8月19日 我们全然倚靠祂的工作
我们全然倚靠祂的工作
如果神没有计划从起初杰作的废墟中建造一座更加宏伟的建筑，祂绝不会容许自己起初的工作被罪如此严重地毁损。
神定意将这使人与神和好的至宝赐给我们，是为了使我们谦卑，叫我们的狂傲得以屈膝，并使神在拯救我们的日子得着高举。“因为神的粮就是那从天上降下来、赐生命给世界的。”（约6:33）请留意神为何选择这种方式在旷野中供应祂的儿女：“又在旷野将你列祖所不认识的吗哪赐给你吃，是要苦炼你，试验你，叫你终久享福。”（申8:16）
让我们更仔细地审视这个使人谦卑的过程。我们自然会认为，当神亲自用“大能者的食物”喂养以色列人时，他们理当变得既充满智慧又心存谦卑（诗78:25）。然而，人天性骄傲，总想做自己的供应者。比起自己劳苦赚来的食物，他一点也不喜欢领受别人出于施舍、由他人付上代价而送来的饭食。正是这种骄傲，使以色列人怀念埃及园子里的葱蒜，那虽然是低劣的食物，却是他们用自己的钱买来的，而不是神白白赐给他们的。神使罪人与自己和好，其目的是要成就一种起初比祂与亚当之间更加完美的联合。
如果神没有计划从起初杰作的废墟中建造一座更加宏伟的建筑，祂绝不会容许自己起初的工作被罪如此严重地毁损。因为神定意在印制人类幸福的“第二版”时，使用比“第一版”更为完美的活字，所以祂使用了基督作为成就这一计划唯一合宜的器皿：“我来了，是要叫羊得生命，并且得的更丰盛。”（约10:10）祂来，不仅仅是要把一种苟延残喘的生命和勉强维持的平安，赐给那些已经死亡、被定罪的人，祂乃是要赐给他们更加丰盛的生命，甚至超越了人在罪使祂与神隔绝以前所拥有的生命。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：撒上11章，罗9章，
个人灵修：耶48章，路16章
AUGUST 19, WENDESDAY
OUR DEPENDENCE UPON HIS WORK
God would never have allowed His first workmanship to be so scarred by sin if He had not planned to build a more magnificent structure out of its ruins.
God chose to give this treasure of reconciliation to humble us, so our haughtiness might bow and God could be exalted in our day of salvation. “The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (John 6:33). And notice why God chose that method to feed His children in the wilderness: “Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee” (Deuteronomy 8:16).
Let us examine this humbling process more carefully. Naturally we assume that the Israelites would have become wise as well as humble when God Himself fed them with “angels food” (Psalm 78:25). Yet man is proud and wants to be his own provider; he does not enjoy a meal sent in by charity, at another’s expense, nearly so much as he does food which he earned himself. This pride made the children of Israel wish for the onions of their Egyptian gardens—inferior food but food bought with their own money instead of brought to them by God. God’s reconciliation to sinners was aimed at a more perfect union than He had with Adam.
God would never have allowed His first workmanship to be so scarred by sin if He had not planned to build a more magnificent structure out of its ruins. Because He intended to print man’s happiness in the second edition with a more perfect type than the first, He used Christ as the only fit instrument to accomplish this design: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He did not come to give the dead and damned a bare peace—naked life—but a more abundant life than man ever had before sin separated him from God.