二月三日
弟兄们，这样看来，我们是欠债的人。（改译）（罗8:12）
我们既是神所造的就都欠他的债，我们当以全身、全心、全力来顺服他。我们因违背了他的命令，就都成了他的公义的债务人，我们所欠他的，是我们所无力偿付的。但就基督徒来说他毫不欠神的公义的债，因为基督偿还了属他之人所欠的债，为此信徒更欠爱的债。我欠神的恩典和赦罪的怜悯的债，但我并不欠他公义的债了，因为他不再追究已经偿还的债务了。基督说：“成了！”他的意思就是说，凡属他的人所欠的无论什么债都从帐簿上一笔勾销了。基督已完全满足神公义的要求，帐目已经结清了；所记的帐都已钉在十字架上了，收据也得到了，我们不再是神公义的债务人了。虽然从这一方面看，我们不再欠我们主的债；可是从另一方面想，我们更加欠我们神的债了。基督徒呀！且慢，你且默想一番。你欠神的权多少债呢？你欠他无私的爱多少债呢？因为他舍了自己的儿子，为你受死。想想看，你欠他赦罪的怜悯多少债呢？你虽百般顶撞他，而他仍无限制地永远爱你。想想你欠他的大能多少债呢？他怎样把死在罪中的你救了出来呢？他怎样保守了你属灵的生命呢？他怎样保护你不至跌倒呢？他怎样当千万仇敌埋伏在你四围时，仍然使你安步行走呢？再想想，你欠他的不改变多少债呢？你虽改变千万次，他却一次也不改变。你欠神每种神性和神德很多的债。要用你自己和你一切所有的偿还给神。“将身体献上，当作活祭，是圣洁的，是神所喜悦的，你们如此侍奉，乃是理所当然的。”
February
3
“Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors.” –Romans 8:12
As God’s creatures, we are all debtors to Him: to obey Him with all our
body, and soul, and strength. Having broken His commandments, as we all have,
we are debtors to His justice, and we owe to Him a vast amount which we are not
able to pay. But of the Christian it can be said that he does not owe God’s
justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt His people owed; for this reason
the believer owes the more to love. I am a debtor to God’s grace and forgiving
mercy; but I am no debtor to His justice, for He will never accuse me of a debt
already paid. Christ said, “It is finished!” and by that He meant,
that whatever His people owed was wiped away for ever from the book of
remembrance. Christ, to the uttermost, has satisfied divine justice; the
account is settled; the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is
given, and we are debtors to God’s justice no longer. But then, because we are
not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to God
than we should have been otherwise. Christian, pause and ponder for a moment.
What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty! How much thou owest to His
disinterested love, for He gave His own Son that He might die for thee.
Consider how much you owe to His forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts
He loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to His power; how He
has raised you from your death in sin; how He has preserved your spiritual
life; how He has kept you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have
beset your path, you have been able to hold on your way. Consider what you owe
to His immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not
changed once. Thou art as deep in debt as thou canst be to every attribute of
God. To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast–yield thyself as a living
sacrifice, it is but thy reasonable service.
