8月17日 买赎与神和好的平安
买赎与神和好的平安
我们必完全沉浸在敬拜之中，赞叹祂深不可测的智慧，因为祂按照自己旨意中永恒的筹算，为这一切平安立下了根基！
有些人说神不知道还能用其他什么方法来成就救恩。然而，受造之人的悟性竟企图测透神全能智慧的深奥，甚至断言祂能做什么、不能做什么，这是何等可怜！不过，我们在对天上至高者存着完全敬畏之心的前提下可以这样说，为了高举祂自己荣耀的名，又为罪人买赎平安，神不可能找到一个比这更美好的方法，那就是借着那位宝贵的和平缔造者基督，使罪人与祂自己和好。
这种奥秘的交换，本身就足以化解人与神为敌的一切难题；论其奇妙，它甚至超越了神创造世界的奇工。如今这受造界是如此完美而荣耀，向一切受造之物宣告它的造物主乃是神。这份明证足以令无神论者在自己的良心中蒙羞，因为他执意拒绝相信。尽管如此，神使人与自己和好的计划，依然远胜过这天地的创造，犹如精密的钟表远胜过覆盖其上的水晶表壳。事实上，神定意借着这种吸引罪人归向他的方式，好叫天使和圣徒从今直到永恒，都不断惊叹他在其中所彰显的智慧、大能与慈爱的奥秘。
当所有天使和基督徒最终在天上相聚时，神那极其美善的旨意，就必向他们完全显明！到那时我们将看见，为了成就一个罪人与神和好的平安，神全能的恩典是如何使不信的汪洋干涸，又如何凿穿了重重看似绝无可能的磐石。我们将明白父神是如何亲自作工，使这一切得以完全成就。我们必全然沉浸在敬拜之中，赞叹祂那奇妙难测的智慧，因祂按着自己旨意所定的永恒筹算，为这一切平安立下了根基！正如太阳的光辉超越了我们肉眼所能承受的极限，神所赐平安的荣耀，也必远远超越我们理智所能测透的范围。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：撒上9章，罗7章，
个人灵修：耶46章，路14章
AUGUST 17, MONDAY
PURCHASING PEACE WITH GOD
We will be swallowed up in adoring the abyss of His wisdom, who laid the foundation of all this peace according to the eternal counsel of His own will!
Some say God did not know any other way to do it. But how pitiful is any attempt of created understanding to fathom the unsearchableness of God’s omnipotent wisdom—to say what He can and cannot do! Yet we can say, in full reverence for the Majesty of heaven, that God could not have found a better way of exalting His own glorious name and purchasing sinners’ peace, than by reconciling them to Himself by Christ the precious Peacemaker.
This mysterious exchange has in itself the ability to solve all the difficulties of the enmity between man and God, and for wonder it exceeds even God’s workmanship in creating the world. Now this creation is so perfect and glorious that it tells every creature that its Maker is God, a knowing which puts the atheist to shame in his own conscience because he will not believe. Even so, the plan of reconciliation excels the creation of heaven and earth as greatly as the watch surpasses the crystal which covers it. Indeed God intended, by this way of drawing sinners to Himself, to cause both angels and saints to admire the mystery of His wisdom, power, and love in it—from now through eternity.
When at last all angels and Christians meet together in heaven, the whole beautiful counsel of God will be unfolded to them! At that time we shall see how the seas of unbelief were dried up and what rocks of impossibilities were cut through by the omnipotent grace of God, before a sinner’s peace could be secured. We shall learn how the Father worked to bring it all to completion. Surely we will be swallowed up in adoring the abyss of His wisdom, who laid the foundation of all this peace according to the eternal counsel of His own will! As the sun exceeds the strength of our natural vision, the glory of God’s peace will stretch beyond our capacity to understand it.