扭转伊甸园的咒诅The Curse Reversed
作者：Nicholas T. Batzig 译者：骆鸿铭
要了解耶穌救赎工作的本质，一个重大的关键是明白上帝对持有祂形象的人，在他们悖逆后所宣告的咒诅。当亚当一犯罪抵挡上帝，把罪咎和败坏带给全人类后，上帝立刻降临，带来与祂的受造之物的行动匹配的盟约咒诅。祂的第一个咒诅宣告是针对那恶者，牠引我们第一对始祖，要他们反叛上帝；然后祂宣告对女人的咒诅，最后祂宣告对亚当的咒诅——所有人类的盟约元首。One of the great
keys to understanding the nature of Jesus’ saving work is to understand the nature of the curse
pronounced by God on His rebellious image bearers. No sooner did Adam sin
against God, bringing guilt and corruption to the who human race, that God came
with the covenant curses commensurate with the actions of His creatures. He
first pronounces the curse on the evil One, who tempted our first parents to
rebel against God; then He pronounced the curse on the woman and finally He
pronounced the curse on the man–the federal head of all humanity.
这些咒诅最迷人之处是它们是有策略地按照每个被造之物悖逆的顺序而赐下的，而且它们是有策略地根据每个受造之物在成全被造界的使命上，要藉著「生养眾多」、「遍满地面」，以及治理大地所扮演的角色而安排的。简而言之，亚当和夏娃原本要藉著顺服上帝，并通过充满这个世界、改善这个世界，把世界变成伊甸园。这个世界本是上帝所造，要赐给拥有祂形象的人，作為一个可以居住的產业。以下是关於咒诅，以及上帝藉著第二个亚当的救赎和新创造之工，扭转这个咒诅的五个看法。What is most
fascinating about these curses is that they are strategically given in the
order in which each creature rebelled, and they are strategically placed with
regard to the role that each was to play in fulfilling the creation mandate to
“have dominion” by being “fruitful and multiplying,” and by filling the earth
and subduing it. In short, Adam and Eve were to turn the world into the Garden
by obeying God and by populating and cultivating this world that God had
created to be a habitable inheritance for His image bearers. Here are five
thoughts about the curses and the way in which God reverses the curse through
the second Adam in His work of redemption and new creation:
一、第一个咒诅放在蛇的身上，因為牠是第一个悖逆的，也是第一个把混乱带到上帝的世界的。1. The first curse was place
on the serpent because he was the first to rebel and the first to bring
disorder into God’s world.
圣经清楚表明，「犯罪的是属魔鬼，因為魔鬼从起初就犯罪。上帝的儿子显现出来，為要除灭魔鬼的作為。」 圣经其餘的部分，用傅格森的话说，「基本上就是创世记三章15节的详尽註脚」，是展开上帝放置在撒但和牠的后裔，以及女人和她的后裔之间的敌意。当然，我们必须认识到，圣经中「后裔」（seed）这个字，其性质是第一人称单数、阳性，但是眾多的人，在一个次要和相关的意义上，是被包括在这个字眼当中的。它含有那一位（the one，即基督）和这人（the man）的观念。在这首先的咒诅裡，含有一个应许。这是对救赎主的第一次应许。上帝应许要打破蛇的头，即便蛇会攻击并伤害女人后裔的脚跟。在蛇和女人后裔之间的战争中，蛇会受到一个致命伤，而那位救赎主会受到一个本意是要致命，却成為有如只是伤了祂的脚跟的伤。这两个伤处的差别在於，救赎主会在祂从死裡復生当中获得医治。Stuart Robinson，一位南方长老会的神学家，在他精彩的圣经神学名著《论救赎》（Discourses of Redemption）中，阐述了亚当和夏娃在这首先的应许裡所学到的八件事。他解释说，他们也许学会了：The Scriptures make clear that “the Son of God was manifest
to destroy the work of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The rest of the Bible is, in
the words of Sinclair Ferguson, “essentially an extended footnote to Genesis
3:15.” It is the unfolding of the enmity that God set between Satan and his
seed and the woman and her seed. Of course, we need to recognize that the word
‘Seed’ in Scripture is first singular and masculine in nature, but that a
plurality of persons is included in it in a secondary and related sense. It
carries the idea of the One (i.e. Christ) and the man. In this first curse,
there is a promise. This is the first promise of a Redeemer. God promises to
crush the head of the serpent, even as the serpent attacks and bruises the heal
of the Seed of the woman. In the warfare between the serpent and the Seed of
the woman, the serpent would experience a fatal wound while the Redeemer would
experience a wound that was meant to be fatal but which would be as if he only
had his heal bruised. The difference between the two wounds is that the
Redeemers would be remedied in His resurrection from the dead. Stuart Robinson,
an old Southern Presbyterian theologian, in his biblical-theological
masterpiece Discourses of Redemption, set out eight things that Adam and Eve
could have known from this first promise. He explained that they could have
known:
1. 人类的救赎者和恢復者会是个男人，因為女人的后裔是「他」。That the Redeemer and Restorer of the race is to be
man, since he is to be the seed of the woman.
2. 与此同时，祂会是个比人还要伟大的存在，祂甚至比撒但更大；因為祂会成為人类的征服者的征服者，在祂的努力下，祂要恢復一个罪恶的世界，是人所失去的世界；然而祂却是无罪的，因此祂必然是神圣的。That He is, at the
same time, to be a being greater than man, and greater even than Satan; since
he is to be the conqueror of man’s conqueror, and,
against all his efforts, to recover a sinful world which man had lost; being
yet sinless, he must therefore be divine.
3. 此救赎必然会涉及到一个与撒但的本性「為仇」的新本性（人在堕落后就臣服在撒但的本性之下）。That this
redemption shall involve a new nature, at “enmity” with the Satan
nature, to which man has now become subject.
4. 这个本性是由上帝的能力所重生的；因為与撒但為仇并不是一种自然的情感，而是，耶和华如此说：「我要把敌意放在……」That this new nature is a regeneration by Divine power; since the enmity
to Satan is not a natural emotion, but, saith Jehovah, ” I will put enmity,” &c.
5. 此救赎必要藉著代替性的受难来完成，因為救赎主的脚跟必要在恢復的工作中受伤。This redemption
shall be accomplished by vicarious suffering; since the Redeemer shall suffer
the bruising of his heel in the work of recovery.
6. 此救赎之工必会涉及到把一群蒙拣选的后裔，一群「特殊的百姓」招聚出来，与一群受撒但控制的天然后裔為仇。That this work of
redemption shall involve the gathering out of an elect seed a ” peculiar people” at enmity with the natural offspring of a race
subject to Satan.
7. 此救赎必要涉及到这群特殊百姓永久的冲突，在其代表性的元首之下，企图要伤撒但的头，也就是，「摧毁魔鬼的作為」。That this
redemption shall involve & perpetual conflict of the peculiar people, under
its representative head, in the effort to bruise the head of Satan, that is, ‘to destroy the works of the Devil.’
8. 此救赎必要涉及到女人的后裔在受难之后的最终胜利；因此必要涉及到胜过死亡，并且把人类恢復到它原始的状态，既有灵性，也有身体，即堕落之前完全蒙福的状态。（註1）This redemption shall involve the ultimate
triumph, after suffering, of the woman’s
seed ; and therefore involves a triumph over death and a restoration of the
humanity to its original estate, as a spiritual in conjunction with a physical
nature, in perfect blessedness as before its fall.1
圣经為女人后裔和蛇的后裔之间的敌意作出了见证。该隐，圣经说他是「属那恶者」，对亚伯怀著敌意；世人对挪亚和罗德怀著敌意；埃及人迫害以色列人；以色列人和非利士人之间的冲突（以及所有与以色列争战的国家，或欺压以色列的国家）。儘管不是所有的以色列人都与救赎主在救恩上有联合，然而旧约的以色列国是那将要来的上帝的儿子的预表，也是培育那将要来的救赎主的温床；因此，在救赎歷史中，祂代表著女人的后裔。当救赎主降临时，这个敌意出现在魔鬼和基督在旷野裡的冲突，在法利赛人、撒都该人、大祭司和文士对基督的反对上；基督，连同施行约翰，解释说他们是「毒蛇的种类」，「他们的父是魔鬼」。最后，这个战争出现在基督的復活和高升后，世人对教会的反对上（啟十二章）。儘管基督藉著祂在十字架上的死，打败了魔鬼（太十二22-30；约十二31西二15），我们仍在等候这个胜利的完全彰显。到那时，基督和祂的教会要在最后审判中，将撒但践踏在脚下（罗十六20）。简而言之，耶穌在十字架上的死是「D-Day」（D日；攻击发起日），而最后审判是「V-Day」（V日；最后胜利日）。在十字架上确然发生的事，会在最后审判中完全实现。The Scriptures bear
out the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent in the
enmity that Cain, who is said to be “of the evil one,” toward Abel, in the
hostility of the world toward Noah and Lot, in the oppression of Israel by
Egypt and in the conflict between Israel and the Philistines (as well as all
the other nations with which they battled or were oppressed). While all Israel
was not savingly united to the Redeemer, the nation–in the Old Testament–was a
type of the coming Son of God and the seedbed of the coming Redeemer;
therefore, it stood in the place of the Seed of the woman in redemptive
history. In the coming of the Redeemer, this enmity is seen in the conflict
between the Devil and Christ in the wilderness, in the opposition of the
Pharisees, Sadducees, Chief Priests and Scribes to Christ who, together with
John the Baptist, explained that they were “a brood of vipers” and “of their father
the devil.” Finally, the warfare is seen in the worlds opposition to the church
after the resurrection and ascension of Christ (Rev. 12). While Christ defeated
the devil by virtue of His death on the cross (Matt. 12:22-30; John 12:31 and
Col. 2:15), we await the full manifestation of the victory when Christ and His
Church crush Satan under the feet in final judgment (Rom. 16:20). In short,
Jesus’ death on the cross was D-Day and the final judgment is V-Day. What
happened definitively on the cross will come to full fruition in the judgment.
二、在对蛇的咒诅中提到了女人，因為她是最先悖逆的，救赎也要藉著她而来。
2.
The woman is mentioned in the curse placed on the serpent because she was the
first to rebel and the one through whom redemption would come.
如果有人问到，為什麼在对蛇的咒诅中首先提到女人，然后上帝才对我们第一对父母说话，我们可以给出几个重要的回答。第一，首先悖逆的是女人。如此，上帝先对女人说话就是顺理成章的。不过，耶和华也没有过於苛责女人，以免她因為她的行动备受她丈夫的奚落而过於伤心。创世记三章15节提到的耶和华所说有关女人后裔的事，是提摩太前书二章15节所关心的。If someone were to ask why the
woman is addressed first in the curse placed on the serpent and then in God’s
address to our first parents, we could give several important answers. The
first is that it was the women who first disobeyed. It is right then that God
would address the woman first. However, the Lord also removes some of the
reproach from the woman–lest she should have too much sorrow to bear from the
scorn of her husband for her action. The Redeemer would come from the woman. It
is possible that reference to what the Lord says about the woman’s seed in
Genesis 3:15 is in view in 1 Timothy 2:15.
三、对女人的咒诅是就她在遍满地面的使命上所扮演的角色而宣告的。
3.
The curse placed on the woman was pronounced with regard to her role in the
dominion mandate.
当我们问到：上帝為什麼要在宣告祂对女人的咒诅时，把祂的咒诅放在生產这个行动上，这就引发了另一个问题。而这个答案是，这似乎和女人在堕落之前，在生產的事情中所扮演的角色有关。亚当和夏娃本来应该要履行创造的使命，要「生养眾多，遍满地面，治理大地」。亚当和夏娃可以向外扩展花园圣殿的方式，是通过生养眾多来彰显上帝的荣耀。既然女人让自己被骗，放弃了她按照上帝原先所希望的、人要履行的治理大地的权力，她就要在她原先可以履行这个使命的地方受苦，以提醒她，她如今已经无法完成了。女人如今只能按照她和她的盟约的头的形象，生出败坏的儿女。即使在我们这个时代，有很多人高抬他们的儿女，以及他们在养育子女上的成就，到一个程度，彷彿他们相信，他们可以达成上帝在创造时的原始意图。Still, another
question arises when we ask why God placed His curse upon the act of
child-bearing when He pronounced His curse upon the woman. The answer, it
seems, regards the role childbearing prior to the fall. Adam and Eve were to
fulfill the creational mandate to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and
subdue it.” The way in which Adam and Eve would extend the Garden-Temple out
would be by populating and cultivating to the glory of God. Now that the woman
has allowed herself to be deceived and has forfeited the right to fulfill the
dominion mandate in the way in which God originally intended for man to do, she
would have pain in the place in which she would have originally fulfilled it as
a reminder that she could no longer do so. Woman would now bear corrupt
children in the fallen image of she and her federal head. Too many, even in our
own day, elevate their children and their parenting to such a level that it
seems as though they believe that they can achieve the original intention of
God at creation.
在祂满有恩典的筹算中，上帝继续成就祂要人治理大地的意图，甚至部分是通过生儿育女的过程。不过，以一种人永远无法想像的方式。上帝要成為人，由女子所生，且生在律法之下，好叫祂可以从律法的咒诅中救赎我们，并且藉著祂自己的死造就一个新的创造。希伯来书的作者把这点说得很清楚，他提到「来世」，并且解释说，我们「至今还不见万物都服祂」，但「唯独见那成為比天使小一点的耶穌，因為受死的苦，就得了尊贵荣耀為冠冕，叫祂因著上帝的恩，為人人（祂所有的百姓）嚐了死味。」（来二8-9）In
His gracious purposes, God continued to fulfill his intention for man to have
dominion and, even, in part, through child-bearing. However, it was in a way in
which man could have never imagined. God would become man, born of the woman,
born under the law so that He might redeem us of the curse of the Law and bring
about the new creation through His own death. The writer of Hebrews makes this
clear when he speaks of the “world to come” and explains that we “do not yet
see all things put under man,” but “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower
than the Angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that
He, by the grace of God, might taste death for all His people.”
四、放置在男人身上的咒诅和他统治大地的使命有关。
4.
The curse place on the man regarded his role in the dominion mandate.
正如上帝在女人本来要在统管世界的职责上所要扮演的角色上，向她宣告咒诅，同样，上帝也在这件事上咒诅男人。男人本来应当「修理、看守」伊甸园。工作本来是男人履行统管使命的基本方式之一。藉著使用耶和华赐给他的恩赐，男人可以為了万王之王的荣耀而治理世界。与此相反，上帝如今说，对堕落之后的人来说，工作会变得艰难和痛苦。男人要汗流满面才能糊口。男人本是从土而来，如今地却要给他长出荆棘和蒺藜。在堕落之前本来应该是简单而可以享受的事，如今却变得劳苦而繁重。As God pronounced a
curse on the women in the very place in which she was to play a role in taking
dominion of the world, so He did with regard to the man. Man was to “tend and
keep” the Garden. Work was one of the primary ways in which man would fulfill
the dominion mandate. By using the gifts that the Lord gave him, man would
subdue the world for the glory the King of Kings. Instead, God said that work
would be difficult and painful for man after the fall. Man would work by the
sweat of his brow in order to eat bread. The ground, out of which the man had
been made, would now bear thorns and thistles. Everything that would have been
easy and enjoyable prior to the fall would now be toilsome and burdensome.
在堕落之后，人企图藉著他自己所作的来履行统管的使命，只是徒劳无功。人从此无法靠他自己的工作来履行这个统管的使命。不过，有一个人要来，会以祂的一生和死亡的工作，来完成这个使命。在祂復活之后，耶穌告诉祂的门徒，「天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了，所以，你们要去，使万民作我的门徒。」耶穌获得了所有的权柄和能力，上帝的儿子和新创造的代表，以及得赎的人类。祂如今坐在上帝的宝座上，藉著福音的传讲，使人作祂的门徒，叫万物服在祂的脚下。After the fall, man
tries to fulfill the dominion mandate by which he does–and he tries in vain. No
longer would man be able to fulfill the dominion mandate by His own work.
However, a Man would come who would fulfill the mandate by His work in His life
and death. After His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples, “All authority in
heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples.”
Jesus gains all authority and power and the Son of God and representative of
the new creation and redeemed humanity. A Man now sits on the throne of God and
is subduing all things to Himself through the preaching of the Gospel and the
making of disciples.
五、基督，末后的亚当，把亚当的咒诅担在自己身上，以救赎祂的百姓。
5.
Christ, the Last Adam, took the curse of Adam upon Himself in order to redeem
His people.
正如对女人的咒诅同样的情况，耶和华要在对男人的咒诅中带来祝福。男人的罪和咒诅的解答，会在耶穌基督，第二个亚当（罗五12-21）身上找到。祂是末后的人——前来代表祂在亚当裡堕落的百姓，好叫他们得以认识救赎。用傅格森的话说，「耶穌消解了亚当所作的一切，并且完成了亚当所未能完成的一切。」祂成了咒诅，好除去我们身上的咒诅。祂完美地遵行了上帝的律法，好叫所有信祂的人配得称义。耶穌的救赎大工最有趣的一个层面是，上帝在伊甸园裡对人所宣告的咒诅是如何落在耶穌身上的——也是在花园裡。As was true with
regard to the woman and her curse, the Lord mean to bring blessing from the
curse placed on man. The solution to Adam’s sin and the curse is found in Jesus
Christ, the second Adam (Romans 5:12-21). He is the last man–who came to
represent His people who were fallen in Adam so that they might know
redemption. In the words of Sinclair Ferguson, “Jesus undid everything Adam did
and did everything Adam failed to do.” He became a curse in order to remove the
curse from us. He kept the Law of God perfectly so as to merit righteousness
for those who would believe. One of the most interesting aspects of Jesus’ work
of redemption is the way in which the curse that was pronounced over man in the
Garden falls on Him–in Gardens.
当耶穌正要完成祂的救赎大工之际，圣经告诉我们，祂在园子裡，「汗如大血点滴在地上」（路廿二44）马太•亨利註解到：「汗伴随著罪而来，是咒诅的一部分，创三19。因此，当基督為我们成為罪身、成為咒诅时，祂流出了极為悲痛的汗，而在祂脸上的汗水中，我们得以吃饼，好叫祂可以使我们成圣，并且把对我们的试炼化為甘甜。」When Jesus was
fully entering into the work of redemption, we are told that He sweat great
drops of blood in the Garden. Matthew Henry noted: Sweat came in with sin, and
was a branch of the curse, Gen. 3:19. And therefore when Christ was made sin
and a curse for us, He underwent a grievous sweat, that in the sweat of His
face we might eat bread, and that He might sanctify and sweeten all our trials
to us.
明白这位神而人者，在祂努力要解除亚当所作的一切时，所必须忍受的工作的重担，并不是件微不足道的小事。It is no small
thing to see how the God-Man had to endure the burden of work as He was working
to undo everything that Adam had done.
其次，耶穌在祂受难的当儿，头上扎著荆棘的冠冕。对我来说，这是祂成為背负罪孽、除去咒诅的第二个亚当，最有力的一幅图像。再次，马太•亨利写到：「荆棘伴随著罪而来，是咒诅的一部分，而咒诅是罪的结果，创三18。因此，基督，既然為我们成了咒诅，為我们死了，好除去我们身上的咒诅，就感到这些荆棘带来的痛苦和剧痛，不，是把它们绑在祂头上做冠冕（伯三十一36）；因為祂為我们受难是祂的荣耀。」（译按：见太廿七26-32註）Secondly,
Jesus wore the crown a thorns during His hours of suffering. This, it seems to
me, is one of the most powerful pictures of Him becoming the sin-bearing,
curse-removing Second Adam. Again, Matthew Henry wrote: Thorns came in with sin,
and were part of the curse that was the product of sin, Gen. 3:18 . Therefore
Christ, being made a curse for us, and dying to remove the curse from us, felt
the pain and smart of those thorns, nay, and binds them as a crown to him (Job.
31:36 ); for his sufferings for us were his glory.
最后，耶穌死了。我们在圣经裡读到有关祂受难的细节之一是：「气就断了。」（可十五37）上帝给了人「生命的气息」。耶穌，第二个亚当，捨了自己的气息，好叫我们可以拥有属於的生命气息。耶穌在十字架上全然忍受了堕落的咒诅。耶穌代替祂的百姓而死。马太•亨利精闢地说到：「基督确确实实死了，因為祂放弃了圣灵（the ghost）；祂人类的灵魂啟程前往精灵的世界，把祂的身体留在一个毫无生气的泥块裡」。Finally, Jesus
died. One of the details about the sufferings of which we read in Scripture is
that “He breathed His last” (Mark 15:24). God had given man “the breath of
life.” Jesus, the second Man, gave up that breath so that we might have the
spiritual breath of life. Jesus endured the curse of the fall to the full on
the cross. Jesus died in the place of His people. Henry put it so well when he
wrote:Christ was really and truly dead, for he gave up the ghost; his human
soul departed to the world of spirits, and left his body a breathless clod of
clay.
有趣的是，正如祂在客西马尼园开始祂的受难，同样地，祂也被埋葬在一个花园裡。安布罗斯（Isaac Ambrose），在他精彩的著作《仰望耶穌》（Looking Unto Jesus）裡，作出以下有力的观察：花园是我们堕落之所，因此，基督选择从花园来开始祂救赎我们的工作……请思想祂进入客西马尼园：在亚当犯罪的园子裡，而基督必须在这个园子裡受苦。当祂进到这个园子，马上就感到极度痛苦。」Interestingly, just as he began his sufferings in the
Garden of Gethsemane, so he finished them by being buried in a Garden. Isaac Ambrose, in
his wonderful book Looking Unto Jesus, made the following powerful observation:
A garden was the place wherein we fell, and therefore Christ made choise of a
garden to begin the work of our redemption…Confider him entering into the
garden of Gethfemane: in a garden Adam sinned, and in this garden Christ must
suffer. Into this garden no sooner was he entered, but he began to be agonized.
但耶穌不只是捨了祂肉身的生命，祂也為我们忍受上帝完全的怒气。这是许多人对使徒信经这句话的理解：「祂下到阴间」。耶穌在十字架上忍受了与永恆审判相当的刑罚。只有一位永恆者才能满足一位永恆上帝的怒气。正如安瑟伦所作的对我们很有帮助的解释：「所有的罪都是在抵挡一位永恆者，而即使抵挡一位永恆者的一桩罪也配得永恆的审判。」耶穌，身為完全神、完全人，将自己置身於罪、死亡、上帝的怒气的权势下，為了我们把堕落的咒诅担在自己身上。祂打破罪的权势，除去肉体死亡的毒鉤，并且满足了上帝的怒气，為将眾子带进到荣耀裡。But Jesus did not
only gave up His life physically–He also endured the full wrath of God for us.
This is what many have understood the Apostle’s creed to mean when we say, “He
descended into Hell.” Jesus endured the equivalent of eternal punishment on the
cross. Only an eternal being can satisfy the wrath of an eternal God. As Anselm
explained so helpfully, “Every sin is sin against at eternal being, and even
one sin against an eternal being deserves eternal punishment.” Jesus, being
fully God and fully man put himself under the power of sin, death and wrath to
take the curse of the fall upon Himself for us. He broke the power of sin,
removed the sting from physical death and satisfied the wrath of God to bring
many sons to glory.
人既是从土造成的，背叛了他的造物主，因此这位无限圣洁、造作万物的上帝，就咒诅人犯罪之所。人的罪影响了全宇宙（罗八19-22）。上帝在救赎歷史的不同时期裡，在对人所宣告的或倾倒在人和牲畜身上的审判中，甚至也提示了这个观念（例如：洪水，对埃及、尼尼微的审判，等等）。在福音裡，上帝应许要救赎的，不只是信祂的百姓，也包括整个宇宙。救赎的应许是给所有信靠耶穌、第二个亚当的人的应许，应许他们会永远与祂一起住在新天新地裡。Man, who was taken
from the ground, rebelled against His Maker and so the infinitely holy God, who
made all things, cursed the place from which man sinned. Man’s sin effected the
whole of the cosmos (Rom. 8:19-22). There are even intimations of this idea in
God’s judgments pronounced or poured out upon man and beast at different
periods in redemptive history (e.g. the flood, the judgments on Egypt, Ninevah,
etc). In the Gospel, God promised to redeem–not just His believing people, but
also the whole of the cosmos. The promise of redemption is the promise to all
those who have trusted in Jesus, the second Adam, that they will live forever
with Him in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
当耶穌在花园裡滴下如大血点的汗珠时，第二个亚当的血就落在受咒诅的花园裡。当祂被掛在树上，头上扎著荆棘的冠冕，祂的血也流到地上。希伯来书的作者举出亚伯的血（从地裡向上帝哀告，哀求上帝审判该隐）和耶穌的血之间的平行对比：耶穌的血「所说的比亚伯的血所说的更美」（来十二24）。耶穌的血哀求怜悯。从一定的意义来说，我们也可以说耶穌的血——既然被倾倒在受咒诅的土地裡——也确保了新的创造。这裡所蕴含的一些深刻的真理，理当使我们跪倒在地，承认我们的罪，并敬拜那位差遣祂永恆爱子来到世上的上帝；祂来成為担当罪孽的，除去咒诅的第二个亚当！正如约翰•亨利•纽曼所写的：When He sweat great drop of blood in the Garden, the
blood of the Second Adam fell into the cursed ground. When He hung on the tree, with
a crown of thorns on his head, He shed His blood into the ground. The writer of
Hebrews draws out this parallel between the blood of Abel (which cried out to
God from the ground for judgment on Cain) and the blood of Jesus “speaking
better things than that of Abel.” Jesus’ blood cries out for mercy. There is a
sense in which we can say that Jesus’ blood–being poured out into the cursed
ground–also secures the new creation. There are depths here–depths that ought
to make us fall on our knees, confess our sin and worship the God who sent His
eternal Son to become the sin-bearing, curse-removing Second Adam! As John
Henry Newman put it:
讚美我神智慧之爱！
眾皆犯罪羞辱。
第二亚当再战克敌，
我主救恩得胜。
O
loving wisdom of our God,
when
all was sin and shame,
a
second Adam to the fight
and
to the rescue came!
註：
1. Stuart Robinson Discourses of Redemption
(New York: D. Appelton and Co., 1866) pp. 65-66