属血气的人不会向你透露这类信息& 约翰福音三章16节Fleshand Blood Has Not Revealed this to You & John 3:16
作者: John_Hendryx 翻译: Maria Marta
上帝的诫命从不赐予我们能力, 而是拆除我们信靠自己的能力, 好叫我们自己能够走到终点。非常清楚，保罗教导这是上帝律法的目的（罗三20, 五20，加三19,24）。带有可扩充的, 有前提条件的声明的诫命或邀请, 例如约翰福音三章16节中的「叫一切信他的」，并不含有实现之能力的意思。在约一13，罗九16，约六37，44，63-65，罗三11; 太十六-廿六 ，林前二14这些经文的亮光下显得特别真实, 有更多的经文表明, 人在堕落的状态下无能力归信或相信福音。我们未重生的天然本性不需要上帝，而是爱黑暗「并不来就光」（约三19，20）。
如果从未发现，人在天然本性上愿意在信心中顺服基督福音那使人降卑的条件, 那麽福音怎麽会是好消息？（罗三11; 约六64,65; 帖后三2） 因为在耶稣基督裡，上帝把祂对我们的要求白白地赐给我们。在福音中，上帝对我们启示了义和信心，祂对我们的要求正是相同的义和信心。我们必须要拥有的，但不能创造或实现或完成的，上帝白白地赐给我们，也就是说，上帝白白地赐给我们祂自己的义（林后五21）和与基督联合的活信心。上帝启示: 与基督耶稣裡的恩赐一样, 义和信心是唯一一次的要求。信心不是罪人获得救恩代价的原因之一。耶稣已经为我们所有人付出代价。可以这麽说, 信心是我们新生命的第一道呼吸气息。上帝恩典工作的见证已经在我们裡面发生（弗二5，八2 ;提后二25; 约一5:1，约六63）。
注意罗马书三章11至12节说：「没有寻求神的，连一个也没有。」和哥林多前书二章14节说：「然而，属血气的人不领会神圣灵的事，反倒以为愚拙，并且不能知道；因为这些事惟有属灵的人才能看透。」 即使彼得也需要父上帝的启示: 耶稣是基督（太十六17）。我们与阿民念者都确信「叫一切信他的」得永生... ... 但这问题可以可追溯至更久远... ...什麽原因导致人相信？
对此, 司布真在《证道集-人之无能》中非常清晰地解释：
「阿民念说，『哦！如果他们愿意, 人就可得拯救。』我们回答：『我亲爱的先生，我们都相信这点。』 但问题正是出在『如果他们愿意』这句话上。我们断言若人不是被吸引，没有人可以到基督这里来。 不，不是我们这样断言，是基督祂自己宣告的: 『你们不肯到我这里来得生命』。只要『你们不会来』这句话还保留在圣经裡，任何人有自由意志的教条就都是不能使人信服的。当谈论自由意志时，他们在谈论根本不明白的事情，这是多麽的奇怪阿。
有人说，『我相信如果人愿意，他们就可以得救。』我亲爱的先生，这根本不是问题。 问题在于，有人是按本性愿意顺服基督福音那使人降卑的条件吗？我们照着圣经的权威宣告，人的意志是如此拼命要行恶，如此败坏，倾向任何罪恶之事——对任何良善之事如此抗拒——若没有圣灵大能，超自然和不可抗拒的影响，没有人会被约束归向基督。你回答说人有时候没有圣灵的帮助也是愿意的。我回答说——你从来遇见过这样的人没有？⋯⋯」
我认为这就是耶稣在约翰福音第三章整章强调重生的原因了。尼哥底母不明白耶稣的说话：「从肉身生的就是肉身；从灵生的就是灵。」 正如我们第一次从肉身生是被动的，我们从灵生也一样是被动的。我们不主动配合参与这两次生命的「出生」。在这段经文中, 圣灵被比拟为风, 我们不知道祂从哪裡来，往哪裡去；凡从圣灵生的，也是如此。 (约三8)
换句话说，圣灵的工作是主权性的，超自然的。就如你在一个盲人眼前点亮一道光, 向他命令你所有的需要，盲人仍在黑暗中什麽也看不见。盲人不是需要光，而是一双全新的眼睛。新生命也是这样。重生之前, 撒旦俘虏我们, 使我们按照牠的意志行事。牠弄瞎我们的眼睛, 使我们看不见真理。我们必须脱离自己的基本慾望和被俘虏的意志的困绑, 这只能由上帝的手藉着基督所作成的工来完成。
在约翰福音三章19至20节中------与三章16节同样的脉络, 耶稣修饰祂「叫一切信他的」的声明：「这是审判：光来到世间，世人因自己的行为是恶的，不爱光，倒爱黑暗，定他们的罪就是在此。」（这是我们所有人重生之前的光景）。
但我们都知道, 有些人来接近光, 阅读约翰福音三章20至21节中关于这些人的描述「…但行真理的必来就光，要显明他所行的是靠神而行。」 因此，确实也有一些人来接近光; 这些人的行为是上帝作工的结果。 「靠神而行」是指在主裡由主而作。撇开上帝这种恩慈的重生工作，所有人都会憎恨上帝的光，不会来接近光。
与依靠单独地阅读适合我们特定的神学系统的单一经文相反，我们必须以经解经。现在我们看了约翰福音第三章整体，经文的真正含义就变得清晰了。当我们分享福音时，约翰一章10-12节也是特别受喜爱的配合经文：
「他在世界，世界也是藉着他造的，世界却不认识他。他到自己的地方来，自己的人却不接受他。凡接受他的，就是信他名的人，他就赐给他们权利，成为神的儿女。」（约1:10-12新译本）
多么伟大的经文，我也爱用这几节经文，但我们不能就此止步。我们应该认识到，我们必须加上作修饰用的13节：
「这等人不是从血气生的，不是从情慾生的，也不是从人意生的，乃是从神生的。」(约一13新译本)
我发觉很奇怪, 许多人在陈述福音时, 省略这节经文：这些经文都是连在一起的。圣经重複着不变的主题：我们需要悔改，相信福音，但除此之外，没有圣灵重生人的工作, 我们在道德上无能力如此做（悔改与相信）。约翰福音三章16节「叫一切信他的」的邀请对像是所有的人, 真正地邀请所有的人，但是没有一个人在自然本性上渴望上帝。所有人都拒绝上帝的邀请，但上帝为我们作成了我们自己所不能做的事。
这些来到上帝面前的人归荣耀给上帝，因为上帝已经准备他们的心，使他们对基督的渴慕大于停留在罪中的慾望。这就是在使徒行传中，上帝透过保罗的宣讲对吕底亚作成:「主就开导她的心，叫她留心听保罗所讲的话。」(徒十六14) 在吕底亚身上发生的事情也同样发生在每个相信基督的人身上。如果上帝打开我们的心窍，我们愿意相信（申廿九4 ， 卅6 ） ，而且不会抗拒，因为我们的心已被更新，我们不想对抗。我们由圣灵復活的新本性拥有新的渴望和新的性情，这些都是我们自己不能作成的。
如果主打开吕底亚的心窍，让她留心注意，而她抗拒了，那将是一个矛盾的声称。请注意，上帝打开她的心窍使她「留心注意」。如果上帝解除吕底亚的敌意，因此她相信, 那麽就上帝是否在其他有信心的人身上作工这议题，应该不会有进一步的争论。儘管实际上是我们自己要相信，然而，在神人合作的观点中，人仍旧在堕落、未重生、顽固石心的本性下, 能把感情和信心归向上帝。对肯定「先在恩典」教义的阿民念来说，这甚至是真实，因为这些被赐予「先在恩典」的人是未重生者或已经是基督徒了。人（包括男女）必须首先拥有一个新的本性来相信---- 即圣经教导我们的，没有圣灵的工作, 人不会渴望，不能明白，也不能够顺服或者归向上帝（林前二14，罗八7 ，罗三11 ）。如果我们要相信，上帝必须首先把我们的石心转变成肉心：
「我也要赐给你们一个新心，将新灵放在你们裡面。又从你们的肉体中除掉石心，赐给你们肉心。我必将我的灵，放在你们裡面，使你们顺从我的律例，谨守遵行我的典章。」 (结卅六26-27)
阿民念者和其他神人合作者认为: 「信心」的渴望——即我们藉以相信耶稣，上帝会称罪人为义的，天生就属于我们的信心不是上帝的恩赐，也就是说，不是靠圣灵的感动更正我们的意志，使我们从不信到信，从不敬虔到敬虔。但是使徒保罗说，「我深信那在你们心裡动了善工的，必成全这工，直到耶稣基督的日子。」（腓一6）
保罗再次说，「你们得救是本乎恩，也因着信，这并不是出于自己，乃是神所赐的；」（弗二8） 此外，有些错误教导说，当上帝怜悯我们时，在重生的恩典以外，我们也能相信，愿意和渴望耶稣，但我们不承认甚至我们拥有的信心，意志，或者相信福音的能力是透过圣灵的感动，在我们裡面的作工的结果; 如果他们依靠谦卑或顺服的行为来协助恩典, 而不同意上帝的恩赐本身能使我们谦卑或顺服, 那麽, 他们违背了圣经的教导「使你与人不同的是谁呢？你有什麽不是领受的呢？若是领受的，为何自夸，彷彿不是领受的呢？」（林前四7 ）, 和「然而我今日成了何等人，是蒙神的恩才成的，并且他所赐我的恩不是徒然的。我比众使徒格外劳苦；这原不是我，乃是神的恩与我同在。」（林前十五10 ）
Flesh
and Blood Has Not Revealed this to You & John 3:16
by
John Hendryx
The
commandments of God were never meant to empower us but to strip us of trusting
in our own ability so that we would come to an end of ourselves. With striking
clarity, Paul teaches that this is the intent of Divine legislation (Rom 3:20,
5:20, Gal 3:19,24). A command or
invitation with an open ended hypothetical statement such as John 3:16
('whosover believes') does not imply the ability to fulfill it. This is
especially true in light of texts such as John 1:13, Rom 9:16, John 6:37, 44,
63-65; Rom 3:11; Matt 16-26' 1 Cor 2:14 and many more which show man's moral
inability to come to faith or believe the Gospel in their fallen state. In our
unregenerate nature we do not want God but rather love darkness and "will
not come into the light" * (John 3:19, 20).
If men are never found naturally willing to
submit in faith to the humbling terms of the gospel of Christ, then how can it
be good news? (Rom 3:11; John 6:64,65; 2 Thessalonians 3:2) Because in Christ
Jesus, God gives to us freely, what he demands from us. In the gospel God
reveals the same righteousness and faith for us that God demands from us. What
we had to have, but could not create or achieve or fulfill, God grants us
freely, namely, the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21) and living faith that
unites to Christ. He reveals, as a gift in Christ Jesus, the faith and
righteousness that was once only a demand. Faith is not something that the
sinner contributes towards the price of His salvation. Jesus has already paid
that price in full for us. Faith is our
first gasp of breath in our new birth, so to speak. It is a witness of God's work of grace
already haven taken place within us (Eph 2:5, 8; 2 Tim 2:25; 1 John 5:1; John
6:63, 65).
Notice that Romans 3:11, 12 says "there
is none who seek God, no not one" and 1 Cor 2:14 says that "the
natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit, they are foolishness to
him and he does not accept them because they are spiritually
discerned." Even Peter had to have
the Father reveal that Jesus was the Christ (Matthew 16:17). We affirm with
Arminians that “whosoever believes” has eternal life ... but the question goes
back further than that - what causes one to believe?
C.H. Spurgeon, in his sermon Human Inability,
explained this with great clarity:
"Oh!" saith the Arminian, "men
may be saved if they will." We reply, "My dear sir, we all believe
that; but it is just the "if they will" that is the difficulty. We
assert that no man will come to Christ unless he be drawn; nay, we do not
assert it, but Christ himself declares it--"Ye will not come unto me that
ye might have life;' and as long as that "ye will not come' stands on
record in Holy Scripture, we shall not be brought to believe in any doctrine of
the freedom of the human will." It is strange how people, when talking
about free-will, talk of things which they do not at all understand.
"Now," says one, "I believe men can be saved if they will."
My dear sir, that is not the question at all. The question is, are men ever
found naturally willing to submit to the humbling terms of the gospel of
Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is so desperately
set on mischief, so depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and
so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful.
supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be
constrained towards Christ. You reply, that men sometimes are willing, without
the help of the Holy Spirit. I answer--Did you ever meet with any person who
was?... "
I would argue that is why Jesus stresses the
new birth in the entire passage of John 3.
Nicodemus could not understand Jesus’ language: “Flesh gives birth to
flesh and Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Just as in our first physical birth we
were passive so also in our spiritual birth we are the same. We do not actively participate in either
birth with our efforts. The Spirit is likened to the wind in the passage where
we do not know if it is coming or going - so it is everyone who is born of the
spirit. (John 3:8) IN other words, the work of the Spirit is sovereign and
supernatural. Just as a blind man will not see if you shine a light in his
eyes, command him all you want. It isn't
light he needs but an entirely new set of eyes. That is what the new birth is
like. Prior to regeneration Satan has
taken us captive to do his will. He has
blinded us to the truth. We must be
freed from our own base desires and captive will which can only be accomplished
by the finger of God through the finished work of Christ.
In John 3:19, 20 in the same context of 3:16
(three verses later) Jesus qualifies His "whosoever believes" statement:
"This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil
hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will
be exposed.” (emphasis mine). (That's all of us prior to regeneration).
But we all know that some do come to the
light. Read what John 3:20-21 says about them. "…But he who does what is
true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been
wrought in God." So indeed there are those who come to the light; those
whose deeds are the work of God. "Wrought in God" means worked in and
by God. Apart from this gracious regenerating work of God all men hate the
light of God and will not come into it.
Instead of hanging our hats on a single verse
read in isolation that fits our particular system of theology we must interpret
scripture with scripture.. Now that we view the entirety of John 3 the true
meaning of the text becomes clear. John
1:10-12 is also a favorite of synergists when sharing the gospel:
“He was in the world, and though the world was
made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was
his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those
who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--."
Great passage, I also love to use this verse
but we can’t stop there. We should recognize that we must add the qualifier in
verse 13:
"…children born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
John 1:13
I find it peculiar many leave this verse out
in their gospel presentations: These verses all go together. This repeats a
constant theme in the Scriptures: that we are required to repent and believe
the gospel, but additionally, that we are morally unable to do so without the
quickening work of the Holy Spirit. The
offer of “whosoever believes” John 3:16 is to all men and truly offered to all
men, but no natural man desires God. ALL reject his offer, but what we cannot
do for ourselves God does for us. Those who do come to God give Him the glory
because He has prepared their heart, giving them a desire for Christ that is
greater than their desire to remain in sin. This is what He did for Lydia
through the preaching of Paul in the book of Acts: “the Lord opened her heart
[Lydia] to give heed to what was said by Paul" (Acts 16:14). What happened
to Lydia is what happens to everyone who comes to faith in Christ. If the Lord
opens our heart we willingly believe (Deut 29:4, 30:6), and no resistance is
given because, our hearts having been renewed, we wouldn't want to resist. Our
new natures which are made alive by the Holy Spirit have new desires and
dispositions that we could not produce on our own. If the Lord opened Lydia's
heart to give heed and she resisted, it would be a contradictory statement.
Note that God opened her heart "to give heed". If God disarmed
Lydia's hostility so she would believe then there should be no further debate
as to whether He does this in everyone else that has faith. Although we do the
actual believing ourselves, however, in the synergistic scheme, man turns his
affection and faith toward God while still in his fallen, unregenerate
stony-hearted nature. This is even true for Arminians who affirm
"prevenient grace" because those who are granted prevenient grace are
not regenerate or they would already be Christians. men and women must first
have a new nature to believe - i.e. the Scripture teaches that the man without
the Spirit does not desire, understand, nor is able to obey or turn to God (1
Cor 2:14, Rom 8:7, Rom 3:11). If we are to believe, God must first make our
heart of stone into a heart of flesh:
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and
cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My
ordinances.” - Ezekiel 36:26-27
Arminians and other synergists believe that
the very desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies sinners,
belongs to us by nature and is not a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and
from godlessness to godliness. But the Apostle Paul says, "And I am sure
that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of
Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). And again, "For by grace you have been
saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God"
(Eph. 2:8). Furthermore some wrongly teach that God has mercy upon us when,
apart from his regenerative grace, we believe, will and desire, but fail to
confess that it is by the work and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us
that we even have the faith, the will, or the strength to believe the gospel;
If they make the assistance of grace depend on our humility or obedience but
don't agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble,
they contradict the Scripture which says, "What have you that you did not
receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I
am" (1 Cor. 15:10).
