” (vers. 18, 19, 22).
The whole chapter is a wonderful revelation of the deep meaning of its opening words: “How shall we, who died to sin, live any more therein ?” Everything depends upon our acceptance of the Divine assurance: if we died with Christ, as He died, and now lives to God, we too have the assurance that in Him we have the power to live unto God.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 21 June 」
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Posted: 2022-06-21 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220620『上帝的公義-The Righteousness of God』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「亞伯拉罕信上帝,這就算為他的義。亞伯拉罕所信的,是那叫死人復活使無變為有的上帝。」— [聖經·羅馬書 4章3b,17a節]
耶穌談論基督徒與祂同釘十字架的事,現在讓我們來看看保羅如何深入闡釋「與耶穌同死」的真理與亮光。
羅馬書前半段提到「因信稱義」的道理,先提到外邦人的罪惡(第1章18-32節),然後提到猶太人的罪惡(第2章1-29節),他說無論「猶太人」或「外邦人」,在上帝面前都是有罪的,「因為世人都犯了罪,虧缺了上帝的榮耀。」(羅馬書 3章23節),然後他又提到在耶穌裡白白的救贖,在第四章他指出上帝算亞伯拉罕為義,不是因著他所行的事,乃是因著他的信。
亞伯拉罕不僅相信這些,他甚至相信「那叫死人復活,使無變有的上帝。」這兩句話極具關鍵性,是救恩的兩項要素。首先是因信稱義,使得我們與上帝和好,此外,還要有復活的新生命,這兩樣缺一不可。是的,耶穌為我們的罪而死,但在我們信主重生後,耶穌復活的生命,也在我們裡面成長。
保羅在前半段(1章16節-5章11節)反覆重申因信稱義的真理,但在後半段(5章12節-8章39節)他強調憑信與耶穌聯合,藉此與耶穌同死同復活,並靠著聖靈的大能,我們不但得以免除刑罰,而且脫離罪的權勢,能夠過一個聖潔、順服並討主喜悅的生活。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 6月20日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
[圖片版權屬「基督愛的教會」所有,在此僅供分享福音用途。]
『 The Righteousness of God 』
Scripture: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” “He believed God, Who quickeneth the dead.” — [Romans 4:3b,17a]
Let us now, after listening to the words of our Lord Jesus about our fellowship with Him in the cross, turn to St. Paul, and see how through the Holy Spirit he gives the deeper insight into what our death in Christ means.
You know how the first section of Romans is devoted to the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. After speaking (1:18-32) of the awful sin of the heathen, and then (2:1-29) of the sin of the Jew, he points out how Jew and Gentile are “guilty before God.” “All have sinned and come short.” And then he sets forth that free grace which gave the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (3:21-31). In chapter 4, he points to Abraham as having, when he believed, understood that God justified him freely by His grace, and not for anything that he had done.
Abraham had not only believed this, but something more. “He believed in God, Who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were.” The two expressions are most significant, as indicating the two essential needs there are in the redemption of man in Christ Jesus. There is the need of justification by faith, to restore man to the favour of God. But there is more needed. He must also be quickened to a new life. Just as justification is by faith alone, so is regeneration also. Christ died for our sins; He was raised again out of, or through our justification.
In the first section (down to chapter 5:11) Paul deals exclusively with the great thought of our justification. But in the second section (5:12 to 8:39) he expounds that wonderful union with Christ through faith, by which we died with Him, by which we live in Him, and by which through the Holy Spirit, we are made free, not only from the punishment, but also from the power of sin, and are enabled to live the life of righteousenss, of obedience, and of sanctification.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 20 June 」
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Posted: 2022-06-18 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220618『成了-It is Finished』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「耶穌嘗了那醋,就說:成了;便低下頭,將靈魂交付上帝了。」— [聖經·約翰福音 19章30節]
耶穌在十字架上說的這句話,顯明祂的心志與順服。祂在傳道之初就說:「我的食物,就是遵行差我來者的旨意,作成祂的工。」(約翰福音 4章34節),在凡事上無論大小,祂一心就是要把上帝所交待的事做好。在祂三年傳道工作之後,祂以最高祭司的身份如此禱告:「我在地上已經榮耀祢,祢所託付我的事,我已成全了。」(約翰福音 17章4節),祂犧牲一切,為我們捨棄生命在十字架上,因此祂可以這樣說:「成了」。
說完這句話,祂就把生命交付天父,上帝也加添祂的力量,使祂能忍受那人世間最殘忍的酷刑,釘死在十字架上為世人償還犯罪的代價,完成救贖的工作。
每一位跟隨基督的信徒,都應該有耶穌的心志與順服,以耶穌的心腸為我們的心腸,在各樣的事上遵行上帝的旨意,作為我們行事的原則與動力。或許是閃過腦海的意念,或是微不足道的瑣事,若不求問上帝反憑己意而行,都會讓上帝的國度或自己受虧損。或者我們會想逃避那些麻煩和要我們付上代價的事,這也是一種違逆不順服。然而,靠著我們救主耶穌在十字架的勞苦受死,我們已經在各樣的事上得勝有餘,因為藉著信心,我們可以像耶穌在十字架上說:「成了」。我們每天支取所需要的能力,藉著與祂在十字架上的死聯合,就得以有份於祂復活的生命。
親愛的弟兄姐妹們,多多挖掘聖經中無限的寶藏,深思聖經中耶穌所講的:「成了」;默想耶穌在十字架上所成就的大功,可以幫助你每天彰顯十字架的精神-犧牲捨己。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 6月18日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 It is Finished 』
Scripture: “When Jesus had received the vinegar. He said: ‘It is finished.'” — [John 19:30]
The seven words of our Lord on the cross reveal to us His mind and disposition. At the beginning of His ministry He said (John 4:34): “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” In all things, the small as well as the great. He should accomplish God’s work. In the High-Priestly prayer at the end of the three years’ ministry, He could say (John 17:4): “I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” He sacrificed all, and in dying on the cross could in truth say: “It is finished.”
With that word to the Father He laid down His life. With that word He was strengthened, after the terrible agony on the cross, in the knowledge that all was now fulfilled. And with that word He uttered the truth of the gospel of our redemption, that all that was needed for man’s salvation had been accomplished on the cross.
This disposition should characterize every follower of Christ. The mind that was in Him must be in us-it must he our meat, the strength of our life, to do the Will of God in all things, and to finish His work. There may be small things about which we are not conscientious and so we bring harm to ourselves and to God’s work. Or we draw back before some great thing which demands too much sacrifice. In every case we may find strength to perform our duty in Christ’s word: “It is finished.” His finished work secured the victory over every foe. By faith we may appropriate that dying word of Christ on the cross, and find the power for daily living and dying in the fellowship of the crucified Christ.
Child of God, study the inexhaustible treasure contained in this word: “It is finished.” Faith in what Christ accomplished on the cross will enable you to manifest in daily life the spirit of the cross.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 18 June 」
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Posted: 2022-06-18 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220617『十字架的死-The Death of The Cross』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「耶穌大聲喊著說:父啊!我將我的靈魂交在祢手裏;說了這話,氣就斷了。」— [聖經·路加福音 23章46節]
如大衛在詩篇卅一篇5節所說,耶穌將自己的靈魂交託在天父上帝手中,每天向上帝支取所需要的能力。但上十字架卻是極為特殊的事件,絕非一件稀鬆平常的事可相比擬的,耶穌放棄自己的權利與能力,將自己交付予死亡的權勢並埋葬在墳墓裡,沈沒在黑黑的幽暗陰間,三天的時間無法獨立思考,無法與天父溝通,也無自由意志。祂將自己完全降服在天父的手中,相信在黑暗中,天父仍然看顧祂,並且到了時候,天父上帝要使祂復活。
我們若真與耶穌同釘十字架,就要每天憑信心披戴耶穌的死,這是信徒最需要的箴言;想想耶穌所講的話,那恨惡生命又願意捨棄生命的,必要得著生命。
我們從亞當那兒遺傳得來的生命,是有罪的老我生命,在它裡面毫無良善可言,我們必須完全地治死老我亞當,看世界算自己是死的,因為在老我這舊人裡面,一點聖潔都沒有,只有以自我為中心的自私慾望。
許多人想自欺欺人,一方面想要向上帝而活,一方面又不想讓老我死透,但這是不可能的事。就像一粒麥子,若不落在地裡死了,就不能結出子粒來。完全死透端賴向上帝的敬虔,屬靈生命的成長肇始於老我的治死。
有人問要怎樣才能做到如此地步?答案在於效法耶穌受死受苦的心志;我們像耶穌一樣將自己交託在上帝手中,雖不知新生命是如何長成,但我們就是像耶穌那樣說:「父啊!我將靈魂交在祢手中!」然後單單地倚靠上帝帶來復活的新生命,對那些信靠祂大能的人,上帝要成就祂的應許,使信徒經歷到使耶穌復活的大能,一樣可在我們身上運行。
這實在是信心真實的考驗,就是每天每時每刻都經歷上帝的同在,每天隨時隨地都與上帝有密切的溝通,藉著聖靈,體驗到復活的生命在我們體內復蘇成長。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 6月17日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
[圖片版權屬「基督教靈糧之家」所有,在此僅供分享福音用途。]
『 The Death of The Cross 』
Scripture: “‘Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.’ And having said this, He gave up the ghost.” — [Luke 23:46]
Like David (Psalms 31:5), Christ had often committed His spirit into the hands of His Father for His daily life and need. But here is something new and very special. He gives up His spirit into the power of death, gives up all control over it, to sink down into the darkness and death of the grave, where He can neither think, nor pray, nor will. He surrenders himself to the utmost into the Father’s hands, trusting Him to care for Him in the dark, and in due time to raise Him up again.
If we have indeed died in Christ and are now in faith every day to carry about with us the death of our Lord Jesus, this word is the very one that we need. Just think once again what Christ meant when He said that we must hate and lose our life.
We died in Adam; the life we receive from him is death; there is nothing good or heavenly in us by nature. It is to this inward evil nature, to all the life that we have from this world, that we must die. There cannot be any thought of any real holiness, without totally dying to this self or “old man.” Many deceive themselves because they seek to be alive in God before they are dead to their own nature: a thing as impossible as it is for a grain of wheat to be alive before it dies. This total dying to self lies at the root of all true piety. The spiritual life must grow out of death.
And if we ask how we can do this, we find the answer in the mind in which Christ died. Like Him we cast ourselves upon God, without knowing how the new life is to be attained; but as we in fellowship with Jesus say, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit,” and depend simply and absolutely upon God to raise us up into the new life, there will be fulfilled in us the wonderful promise of God’s Word, concerning the exceeding greatness of His power in us who believe, according to the mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.
This indeed is the true rest of faith, that lives every day and every hour in the absolute dependence upon the continual and immediate quickening of the Divine life in us by God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 17 June 」
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Posted: 2022-06-16 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220616『十字架的犧牲-The Sacrifice of The Cross』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「我的上帝!我的上帝!為甚麼離棄我?| 我渴了。| 成了!」— [聖經·馬太福音 27章46b節,約翰福音 19章28b節、30節錄]
耶穌在十字架所說的話,不僅流露上帝對人類的愛,祂所做的犧牲,更帶出無比的效果:得勝各樣的仇敵,並將我們從罪惡綑綁中釋放出來。而且耶穌所擁有的心志與性情,也要成為信徒學習的榜樣,內化成為我們基督徒的心志與性情。
「我的上帝!我的上帝!為什麼離棄我?」那覆蓋在耶穌身上的黑暗是何等的大,連一絲光線都透不過,甚至祂無法喊出:「我的父啊!」,耶穌一向與天父合而為一,每天同心同行緊密地連結在一起,但現在耶穌背負著世人所有的罪孽在身上,以致天父只好掩面不看祂,不得不暫時離棄祂,造成耶穌無比的痛苦與折磨,所以祂在客西馬尼園汗如血滴般流下,流淚懇切禱告主:「倘若可行,求祢叫這杯離開我。」但祂最後還是順服上帝說:「然而不要照我的意思,只要照祢的意思。」(馬太福音 26章39b節),這是耶穌愛上帝、愛世人最高度至極的表現-順服天父,為世人捨命。我們信服上帝的人,也當效法耶穌的榜樣,向上帝說:「阿爸天父,願祢的旨意成就!」
「我渴了。」(約翰福音 19章28b節),天父上帝對世人罪惡的震怒,整個發洩在耶穌身上,耶穌的肉體在這個痛苦黑暗的時刻,飽受烈火的煎熬與摧殘,為著將自己獻上作為挽回祭,耶穌甘心樂意地忍受肉體的折磨,但還是不得不喊出:「我渴了」。
接著祂又說:「成了!」(約翰福音 19章30節錄),為了完成天父所交付給祂的使命,耶穌甘心樂意地把自己獻為贖罪祭,忍受心靈與肉體的折磨與痛苦,不求任何的回報,事後還說:「成了」;這就是耶穌的心。我們這些信靠耶穌的人,也當以耶穌的心為心,隨時準備好願為耶穌擺上:「遵行差我來者的旨意,作成祂的工。」(約翰福音 4章34b節錄)。
我們每一天對耶穌在十字架所做的工,越來越認識瞭解,也就會越來越有信心,如此我們的心也越來越歸向祂,並且甘心樂意將自己獻上當做活祭,來事奉上帝、服事人,藉此來回報祂對我們的愛。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 6月16日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 The Sacrifice of The Cross 』
Scripture: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”—”I thirst.”—”It is finished.” — [Matthew 27:46b, John 19:28b,30]
The three first words on the cross reveal love In its outflow to men. The next three reveal love in the tremendous sacrifice that it brought, to deliver us from our sins and give the victory over every foe. They will still reveal the very mind that was in Christ, and that is to be in us as the disposition of our whole life.
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” How deep must have been the darkness that overshadowed Him, when not one ray of light could pierce, and He could not say, “My Father”! It was this awful desertion, breaking in upon that life of childlike fellowship with the Father in which He had always walked, that caused Him the agony and the bloody sweat in Gethsemane. “O My Father, let this cup pass from me.” — but it might not be, and He bowed His head in submission: “Thy will be done.” It was His love to God and love to man, yielding Himself to the very uttermost. It is as we learn to believe and to worship that love, that we too shall learn to say: “Abba, Father, Thy will be done.”
“I thirst.” The body now gives expression to the terrible experience of what it passed through when the fire of God’s wrath against sin came upon Christ in the hour of His desertion. He had spoken of Dives crying: “I am tormented in this flame.” Christ utters His complaint of what He had suffered. Physicians tell us that, in crucifixion the whole body is in agony with a terrible fever and pain. Our Lord endured it all and cried: “I thirst”; soul and body was the sacrifice He brought the Father.
And then comes the great word: “It is finished.” All that there was to suffer and endure had been brought a willing sacrifice; He had finished the work the Father gave Him to do. His love held nothing back. He gave Himself an offering and a sacrifice. Such was the mind of Christ, and such must be the disposition of everyone who owes Himself and his life to that sacrifice. The mind that was in Christ must be in us ready to say: “I am come to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” And every day that our confidence grows fuller in Christ’s finished work, must see our heart more entirely yielding itself like Him, a whole burnt offering in the service of God and His love.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 16 June 」
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Posted: 2022-06-15 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220615『十字架的愛-The Love of The Cross』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「當下耶穌說:父啊!赦免他們,因為他們所作的,他們不曉得。」— [聖經·路加福音 23章34a節]
耶穌在十架上所說的這段話,顯示出耶穌有怎樣的心腸,也指示門徒們應該培養怎樣的性情。想想這句話:「父啊!赦免他們!」,這是多麼深廣的愛!
在仇敵囂鬧凱旋並將一切羞辱、苦難加諸在祂身上的時候,耶穌卻反過來為仇敵禱告,用愛去包容他們說:「父啊!赦免他們,因為他們所作的,他們不知道。」身為耶穌門徒,豈不當效法耶穌去愛我們的仇敵,為咒詛我們的祝福,為恨我們、逼迫我們的禱告?因為十字架的愛與耶穌的行事法則,正是信靠追隨祂的人的行事法則。
「婦人,看你的兒子。……看你的母親。」(約翰福音 19章26-27),耶穌不但愛仇敵,也顧念祂的朋友家人。祂明白自己的受死,會帶給祂守寡的母親何等大的哀痛,所以祂把她交給心愛的門徒約翰照顧,並知道這對約翰而言,也是何等大的殊榮。所以,既作耶穌的門徒,不但要為仇敵禱告,也要顧念屬主耶穌的弟兄姐妹們,讓傷心的得安慰,讓孤單的得陪伴。
「今日你要同我在樂園裡了。」(路加 23章43節),與耶穌同釘十字架的兩個強盜之一,求耶穌憐憫紀念他,耶穌毫不遲疑的首肯,讓他同享樂園的福份。耶穌不但愛仇敵、朋友,連人人厭棄的強盜惡人,祂也樂意分享祂的愛。這一切證明十字架的愛,是超過我們知識所了解,而耶穌在十架上犧牲生命,正是愛的具體表現。
想到我們本該下地獄,如今蒙受何等大的恩典,讓耶穌為我們償清罪債,使我們得與上帝和好,我們實在欠了傳福音的債;因此,我們當以耶穌的心為心,不但自己享受與天父和好的契合之愛,更要把叫世人與上帝和好的職份扛起來,無論得時不得時,總要盡力與人分享這好消息。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 6月15日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 The Love of The Cross 』
Scripture: “Then said Jesus: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ ” — [Luke 23:34a]
The seven words on the cross reveal what the mind of Christ is, and show the dispositions that become His disciples. Take the three first words, all the expression of His wonderful love.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He prays for His enemies. In the hour of their triumph over Him, and of the shame and suffering which they delight in showering on Him, He pours out His love in prayer for them. It is the call to everyone who believes in a crucified Christ, to go and do likewise, even as He has said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you.” The law of the Master is the law for the disciple; the love of the crucified Jesus, the only rule for those who believe in Him.
“Woman, behold thy son!” “Behold thy mother!” The love that cared for His enemies, cared too for His friends. Jesus felt what the anguish must be in the heart of His widowed mother, and commits her to the care of the beloved disciple. He knew that for John there could be no higher privilege, and no more blessed service, than that of taking His place in the care of Mary. Even so we who are the disciples of Christ must not only pray for His enemies, but prove our love to Him, and to all who belong to Him, by seeing to it that every solitary one is comforted, and that every loving heart has some work to do in caring for those who belong to the blessed Master.
“Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” The penitent thief had appealed to Christ’s mercy to remember him. With what readiness of joy and love Christ gives the immediate answer to his prayer! Whether it was the love that prayed for His enemies, or the love that cared for His friends, or the love that rejoices over the penitent sinner who was bein? cast out by man, — in all Christ proves that the cross is a cross of love, that the Crucified One is the embodiment of a love that passeth knowledge.
With every thought of what we owe to that love, with every act of faith in which we rejoice in its redemption, let us prove that the mind of the crucified Christ is our mind, and that His love is not only what we trust in for ourselves, but what guides us in our loving intercourse with the world around us.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 15 June 」
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Last Updated: 2022-06-14 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220614『順服主旨-THY Will Be Done』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「我父啊!倘若可行,求祢叫這杯離開我;然而不要照我的意思,只要照祢的意思。」— [聖經·馬太福音 26章39b節]
即使在天國的榮耀裡,耶穌的被釘十字架,同樣是神聖至極大愛的表現;也就是說祂所做的犧牲,給人最大的好處,就是聖靈可以動工在我們心中,讓我們可與耶穌相契合,過一個心中有主的內在生活。
我們必須深切地明白一項真理,就是上帝的愛子耶穌基督,若沒有先將自己交付死地,祂就無法升天得榮耀。若蒙聖靈光照,得以明白這真理的啟示,將有助於我們奔走這條屬靈天路,知道我們若不降服耶穌,每天背起自己的十字架,向罪死、向世界死,我們就無法有份於耶穌復活的新生命,也不能與祂保有不間斷的溝通與聯繫。
惟有從主耶穌那兒,我們才能明白何謂與耶穌同受苦:有份於祂的死且與祂聯合。那夜祂在客西馬尼園,想到要親嚐罪權勢下的咒詛:被上帝離棄,釘死十字架。不禁憂傷痛苦,汗如血滴流下,祂流淚禱告,求上帝將這苦杯挪去,但上帝掩面不願看祂,也沒有絲毫亮光透過這無盡的黑暗,耶穌得不著上帝任何的回應,於是明白上帝要祂嚐此苦杯,祂就謙卑伏服在上帝面前說:「願祢的意旨成全。」(馬太福音 26章42節)。
喔!親愛的弟兄姐妹們,要效法主的榜樣,向上帝說:「不要照我的意思,只要照祢的旨意成就。」上帝會使我們心中有力量,在各樣事上幫助我們捨棄所有,為要得著主的歡心,因為我們已定意與耶穌同釘十字架。
「照主的旨意成就!」願這句話成為我們的座右銘,成為我們生活的指標。靠著耶穌的力量及聖靈的幫助,我們可以天天學習在各樣的大事、小事上,先求問祂的旨意,並照祂的意思去做;也讓這樣的思想信念,成為我們服膺的準則,相信這將使我們生活充滿喜樂與能力。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 6月14日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 THY Will Be Done 』
Scripture: “0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” — [Matthew 26:39b]
The death of Christ on the cross is the highest and the holiest that can be known of Him even in the glory of heaven. And the highest and the holiest that the Holy Spirit can work in us, is to take us up and to keep us in the fellowship of the cross of Christ. We need to enter deeply into the truth that Christ the beloved Son of the Father could not return to the glory of heaven until He had first given Himself over unto death. As this great truth opens up to us, it will help us to understand how in our life, and in our fellowship with Christ, it is impossible for us to share His life until we have first in very deed surrendered ourselves every day to die to sin and the world, and so to abide in the unbroken fellowship with our crucified Lord.
And it is from Christ alone that we can learn what it means to have fellowship with His sufferings, and to be made conformable unto His death. When in the agony of Gethsemane He looked forward to what a death on the cross would be, He got such a vision of what it meant to die the accursed death under the power of sin, with God’s countenance so turned from Him that not a single ray of its light could penetrate the darkness, He prayed that the cup might pass from Him. But when no answer came, and He understood that the Father could not allow the cup to pass by, He yielded up His whole will and life in the word : “Thy will be done.” O Christian, in this word of thy Lord in His agony, thou canst enter into fellowship with Him, and in His strength thy heart will be made strong to believe most confidently that God in His omnipotence will enable thee in very deed with Christ to yield up everything, because thou hast in very deed been crucified with Him.
“Thy will be done” ; let this be the deepest and the highest word in thy life. In the power of Christ with Whom thou hast been crucified, and in the power of His Spirit, the definite daily surrender to the ever-blessed will of God will become the joy and the strength of thy life.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 14 June 」
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