真正蒙赦免的人真心饒恕人ThoseWho Are Truly Forgiven, Truly Forgive
作者: Philip Ryken 譯者: Maria Marta
我們需要每日饒恕人，每日蒙保守，每日得到天父的供應。所以耶穌在教導我們「每天所需的食物，求你今天賜給我們」的禱告後，也教導我們要這樣禱告：「赦免我們的罪債，好像我們饒恕了得罪我們的人；不要讓我們陷入試探，救我們脫離那惡者」（太六12-13）。
這些祈求是為墮落的罪人-------為那些經常受試探犯罪，且有時會投降的人而預備的。甚至在我們遇到這些試探之前，我們也應該懇求上帝，保守我們脫離如約翰·加爾文在他的著作《基督教要義》中所說的「撒但的暴力襲擊」。懇求不要讓我們陷入試探，並非懇求絕不要讓我們陷入試探，而是懇求當我們受試探時，上帝救我們脫離撒旦的致命攻擊。
但當我們犯罪，陷入屬靈的罪債之中，會怎麽樣？我們應該如何禱告呢？
當我們陷入罪債時，我們首先要做的是計算我們虧欠了多少。因為我們自己的罪，我們欠上帝什麽債？因著我們已犯的罪、未犯的罪、「怠忽的罪」（sin of omission）、與「幹犯的罪」（sin of commission），我們都是有罪的。我們的罪債包括隱秘的罪、公開的罪、蓄意犯的罪、相對無知而犯的罪。當我們所有的罪加在一起時，它們就將我們置於虧欠上帝的永恒的罪債之中。
然而耶穌教導我們，要懇求天父幫助我們。我們切要禱告：「我們在天上的父，赦免我們的罪債。」我們用這些說話宣告我們的道德淪喪，坦白承認我們對上帝的虧欠多過我們所擁有的一切。然後我們懇求上帝徹底赦免我們。因為上帝是我們慈愛的天父，祂會應允我們所祈求的。當我們因犯罪欠債，頹喪地來到上帝的面前時，祂不是與我們坐在一起討論，制定一個付款計劃。相反，祂供應我們全備和白白的赦免。
當上帝赦免我們的罪債，祂是在祂權利範圍內這麽做的，因為聖經說，祂除去我們的罪，「塗抹了那寫在規條上反對我們、與我們為敵的字句，並且把這字句從我們中間拿去，釘在十字架上」（西二14）。這幅生動的圖畫與古代世界不時取消債務的方式相對應。當一個債務人最終還清他所有的債務時，債權人會用釘釘住所有的債務憑證。同樣地，當耶穌基督死在十字架上時，上帝便用釘釘住我們所欠的極龐大的罪債。不會再有任何未解決的指控控告我們。
我們以主耶穌教導我們的禱告方式，祈求上帝所赦免我們的罪債，就是那些與耶穌基督同釘在加略山十字架上的字句 。當耶穌基督被釘死在十字架上，我們所有的罪債都被取消了。「取消」的希臘字是exaleipho，是保羅在歌羅西書第二章所使用的字，其意思是「抹掉」或「擦去」。這意味著因為我們的罪，我們欠上帝的累累債務已被徹底清除。
然而，我們仍然欠上帝——不是債務，而是感恩之情——饒恕人是感恩的具體表現之一。耶穌教導我們禱告「赦免我們的罪債，好像我們饒恕了得罪我們的人」（太六12）。我們從這個祈求了解到，我們不是唯一的欠債人。我們有我們自己的債務人，即那些因他們的所為，虧欠我們的人。我們受吩咐要饒恕他們。
這是一句難明的說話。求赦免的禱告是主禱文中唯一一個附帶條件的祈求。倘若我們不饒恕人，我們將不蒙赦免。但我們發覺很難饒恕人。既然這樣，我們如何能得蒙赦免呢？
為了說明這種困難，我們來思考約翰衛斯理（John Wesley）的說話。約翰衛斯理（John Wesley）在宣教期間，曾與格魯吉亞（Georgia）將軍------一位驕傲、冷酷的殖民地創始人，曾有一段關系僵持的時間。奧格爾索普驚人地評論道：「我決不饒恕你。」衛斯理回答：「先生，我希望，你從未犯過罪。」衛斯理想到主禱文，這意味著不饒恕人者不蒙赦免。
「祈求我們自己得蒙赦免」當優先於「祈求饒恕人」。倘若我們在蒙赦免之前必須先饒恕人，那麽饒恕便變成一項工作，某些我們為得救而要做的事。然而救恩唯獨藉著恩典而來。我們不能償還我們的罪債，我們只能祈求我們的罪債被取消。但現在，我們已得蒙赦免，藉著上帝的恩典，我們也能夠饒恕人。事實上，我們饒恕人的能力是我們蒙赦免的最可靠的記號之一。那些真正蒙赦免的人真心饒恕人。
給予這樣的饒恕可能要付出非常昂貴的代價，別人傷害我們越深，就越難饒恕。然而，饒恕不僅給「被饒恕者」，而且特別地給「饒恕者」帶來巨大的喜樂。「饒恕」的希臘字（aphiemi）源自意思是「釋放」的字。饒恕是一種釋放，釋放諸如憤怒、怨恨、覆仇等自我毀滅的情緒。
Richard
Wurmbrand（理查德•沃姆布蘭德）曾遇見一個經歷因饒恕而得着神聖釋放的人。當時，沃姆布蘭德被關押在共產黨當權的羅馬尼亞監獄，躺在一間專為快要死的囚犯而設的牢房裡。在他右邊的小床上，有一位被毒打得快要死的牧師。在他左邊是一位曾毆打過牧師，後又遭其同志出賣和拷打的共產主義者。
一天晚上，那名共產主義者在噩夢中驚醒，大聲喊道：「牧師，請為我祈禱。我犯下如此的惡行，我不能死。」牧師無力地站起來，跌跌撞撞地走過沃姆布蘭德的床，坐在他的仇人的床邊。
沃姆布蘭德看著他們，他看到牧師撫摸着那個曾虐待過他的仇人的頭發，驚人地說道：「我已全心全意原諒了你，我愛你。倘若我只是一個罪人，也能夠愛和原諒你，更何況耶穌，上帝的兒子，愛的道成肉身。回轉歸向祂吧。祂渴望得到你遠遠超過你渴望得到祂。祂希望赦免你多過你希望得到的赦免。而你只需要悔改。」在牢房中，共產主義者開始承認他所有的殺人和虐待人的罪行。當他承認完畢，兩個人一起祈禱，擁抱，然後各自回到他們的床上，他們兩人當晚都死了。
這位羅馬尼亞牧師學會如何饒恕。他從耶穌身上學到這一點，祂首先赦免他的罪債，然後教導他饒恕他的債務人。同一位耶穌也赦免我們，拯救我們，因為祂藉著祂在十字架上的死，除去了我們的罪，敗壞了魔鬼的權勢。
本譯文的聖經經文皆引自《聖經新譯本》。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌 。
Those
Who Are Truly Forgiven, Truly Forgive
FROM
Philip Ryken
We
need daily pardon and daily protection as well as daily provision. So after
Jesus taught us to pray, “give us today our daily bread,” He also taught us to
pray, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:12–13).
These
petitions are for fallen sinners — for people who are often tempted to sin, and
sometimes give in. Even before we face these temptations, we should ask God to
keep us safe from what John Calvin called in his Institutes “the violent
assaults of Satan.” In asking not to be led into temptation, we are not
requesting that we will never be tempted at all, but that when we are tempted
God will deliver us from Satan’s deadly attacks.
But
what about the times when we do sin and fall into spiritual debt? How should we
pray then?
The
first thing to do when we fall into debt is to figure out how much we owe. So
what debt do we owe to God because of our sin? We are guilty for what we have
done and for what we have left undone, for sins of omission as well as
commission. Our debt includes secret sins as well as public ones, deliberate
sins as well as sins committed in relative ignorance. And when all our sins are
added together, they place us in God’s eternal debt.
Yet
Jesus has taught us to ask our Father to help us. “Our Father,” we are to pray,
“forgive us our debts.” With these words we declare our moral bankruptcy,
freely admitting that we owe God more than everything we have. Then we ask Him
to forgive us outright. And because He is our loving Father, God does what we
ask. When we go to Him weighed down with the debt of all our sin, He does not
sit down with us to work out a payment plan. Instead, He offers full and free
forgiveness.
When
God remits our debts He is well within His legal rights, for the Scripture says
that He took our sin away, “canceling the record of debt that stood against us”
by “nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). This vivid image corresponds to the
way debts were sometimes cancelled in the ancient world. When a debtor finally
paid off all his debts, his creditor would strike a nail through the
certificate of debt. In the same way, when Christ died on the cross, God drove
a nail right through the infinite debt of our sin. There are no longer any
outstanding charges against us.
The
debts we ask God to forgive when we pray the way Jesus taught us to pray are
the very debts that were crucified with Christ at Calvary. When Christ died on
the cross, all our debts were cancelled. The Greek word for “cancel”
(exaleipho), which Paul uses in Colossians 2, means “to blot out” or “to wipe away.”
It means that the mountain of debt we once owed to God because of our sin has
been completely erased.
There
are still some things we owe to God, however — not out of debt, but out of
gratitude — and one of those things is forgiveness. “Forgive us our debts,”
Jesus taught us to pray, “as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12 nkjv). From
this petition we learn that we are not the only ones in debt. We have debtors
of our own, people who owe us something for what they have done to us. And we
are called to forgive them.
This
is a hard teaching. The prayer for forgiveness is the only petition in the
Lord’s Prayer that comes with a condition attached. If we do not forgive, we
will not be forgiven. Yet we find it hard to forgive. How, then, can we be
forgiven?
To
illustrate the difficulty, consider something John Wesley said in his
missionary days when he was having a difficult time with General Oglethorpe,
the proud and pitiless founder of colonial Georgia. Oglethorpe made this
startling comment: “I never forgive.” “Then I hope, sir,” replied Wesley, “you
never sin.” Wesley was thinking of the Lord’s Prayer, which implies that the
unforgiving are unforgiven.
Asking
for our own forgiveness takes priority over offering it to others. If we had to
forgive before we could be forgiven, then forgiveness would become a work,
something we had to do to be saved. Yet salvation comes by grace alone. We
cannot work off our debts, we can only ask for them to be canceled. But now,
having been forgiven, by the grace of God we are also able to forgive. Indeed,
our ability to forgive is one of the surest signs of our having been forgiven.
Those who are truly forgiven, truly forgive.
Giving
such forgiveness can be very costly, and the more someone has hurt us, the
harder it is to forgive. Yet forgiveness also brings great joy, not only to the
forgiven, but especially to the forgiver. The Greek term for “forgiveness”
(aphiemi) comes from a word that means “to let go.” Forgiveness is a release, a
letting go of self-destructive feelings like anger, bitterness, and revenge.
Richard
Wurmbrand once met a man who had experienced the divine release that comes
through forgiveness. Wurmbrand was in a Communist prison in Romania at the
time, lying in a prison cell reserved for those who were dying. In the cot on
his right was a pastor who had been beaten so badly that he was about to die.
On his left was the very man who had beaten him, a Communist who was later
betrayed and tortured by his comrades.
One
night the Communist awakened in the middle of a nightmare and cried out,
“Please, pastor, say a prayer for me. I have committed such crimes, I cannot
die.” The pastor feebly got up, stumbled past Wurmbrand’s cot, and sat at the
bedside of his enemy.
As he
watched, Wurmbrand saw the pastor caress the hair of the man who had tortured
him and speak these amazing words: “I have forgiven you with all of my heart,
and I love you. If I who am only a sinner can love and forgive you, more so can
Jesus who is the Son of God and who is love incarnate. Return to Him. He longs
for you much more than you long for Him. He wishes to forgive you much more
than you wish to be forgiven. You just repent.” There, in the prison cell, the
Communist began to confess all his murders and tortures. When he had finished,
the two men prayed together, embraced, and then returned to their beds, where
each died that very night.
The
Romanian pastor had learned how to forgive. He had learned this from Jesus, who
first forgave his debts, and then taught him to forgive his debtors. This same
Jesus forgives us and delivers us, for by His death on the cross He has
canceled our debt and destroyed the power of the Devil.
This
post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.