现在却是你们的时候,黑暗掌权了。(路二十二53)

不承认罪的事实,会带来人生一切的祸患。你可以大谈人性的尊严,可是人性中有一种东西,在你一切的理想面前,会当面嗤笑你。你若不肯承认人性的邪恶自私、有根本上的罪过,这些人性中完全恶意和错误的东西,当它们袭击你时,你就会与之妥协,并说抵抗也是没用。你有没有准备面对这个关头,面对这黑暗的权势?还是你对自己的评价,没有把罪算在内?你与亲属的关系,与朋友的关系,有没有承认有罪的事实存在?若没有,不需多久,你就会被罪追上,与之妥协了。

但若你承认罪的事实,就必立即觉察到危险——“是的,我知道这意味着什么”。承认罪的事实,并不会破坏友情的根基,反而使彼此看清楚人生基本是悲惨的。我们要时时当心,防备那种不承认罪之事实的人生观。

耶稣基督从不信任人性,却也从不挑剔多疑,因为祂深信自己可以为人性所做的。人得到安全的保障是由于清洁,而不是因为无罪。无罪的人是不可靠的。人不可能成为无罪的,神要求人成为圣洁,敬虔。无邪是孩童的特征,但成人则要承认罪这事实。

祈祷◆噢,主啊,以你的恩典和荣耀淹没我,让你那浩瀚的潮水覆盖所有。

June 24: Reconciling One’s Self To The Fact Of Sin

“This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53

It is not being reconciled to the fact of sin that produces all the disasters in life. You may talk about the nobility of human nature, but there is something in human nature which will laugh in the face of every ideal you have. If you refuse to agree with the fact that there is vice and self-seeking, something downright spiteful and wrong in human beings, instead of reconciling yourself to it, when it strikes your life, you will compromise with it and say it is of no use to battle against it. Have you made allowance for this hour and the power of darkness, or do you take a recognition of yourself that misses out sin? In your bodily relationships and friendships do you reconcile yourself to the fact of sin? If not, you will be caught round the next corner and you will compromise with it. If you reconcile yourself to the fact of sin, you will realize the danger at once – Yes, I see what that would mean. The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship; it establishes a mutual regard for the fact that the basis of life is tragic. Always beware of an estimate of life which does not recognize the fact that there is sin.

Jesus Christ never trusted human nature, yet He was never cynical, never suspicious, because He trusted absolutely in what He could do for human nature. The pure man or woman, not the innocent, is the safeguarded man or woman. You are never safe with an innocent man or woman. Men and women have no business to be innocent; God demands that they be pure and virtuous. Innocence is the characteristic of a child; it is a blameworthy thing for a man or woman not to be reconciled to the fact of sin.