他既来了,就要叫世人为罪、为义、为审判,自己责备自己。(约十六8)

很少人真懂得什么叫做为罪责备自己。我们做错事之后,只有烦恼;可是圣灵叫人为罪自责,把地上一切的关系删除,只剩下一个关系,就是“我犯罪得罪了你,惟独得罪了你”。人若这样为罪自责,他的良心会告诉他,神不会赦免他。若神赦免他,他的公义感就比神更高了。神实在赦免了,但代价却是要透过耶稣的死,使神心肠撕裂破碎,才做得到。神恩典的奇妙,在于他赦免罪;只有耶稣基督的死才能使他赦罪,并在他这样做忠于本身的本性。若说神是爱,所以他赦免我们,这是很肤浅无稽的。我们若曾为罪自责,就绝不会这样说了。神的爱意味着加略山上的死,一丝一毫也不减。神的爱在十字架上完全表现出来,此外别无他处。神唯一可以赦免我的根据就是透过主的十字架。在那儿,他的心才得以满足。

赦免不单是我从地狱中被救出来,进入天堂(没有人以这个看法接受赦免);赦免的意思是,我得赦免进入一个新造的关系里,进入与神在基督的合一里。救赎的奇迹是神把我这不洁的人,改变成他的标准,是圣洁的;把新的个性——耶稣基督的个性——放进我里面。

祈祷◆对于在世上为你结果子上,我是何等的无助,那么的气量狭小,而且毫不像你。求你赦免我,并且藉着住在耶稣里面,愿我多结果子,荣耀父神。

November 19: When He Is Come

“And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin. . . .” John 16:8 (R.V.)

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only – “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned!” When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the Death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.

Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.