12月8日
神公平的能力
因為他一次獻祭，便叫那得以成聖的人永遠完全。（來十14）
若以為得赦免是因為自己的悔罪，實在是踐踏神兒子的血。神赦免我們，對我們無比的寬恕，是因為耶穌基督的死。我們的悔改，只是我們對他成就了的救贖工作，有個人體認而產生的後果。“基督耶穌成了我們智慧、公義、聖潔與救贖。”一旦知道基督成為我們這一切時，神無比的喜樂就開始了；神的喜樂何時止住，死亡的定案就仍然作祟。
不管我們是什麼人，是怎麼樣的人，耶穌基督的死，都可以使我們與神重新建立關係。不是因為耶穌基督苦苦哀求，乃是因著他的死，我們才得拯救，此外別無他途。這不是賺回來的，而是白白領受。若一味苦求，故意拒絕十字架，那是絕無功效的。這樣做，是叩錯了主並未開啟的門。我不想走那條路，把我當作罪人般看待，太屈辱了。“除他以外，別無拯救……”表面看來無情，其實是神真正的用心，開放無阻的通道，讓人到他那裡去。“我們在寶血中得蒙赦罪。”與基督耶穌同釘十字架，就是向一切不在他裡面的東西死去。
神有理由拯救壞人，倘若他能改變他們。我們的主不會把我們的錯事，一概當作對的。救贖就是神藉耶穌的死所成就的和解，叫不潔的人成為聖潔。
祈禱◆“求你使我專心敬畏你的名！”我的心充塞著自私、自覺和次好的東西，它們在我腦中盤旋，妨礙我的祈禱。主啊，願你全能的手幫助我！
December
8 The Impartial Power Of God
“For
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews
10:14
We trample
the blood of the Son of God under foot if we think we are forgiven because we
are sorry for our sins. The only explanation of the forgiveness of God and of
the unfathomable depth of His forgetting is the Death of Jesus Christ. Our
repentance is merely the outcome of our personal realization of the Atonement
which He has worked out for us. “Christ Jesus . . . is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” When we realize that Christ
is made all this to us, the boundless joy of God begins; wherever the joy of
God is not present, the death sentence is at work.
It does not
matter who or what we are, there is absolute reinstatement into God by the
death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but
because He died. It is not earned, but accepted. All the pleading which
deliberately refuses to recognize the Cross is of no avail; it is battering at
another door than the one which Jesus has opened. I don’t want to come that
way, it is too humiliating to be received as a sinner. “There is none other
Name . . .” The apparent heartlessness of God is the expression of His real
heart, there is boundless entrance in His way. “We have forgiveness through His
blood.” Identification with the death of Jesus Christ means identification with
Him to the death of everything that never was in Him.
God is
justified in saving bad men only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not
pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The Atonement is a propitiation
whereby God through the death of Jesus makes an unholy man holy.
