8月20日 圣徒的欢庆
圣徒的欢庆
毫无疑问，那位重新被接纳、回到父亲怀抱的浪子，比那位从未离家的长子，更有理由以爱来回报父亲的深情。
为了不让地上的圣徒忧虑，担心基督重获君王荣耀后，就会将他们从自己心中抹去，祂亲自证明了：无论是在尊荣的巅峰，还是在降卑的深渊，祂对我们的心都是完全一样的。祂披戴着那件从我们的人性中取来的外衣，回到了天上的荣耀里，以此显明了祂的永不改变。因此，神的儿子使这件人性的外衣，成为了祂得荣耀生命的一部分，并借着祂自己向我们确切地展示出，圣徒的身体将来在神国中会变成何等荣耀的模样。当初在神与亚当的交往中，亚当并未享受到这种基督与人完全认同的福分。亚当的杯中没有这块带来甘甜的糖：他只认识一位乐施之神的爱，却未曾体会过一位赦罪之神的怜悯。而如今与神和好的罪人，却能同时饱尝这两样福分。
对一个顺服的孩子而言，父亲的爱固然是极大的安慰，然而，这种慈爱仍无法与父亲对悖逆之子所发出的怜悯相提并论。毫无疑问，那位重新被接纳、回到父亲怀抱的浪子，比那位从未离家的长子，更有理由以爱来回报父亲的深情。因此我们可以确信，神赦罪的怜悯，以及基督为我们买赎这怜悯所彰显的爱，乃是一位仍寄居在地的圣徒所能默想的最甘甜、最能滋养生命的果子。
既然如此，谁又能想象，当得着荣耀的圣徒以神的怜悯与慈爱为主题时，将奏出何等辉煌的乐章呢？他们手中竖琴所调准的旋律，必定是“羔羊的歌”（启15:3）。圣徒在天上荣耀里那完美的欢庆，是由一切最美好的福分交织而成的。神亲手将这一切安排得如此妥帖，以致没有任何一样恩典会被遗漏，每一种福分的滋味也都不会被另一种掩盖。然而，神赦罪的怜悯，以及祂借着基督所彰显那无可超越的慈爱，却如同这荣耀筵席上最甘美的冠冕，使圣徒在一切其他的福分之上，仍能格外清晰地品尝到它那超越万有的甜美。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：撒上12章，罗10章，
个人灵修：耶49章，路17章
AUGUST 20, THURSDAY
THE SAINT’S CELEBRATION
Certainly the prodigal who is received again into his father’s arms has more reason to return that father’s love than the brother who never left home.
In order for those on earth not to fear that Christ’s reclaimed royalty might crowd them out of His heart, He proves He is the same in the zenith of His honor as He was in the depth of His humiliation. And He demonstrates this unchangeableness by going back to heaven’s glory in the same clothes He had borrowed from their nature. Thus God’s Son makes those clothes part of His glorified life and gives a pattern of what the saints’ own bodies will be like in the kingdom. None of this identification of Christ with man was present in God’s dealings with Adam. Adam did not have this lump of sugar in his cup—he knew about the love of a giving God, but was a stranger to the mercy of a forgiving God. The reconciled sinner experiences both.
A father’s love is a great comfort to an obedient child, but this demonstration of tenderness cannot be compared to the compassion of a father toward his rebellious child. Certainly the prodigal who is received again into his father’s arms has more reason to return that father’s love than the brother who never left home. Without a doubt, then, God’s pardoning mercy and the love of Christ which procured it are the sweetest, most wholesome fruit a saint here on earth can meditate upon.
But who can conceive of the splendid music which glorified saints will make on this note of God’s mercy and love? Surely the song their harps are tuned to is “the song of the Lamb” (Revelation 15:3). The saints’ fulfilled celebration in heaven’s glory is a composite of all the finest ingredients possible—so arranged by the hand of God that not one of them can be left out; and the taste of one cannot be lost in another. Yet pardoning mercy, and the unsurpassable love of God through Christ, give a sweet topping to the feast and can be tasted above all the rest.