信心是條件嗎？Faith as a Condition?
譯者/校對者: Maria Marta/駱鴻銘
嚴格說來，信心是人得救的條件嗎？換句話說，有關救恩的工作，耶穌在十字架上的死，只完成了99%，然後剩下的1%要靠你的相信來完成嗎？再換句話說，耶穌的死只是讓救恩的實現成為可能嗎？或者祂實在地的完成了救恩的工作呢？ 關於這點，John Owen有精闢的論述：
基督不是為了「如果他們相信」這個條件而死的；祂是為所有神的選民而死的，以至於「他們得以相信」，並因為信而得到永恆的生命。信心本身是基督之死所產生的主要功效和所結的主要的果子之一……聖經沒有一處說，我們也無法從理性上加以肯定，就是倘若我們相信，會讓原本不是的東西成為是的——由行動來產生目的；不，聖經是說，基督為我們而死，好讓我們會相信。的確，上帝賜給人救恩是有條件的，信心就是這個條件；但是，信心卻是由上帝所提供的，上帝保證它絕對會實現。
我特別喜歡John Owen所說的那句「信心本身是基督之死所產生的主要功效和所結的主要的果子之一」---得救的信心是「由上帝所提供，上帝保證它絕對會實現」。當耶穌死在十字架上時， 祂實在地為屬祂的人完成了救恩的工作。所以我們必須相信以至於得救，但倘若我們有真的信心，這種信心乃是神所賜，是透過基督的死，靠著聖靈那至高主權的工作賜給我們的。
Faith
as a Condition?
Is
faith, strictly speaking, a condition of salvation? In other words, did Jesus die on the cross,
doing 99%, and now leaves it up to us to believe, doing the last 1%? In still other words, did Jesus’ death make
salvation possible, or did he actually accomplish redemption? John Owen puts it so well:
“Christ
did not die for any upon condition, ‘if they do believe;’ but he died for all
God’s elect, ‘that they should believe,’ and believing have eternal life. Faith itself is among the principle effects
and fruits of the death of Christ…. It
is nowhere said in Scripture, nor can it reasonably be affirmed, that if we
believe, Christ died for us, as though our believing should make that to be
which otherwise was not – the act create the object; but Christ died for us
that we might believe. Salvation,
indeed, is bestowed conditionally; but faith, which is the condition, is absolutely
procured.”
I
especially love the line above where Owen says that faith is one of the
greatest effects and fruits of Christ’s death – saving faith is “absolutely
procured.” Jesus actually accomplished
salvation for his people when he died on the cross. So we must believe to be saved, but if we
have true faith, it is a gift given by God through the death of Christ by the
sovereign work of the Holy Spirit.
John
Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth,
1999), 123.
