苦难与上帝的荣耀Suffering andthe Glory of God
作者：史鲍尔（R.C. Sproul）译者：王一
多年前，我曾探访过一位患子宫癌的女士。当时她极度痛苦，但原因不只是身体上病患。她向我倾诉，自己年轻时曾经堕过胎，她坚信癌症是上帝对她的惩罚。
通常，面对挣扎在痛苦和死亡边缘的人，普遍的回应是说苦难并非是上帝对罪的审判。但是实话实说，我告诉她我不知道这到底是不是上帝的审判。也许是，也许不是。我无法透知上帝隐秘的旨意，也无法看到他那不可见的膀臂，我不知道她为什么受苦。然而，我能够知道的是，不论什么原因，她的罪是可以解决的。于是，我便和她谈起了基督的十字架和他的怜悯。最后，这位女士在信心中睡了。
她面对的问题，正是所有在苦难中的人都不停在问的。这不禁让我联想到新约圣经中的一段。约翰福音第九章开头，「耶稣过去的时候，看见一个生来是瞎眼的。门徒问耶稣说：『拉比，这人生来是瞎眼的，是谁犯了罪？是这人呢？是他父母呢？』耶稣回答说：『也不是这人犯罪，也不是他父母犯了罪，是要在他身上显出上帝的作为来。』」（约九1-3）
为什么门徒们认为那人瞎眼的原因不是自己的罪就是父母的罪呢？他们肯定有一些圣经根据，圣经记载了始祖犯罪堕落，似乎很明显，这世界上一切的苦难、疾病、死亡的原因就是罪。门徒们这样理解没有错。人类的苦难的确与罪有关。圣经中也有许多处讲到因为上帝因为人类犯罪而降下灾祸。上帝用麻风病来惩罚摩西的姐姐米利暗，因为她质疑摩西是上帝的代言人（民十二1-10）。上帝因为大卫的罪取了拔示巴之子的性命（撒下十二14-18）。那个孩子被击打，并不是因为他自己做了什么，而是上帝对大卫的审判。
然而，门徒们错误地把罪和苦难的一般关系具体化。他们断定那人从生下来就瞎眼，背后肯定有个直接的罪因。难道他们没读过约伯记吗？约伯本来没有犯罪，却备受折磨。他们把问题想的太简单了，他们用二选一的方式问耶稣，假设他瞎眼的原因要么是他自己的罪，要么就是他父母的罪。
门徒们还假设一个人受苦的程度直接和他所犯的罪成正比。同样，约伯记这卷书反对这样的结论。因为约伯受的苦远比那些比他更有罪的人所受的苦沉重得多。
我们决不可以草率地说受苦的程度就是某个罪的直接结果。这个生来瞎眼的人就是为了告诉我们这个道理。
我们的主回答门徒们的问题，纠正他们错误的想法。主叫他们确实知道这个人生来瞎眼并非因为上帝审判他或他的父母。这里有另外一个原因。而这个原因也可能是今天上帝呼召我们忍受苦难的原因。
耶稣回答门徒们说，「也不是这人犯了罪，也不是他父母犯了罪，是要在他身上显出上帝的作为来」（3节）。这是什么意思？简单来说，耶稣的意思是这个人生来瞎眼，好叫耶稣能够在所定的时间来医治他，并让他作为耶稣的见证，见证耶稣的大能与神性。我们的主在医治他这件事上显明了自己是救主和上帝儿子的身份。
受苦时，我们应当信靠上帝，确信他知道自己所作的，并且明白受苦是为着上帝的荣耀，也为着我们的成圣。尽管长期的苦难的确难以忍受，但是当我们听到主亲自解释这个生来瞎眼的人受苦的原因时，我们能得到极大的安慰。上帝呼召他忍受多年的瞎眼之苦，那是为了耶稣基督的荣耀。
Suffering and the Glory of
God
by R.C. Sproul
I once visited with a woman
who was dying from uterine cancer. She was greatly distressed, but not only
from her physical ailment. She explained to me that she had had an abortion
when she was a young woman, and she was convinced that her disease was a direct
consequence of that. In short, she believed cancer was the judgment of God on
her.
The usual pastoral response
to such an agonizing question from someone in the throes of death is to say the
affliction is not a judgment of God for sin. But I had to be honest, so I told
her that I did not know. Perhaps it was God’s judgment, but perhaps it was not.
I cannot fathom the secret counsel of God or read the invisible hand of His
providence, so I did not know why she was suffering. I did know, however, that
whatever the reason for it, there was an answer for her guilt. We talked about
the mercy of Christ and of the cross, and she died in faith.
The question that woman
raised is asked every day by people who are suffering affliction. It is
addressed in one of the more difficult passages in the New Testament. In John
9, we read: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples
asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’
Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the
works of God might be displayed in him’” (vv. 1–3).
Why did Jesus’ disciples
suppose that the root cause of this man’s blindness was his sin or his parents’
sin? They certainly had some basis for this assumption, for the Scriptures,
from the account of the fall onward, make it clear that the reason suffering,
disease, and death exist in this world is sin. The disciples were correct that
somehow sin was involved in this man’s affliction. Also, there are examples in
the Bible of God causing affliction because of specific sins. In ancient
Israel, God afflicted Moses’ sister, Miriam, with leprosy because she
questioned Moses’ role as God’s spokesman (Num. 12:1–10). Likewise, God took
the life of the child born to Bathsheba as a result of David’s sin (2 Sam.
12:14–18). The child was punished, not because of anything the child did, but
as a direct result of God’s judgment on David.
However, the disciples made
the mistake of particularizing the general relationship between sin and
suffering. They assumed there was a direct correspondence between the blind
man’s sin and his affliction. Had they not read the book of Job, which deals
with a man who was innocent and yet was severely afflicted by God? The
disciples erred in reducing the options to two when there was another
alternative. They posed their question to Jesus in an either/or fashion,
committing the logical fallacy of the false dilemma, assuming that the sin of
the man or the sin of the man’s parents was the cause of his blindness.
The disciples also seem to
have assumed that anyone who has an affliction suffers in direct proportion to
the sin that has been committed. Again, the book of Job dashes that conclusion,
for the degree of suffering Job was called to bear was astronomical compared
with the suffering and afflictions of others far more guilty than he was.
We must never jump to the
conclusion that a particular incidence of suffering is a direct response or in
direct correspondence to a person’s particular sin. The story of the man born
blind makes this point.
Our Lord answered the
disciples’ question by correcting their false assumption that the man’s
blindness was a direct consequence of his or his parents’ sin. He assured them
that the man was born blind not because God was punishing the man or the man’s
parents. There was another reason. And because there was another reason in this
case, there might always be another reason for the afflictions God calls us to
endure.
Jesus answered His disciples
by saying, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works
of God might be displayed in him” (v. 3). What did He mean? Simply put, Jesus
said that the man was born blind so that Jesus might heal him at the appointed
time, as a testimony to Jesus’ power and divinity. Our Lord displayed His
identity as the Savior and the Son of God in this healing.
When we suffer, we must trust
that God knows what He is doing, and that He works in and through the pain and
afflictions of His people for His glory and for their sanctification. It is
hard to endure lengthy suffering, but the difficulty is greatly alleviated when
we hear our Lord explaining the mystery in the case of the man born blind, whom
God called to many years of pain for Jesus’ glory.
