作者: Richard Phillips 译者: Maria Marta
在上帝的圣言中有许多「不可抗拒的恩典」的例子。或许最易让人明白的一个例子是对门徒马太（也被称为税吏利未）的呼召。在马太福音中,使徒记录了自己的归正：「耶稣从那里往前走，看见一个人，名叫马太，坐在税关那里，就对他说：『来跟从我！』他就起来跟从了耶稣。」（太九9新译本）
仔细想想,这节经文清楚表明不可抗拒的恩典这基本教导。主耶稣刚从加利利地区的传道事工回到迦百农。迦百农已成为主耶稣在加利利一带传道事工的总部，祂许多最壮观的神迹就是在迦百农施行的。看到马太坐在税关那𥚃, 耶稣对他说，「来跟从我！」听到这些话，税吏立刻转变成一个门徒。这是上帝主权施行拯救的一个显著例子。
至于马太方面，同样呈现出一幅引人瞩目的人「完全败坏」的画面。陈述句「他坐在税关那里」意义深远。当时，几乎没有比税吏更腐败贪婪的人了。罗马帝国采取征税权招标制, 承包给出价最高的投标者,即税吏或包税人, 由税吏负责征收税务,税吏支付政府预定的一定数额给罗马政俯，剩余多征到的税款全归税吏。税吏掠夺贫困的人，压制贸易，收税职业等同于当地的黑社会。更糟糕的是，税吏受本国人民鄙视,因为他们与奴役自己同胞的外国势力相互勾结。
马太在迦百农作税吏这段时间, 正是耶稣以迦百农作为祂活动基地的时候, 马太对耶稣和耶稣的传道表现出心硬的态度。税关设立在人气最旺的公共地方；马太的税关最有可能位于湖边的码头或沿著通往城里的主要道路上。他可能多次看见耶稣和听到耶稣的传道，并清楚意识到耶稣的一些伟大行动。就在最近，一个瘫子被朋友抬上耶稣讲道的房子上, 从拆通的房顶把瘫子连人带褥子缒下去,落在耶稣面前,瘫子立刻被耶稣治愈。更早些时候，正是在迦百农, 耶稣赶鬼和医治许多绝望的病人。但这些神迹丝毫不影响马太, 他仍忙于税关税收,对这些神迹奇事无动於衷。
总之，马太福音并没有对马太突然愿意相信并跟随耶稣作任何解释。相反，在不可抗拒的上帝恩典中找到了这个问题的答案, 因为圣灵籍著上帝的主权和大能, 把耶稣的呼召应用到马太身上。
这有助于明白我们所说的「不可抗拒的恩典」, 我们的意思不是指上帝的恩典从未被抗拒过。那些反对这教义的人充分利用这些事件作為反对的籍口，因为当人（男或女）抗拒上帝的恩典时，他们能转身离去，正如马太多次的无动於衷那样。但反对的人没有抓住要领,原因很简单, 「不可抗拒的恩典」教义说的是恩典施行在罪人的归正上。我们不是教导没有人能违抗上帝的恩典。但我们坚持认为，当一个罪人籍著信心回转归向基督，并开始跟随祂时，这种归正是圣灵的作工, 是上帝恩典主权、有效、不可抗拒的施行结果。
正如马太的归正显示，不可抗拒的恩典与上帝在基督裡的拯救呼召联结。改革宗神学对两种呼召作出重要和有用的区别。一种是基督对全世界的普遍呼召, 普遍呼召是对所有人的邀请, 与上帝的拣选无关。耶稣呼叫「你们所有劳苦担重担的人哪，到我这里来吧！我必使你们得安息。」（太十一28新译本） 约翰记录了在耶路撒冷住棚节的盛宴中，耶稣站起来大声说，「人若渴了，可以到我这里来喝！」（约七37）。这是基督对所有人的普遍呼召, 每一个人都听见了。普遍呼召是真诚的邀请, 拯救的邀请。但由于人处在完全败坏的状态，没有人能凭自己的意志来回应这个呼召。的确, 没有人能作出回应。这正是马太的情况。尽管马太多次看见耶稣和听到耶稣的传道，尽管他早就了解耶稣所做的事情，甚至直接诉诸信心, 但是他罪恶的心不愿回应。耶稣曾经解释说，「如果不是差我来的父吸引人，就没有人能到我这里来。」(约 六44) 有罪的心敌对上帝, 对上帝救恩的邀请毫无兴趣；在基督拯救事工的现场, 马太继续贪婪地吸取民众的血汗, 这正是典型的例子。
有一次，当耶稣描述有钱的人很难进天国时，彼得十分惊奇地问，「谁可以得救呢？」（太十九25）。当我们诚实地面对圣经所说的,关于人在罪中的无望光景时, 很自然便提出这个好问题。圣经描绘未重生的人的灵性是死的，盲目的，和被奴役的。那么人如何归正信靠基督？答案是「另一种呼召」-----有效的呼召, 籍著上帝的大能把我们带到基督那里。耶稣告诉彼得，「在人这是不能的，在 神却凡事都能」（太十九26新译本）。
归信基督不仅是可能的，而且籍著基督的有效呼召而发生,圣灵以拯救的大能使这呼召产生果效,令到不信的罪人相信基督。史鲍尔 (R.C.
Sproul) 解释道：「未重生的人经历福音的外在呼召。这种呼召不会产生救恩果效,除非听到呼召并籍着信心来拥抱它。有效呼召是指圣灵重生的工作。这种呼召是内在的。重生的人被内在呼召。每一个接受内在重生呼召的人,以信心回应。」约翰默里（John Murray）描述上帝这种拯救的呼召，「因为它是有效的，所以当基督白白邀请人相信福音时, [它]承载著运行的恩典, 由此,被呼召的人能作出回应,并拥抱基督。」
有效呼召是马太身上所发生的转变唯一的,实事求是的解释。他离开税吏的位置, 并不是因为他振作意志,改变对耶稣的观念。相反，是因为基督对他的有效呼召，同时圣灵将上帝的救恩施行到他的灵魂里。籍著有效的呼召，他不仅能够以信心回应，而且他的内心发生变化，促使他这样回应。在马太的归正中,上帝的恩典是不可抗拒的，正是因为这是上帝主权拯救他灵魂的行动。如果一个国王（或女王）能够凭一句话召唤他（或她）的人，更何况全能的上帝呼召祂拣选的人来跟从耶稣。因为这个原因，当上帝在基督里呼召马太时，他「就起来跟从了耶稣」（太九9新译本）。
本文摘自《What’s So Great about
the Doctrines of Grace?》, Richard Phillips著
The
Gracious Calling of Matthew
FROM
Richard Phillips
There
are many examples of irresistible grace in God’s Word. Perhaps most plain is
the calling of the disciple Matthew, also known as Levi the tax collector. The
apostle records his own conversion in his Gospel: “As Jesus passed on from
there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to
him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him” (Matt. 9:9).
Consideration of this verse makes clear the
basic teaching of irresistible grace. The Lord Jesus had just returned to
Capernaum from His missionary visit to the region of the Gadarenes. Capernaum
had become His Galilean headquarters, and many of His most spectacular miracles
already had occurred there. Seeing Matthew at his tax collector’s booth, Jesus
went to him and called, “Follow me.” At these words, the tax collector
immediately was transformed into a disciple. It is a striking illustration of
God’s sovereignty in salvation.
For his part, Matthew presents an equally
striking picture of man’s total depravity. The statement that he was “sitting
at the tax booth” is loaded with meaning. At the time, there hardly could have
been a more depraved person than a tax collector. The Roman Empire took bids
for the right to collect taxes. These agents paid a set amount to Rome, but
could keep all the rest that they collected. Tax collectors enriched themselves
by preying on impoverished people, stifling trade, and operating what amounted
to a local mafia. To make matters worse, they were despised for collaborating
with the foreign power that had subjected their own people to bondage.
By
remaining in this occupation in Capernaum, Jesus’ base of operations at the
time, Matthew showed his hardness of heart to the presence and preaching of
Christ. Tax collectors’ booths were in the most public places; Matthew’s was
most likely situated either at the docks by the lake or along the main road
leading into town. He probably had seen and heard Jesus many times, and was
well aware of some of Jesus’ greatest works. Just recently, a paralytic had
been cured after his friends lowered him before Jesus through a hole they made
in the roof of the building where Jesus was preaching. Earlier, Jesus had cast
out demons and healed multitudes of hopelessly diseased people right there in
Capernaum. But none of this had had the slightest effect on Matthew. There he
was in his booth, carrying on his business without any visible response to all
these affairs.
In short, there was nothing in Matthew to
explain his sudden willingness to believe and follow Jesus. Instead, the answer
is seen in the irresistible grace of God, as the Holy Spirit applied Jesus’
call with sovereign and divine power.
This helps make clear that when we speak of
irresistible grace, we do not mean that God’s grace is never resisted. Those
who oppose this doctrine make much of the many instances when men and women
shun God’s grace and turn away, just as Matthew had done many times. But this
objection misses the point, for the simple reason that the doctrine of
irresistible grace speaks of the operation of grace in the conversion of
sinners. We do not teach that no one resists God’s grace. But we do insist that
when a sinner turns to Christ in faith and begins to follow Him, this
conversion is the result of the sovereign, effectual, and irresistible
operation of God’s grace through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
As the conversion of Matthew shows, irresistible
grace is joined to the saving call of God in Christ. Reformed theology makes an
important and useful distinction between two kinds of calls. There is the
general call of Christ to all the world, offered to all people irrespective of
God’s election. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest,” Jesus cried (Matt. 11:28). John records that during the Feast of
Tabernacles in Jerusalem, “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts,
let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37). This is Christ’s general call to
anyone and everyone who hears. It is a sincere call and offer of salvation. But
because of man’s totally depraved state, no one answers this call by his or her
own volition. Indeed, no one can. This was Matthew’s situation. For all the
many times he had seen and heard Jesus, for all that he had learned about what
Jesus was doing, and in spite of even direct appeals to faith that Matthew very
well may have heard, his sinful heart was indisposed to answer. Jesus once
explained this, saying, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him” (John 6:44). The sinful heart is hostile to God and uninterested in
His offer of salvation; Matthew modeled this perfectly as he greedily went on
extorting people in the very presence of Christ’s saving ministry.
On one occasion, when Jesus was describing the
impossibility of a rich man ever entering God’s kingdom, Peter asked in dismay,
“Who then can be saved?” (Matt. 19:25). This is a good question that arises
naturally when we honestly face what the Bible says about man’s hopeless
condition in sin. The Bible describes unregenerate sinners as spiritually dead,
blind, and enslaved. So how can anyone be converted to faith in Christ? The
answer is another kind of call, one that comes with divine power to bring us to
Christ: the effectual call. As Jesus told Peter, “With man this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).
Conversion to Christ is not only possible, but
happens by virtue of His effectual call, by which the Holy Spirit works with
saving power to bring the unbelieving sinner to faith. R. C. Sproul explains:
“The unregenerate experience the outward call of the gospel. This outward call
will not effect salvation unless the call is heard and embraced in faith.
Effectual calling refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Here
the call is within. The regenerate are called inwardly. Everyone who receives the
inward call of regeneration responds in faith.” As John Murray writes of this
saving call of God, “since it is effectual, [it] carries with it the operative
grace whereby the person called is enabled to answer the call and to embrace
Jesus Christ as he is freely offered in the gospel.
The effectual call offers the only realistic
explanation for what happened to Matthew. He did not get up from his tax
collector’s seat because he summoned up the will to change his mind about
Jesus. Rather, he came because Christ called him effectually, as the Holy
Spirit applied the saving grace of God to his soul. Through the effectual call,
not only was he enabled to respond in faith, but a change took place in his
heart so that he was compelled to do so. God’s grace was irresistible in his
conversion precisely because it was a sovereign and divine act whereby God
saved his soul. If a king or a queen is able to summon his or her subjects at a
word, how much more is the almighty God able to call His chosen people to follow
Jesus. For this reason, when called by the voice of God in Christ, Matthew
“rose and followed him.”
This excerpt is taken from What’s So Great
about the Doctrines of Grace? by Richard Phillips.
