6月16日 纯全与确据
纯全与确据
“我们既因信称义，就藉着我们的主耶稣基督得与神相和。”（罗5:1）
有些人严厉论断他人的过失，其实是为了掩盖自己的瑕疵，好让自己在推行自私的图谋时更不容易引人怀疑。例如，押沙龙批评他父亲大卫的治理，不过是把这当作帮助自己篡位登基的马镫；而耶户虽挥舞着利剑猛烈打击耶洗别的淫乱，但他爱王权却远胜过恨恶她的罪恶。因此，虚假的热心就变成了私怨的报复，矛头对准的是人，而不是人的罪；假冒为善的人可能一边憎恨暴君，一边却仍对暴政满怀羡慕。
更好的方法是，用一个人的纯全来检验他的胆量，而不是用胆量来衡量他的纯全。当基督的圣灵与话语同在并成就这一切时，人在面对死亡和危险时所展现出的真正自信与不屈不挠的精神，才是荣耀的。当一个人能够像保罗那样，向人陈明他心中盼望的缘由，并见证这盼望如何在他生命中运行时，这确实是极其美好的。这是基督徒的勇气，而非罗马式血气的不惧。
然而，基督徒必须穿过许多房间，才能抵达这几乎与天堂相连的确据之所。而信心，就是让他得以进入所有这些房间的钥匙。首先，信心开启了称义的大门，借着耶稣基督带领他进入与神和好、满有平安的境地：“我们既因信称义，就藉着我们的主耶稣基督得与 神相和。”（罗5:1）
借着称义，信徒步入另一个房间——神恩典的内室，并在祂的同在中蒙了悦纳：“我们又藉着祂，因信得进入现在所站的这恩典中”（罗5:2）。我们不仅因着信靠基督，从罪中蒙了赦免并与神和好，如今更被带进天庭，在基督翅膀的荫庇下，成为大君王所宠爱的儿女。
我们不仅现在享受着神的恩典、眷顾与相交，更继续前行，开启了第三个房间的门，将对将来天上荣耀的盼望，牢牢地扎根在我们的心中，“并且欢欢喜喜盼望神的荣耀。”（罗5:2）
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：申21章，诗108-109章，
个人灵修：赛49章，启19章
JUNE 16, TUESDAY
SINCERITY AND ASSURANCE
“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5.1).
Others severely judge faults in order to hide their own flaws, thus enabling them to carry on selfish designs with less suspicion. Absalom, for example, criticized his father’s government as a stirrup to help himself into the saddle. And Jehu loved the crown more than he hated Jezebel’s whoredoms, even though he swung a keen sword against them. False zeal thus becomes revenge and shoots at the person rather than at his sin; hypocrites can hate the tyrant while admiring his tyranny.
The better way is to test a person’s boldness by his sincerity, and not sincerity by boldness. True confidence and a spirit undaunted at death and danger are glorious when the Spirit and Word of Christ stand by to fulfill them. And certainly it is good when a person can give some account of the hope that is in him, as Paul did when he showed people the source of it operating in his life. This was Christian courage, not Roman fearlessness.
But the Christian must pass many rooms before arriving at this place of assurance, which adjoins heaven itself. Faith is the key which lets him enter into all these rooms. First, it opens the door of justification and takes him into peace and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
Through justification the seeker passes on to another room—the chamber of God’s favor—and is welcomed into His presence: “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand” (v. 2). Not only have we been pardoned from sin and reconciled to God by faith in Christ, but now we are brought into the royal court under Christ’s wing as favorites of the Prince.
We not only enjoy God’s grace and favor and communion now, but move on and open the door to a third room—a hope firmly planted in our hearts for heaven’s glory later, “rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God” (v. 2).