十一月八日
你们既然接受了主基督耶稣。（西2：6）
信主的生命用接受来表示，乃是说这一种动作与功劳完全相反。这就好像接受一种礼物一样。地怎样吸收雨水，海怎样容纳江河，夜怎样得到星光，我们也是这样，虽然我们幷没有付出什麽，只是白白地获取神的恩典。圣徒的天性幷非泉源或溪流，他们乃是活水所灌注的水池，乃是神向他们的空器皿倾倒救恩。接受的意思有一种实现的意义，使某一种事成爲现实。一个人不能接受一个影儿，我们所接受的乃是实体；信主的生命也是这样，基督实在成爲我们的。我们若没有信，耶稣对于我们只不过是一个人名罢了——是古时的一个人。他的生活在我们现在看来不过是一篇普通的历史罢了！
因着信，我们的心感到耶稣是一位真活的人。接受也有抓住或占有的意思。我们接受的东西就成爲我自己的：所给我的东西就归我所有。当我接受耶稣的时候，他就成爲我的救主，无论是生是死总不能从我把他夺去。接受基督乃要——把他当作是神白赐的恩典，知道他实在在我的心里，幷使他归我所有。救恩好像瞎子得见、聋子得听、死人得生一样，但我们不但得了这一切，我们还接受了基督耶稣自己。不错，他当我们死的时候赐我们生命。他赦免我们的罪，他赐义给我们，这一切都很宝贵，但我们幷不因它们知足；我们接受的是基督自己。神的儿子曾倾倒在我们里面，我们曾接受了他，幷使他成爲我们的。耶稣实在是满溢人心的，因爲天堂也不能容下他。
November
8
“As
ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord.”–Colossians 2:6
The life of faith is represented as
receiving–an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is
simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea
receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving
nothing, partake freely of the grace of God. The saints are not, by nature,
wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows;
they are empty vessels into which God pours his salvation. The idea of
receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. One
cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so is
it in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith,
Jesus is a mere name to us–a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago
that his life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a
real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means
grasping or getting possession of. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I
appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my
Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of him.
All this is to receive Christ–to take him as God’s free gift; to realize him
in my heart, and to appropriate him as mine.
Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf
receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these
blessings, we have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that he gave us
life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness.
These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have
received Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have
received him, and appropriated him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven
itself cannot contain him!
