6月10日 基督是我们的中保
基督是我们的中保
“若有人犯罪，在父那里我们有一位中保，就是那义者耶稣基督；祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭。”（约壹2:1-2）
良心是神所设立的，在我们内心隐秘的法庭中替祂施行审判。良心所受的约束，正是基督在末日宣判人称义或定罪时所依据的同一律法。当我们在基督的审判台前为着永生受审时，最核心的追问将是：我们的内心是否诚实无伪。既然基督不会定一个诚实无伪灵魂的罪，哪怕有千百条罪状控告他，我们的心也就不能再定自己的罪了。
但神如何能接纳这样不完全的顺服呢？祂当初对亚当的要求是如此公义严厉，仅因一次过犯便宣告他不可赦免。在神于亚当里与全人类所立的约（行为之约）中，并没有一位作担保的中保，来为人类履行该约的本分（即绝对的顺服）负全责。因此，为了挽回祂的荣耀，并弥补人类违约堕落对祂所造成的亏缺，神必须以严厉来对待亚当。
然而，在福音之约（恩典之约）中，却有一位担保人，就是那义者耶稣基督，祂向神负责，为基督徒一生的罪债承担了全责。主基督不仅涂抹了基督徒归信前所欠下的巨额罪债，也一并偿清了他们归信后因软弱与疏忽而不断积聚的零星旧债。“若有人犯罪，在父那里我们有一位中保，就是那义者耶稣基督；祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭。”（约壹2:1-2）因此，在丝毫不损及祂公义的前提下，神可以将祂圣徒的债务一笔勾销，因为基督已经为这些债付清了赎价。神如此行，对圣徒而言是怜悯，对基督而言则是公义。当怜悯与公义彼此相亲时，这是何等宝贵的合一啊！
此外，神在第一个约中要求完全的顺服，是因为人受造于完美的境况中，满有能力与禀赋去履行这顺服；因此，神所期盼收割的，并未超出祂自己所栽种的。但在恩典之约中，神赐给信徒的不是立刻完美的恩典，而是真实的恩典；因此相应地，祂所要求的也不再是毫无瑕疵的顺服，而是发自内心纯全的顺服。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：申15章，诗102章，
个人灵修：赛41章，启11章
JUNE 10, WENDESDAY
CHRIST OUR SURETY
“If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2.1–2).
Conscience is set by God to judge for Him in the private court of our own hearts. It is bound up by the same law by which Christ Himself will acquit or condemn at the last day. When we go on trial for our lives, before Christ’s bar, the great question will be whether or not we have been sincere. And as He will not condemn the sincere soul, though a thousand sins be brought against it, neither can our hearts condemn us.
But how can God accept such imperfect obedience when He was so strict with Adam that He pronounced one failure as unpardonable? In the covenant God made with mankind in Adam there was no surety to guarantee and stand responsible for man’s performance of his part of the covenant, which was absolute obedience. Thus God, to recover His glory and pay Himself for the wrong which man’s default would do to Him, stood strictly with Adam.
Yet in the Gospel covenant there is a surety—Jesus Christ the righteous—who stands responsible to God for all the sins of a Christian’s lifetime. And the Lord Christ cancels not only the vast sums of those sins which Christians are charged with before conversion, but also all the dribbling debts which they contract afterward through weakness and carelessness. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1–2). So then, without impeaching His justice, God can cross out His saints’ debts for which He is paid by Christ. It is mercy to saints but justice to Christ that God should do this. What a precious oneness when mercy and justice kiss each other!
Also, God required complete obedience in the first covenant because man was in a perfect state, full of power and ability to perform it; so God expected to reap no more than what He had planted. But in the Gospel covenant God does not infuse the believer with full grace but true grace; and accordingly, He expects not flawless but sincere obedience.