什麽是純正的教義？  What Is Sound Doctrine?

作者: Scott Swain    譯者: Maria Marta

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-doctrine/

https://plus.google.com/u/1/106695469993489516884/posts/3AnpDx2zsJS?sfc=false

在我年輕的時候，我只考慮我的未來：我會和誰結婚？我會從事什麽職業？我將在哪裏居住？現在我是四個孩子的父親了，我只考慮他們的未來。

在保羅的事工將近結束時,   他把思想集中在他那持守信仰的, 「親愛的兒子」提摩太的未來的福祉上（提後一2）。保羅寫信給提摩太，告訴他關於生活和事工中最重要的事情。保羅不僅把上帝榮耀的福音（一8–10）和上帝默示的聖經（三16–17）託付給他的年輕門生，而且還向他說明有關健全教義的重要性：「你要靠著在基督耶穌裡的信心和愛心，常常堅守從我這裏聽過的話，作為純正話語的模範；又要靠著那住在我們裡面的聖靈，保守所交托你的善道。」（一13–14新譯本）。據據保羅的教導，對基督徒和教會的福祉而言,  教義是所有事情中最重要的一件。純正或「健康」的教義提供了一種模式， 遵循這種模式，便能促成健康的信心和愛心。純正的教義是寶貴的遺產，值得這一代人去愛護,  并忠心地將其傳遞給下一代人（二2）。

什麽是教義？從基本意義上說，教義是任何一方面的教導。例如，聖經談及人的教導（可七7–8）、惡魔的教導（提前四1；啟二24）、上帝的教導（約六45；帖後四9；約壹二27）等等。在這兒，我們考量神聖的教導，即上帝的教導。根據一個定義的解釋，教義是從上帝而來關於上帝的教導，這些教導指導我們榮耀上帝。這個定義對純正教義進行了剖析，確定了教義的源頭，對象和目標，對我們的理解提供了很有用的幫助。讓我們來考量這些純正教義的元素。

純正教義的根源

就基督教的教義而論,  三位一體的上帝上帝是最終的「權威神學家」或教師。在三位一體的完美團契中,  了解和愛自己的上帝滿有恩慈，願意讓我們認識祂和愛祂（太十一25–27；林前二10–12）。父上帝在聖靈裡藉著聖子教導我們這一教義,  指導我們的信心，引導我們的愛心。

雖然三一上帝是教義的最終源頭，但祂選擇在聖經中藉著祂的先知和使徒幫助我們明白教義。直到在上帝永恒的國度裡，上帝與我們面對面說話的那一天之前，聖經是純正教義的源頭和規範（提後三16；參看太七7–8）。教義是從聖經歸納出來，就如從源泉流出來那樣。教義被聖經衡量，就如被一個準則衡量那樣。此外，透過裝備我們,  教義引領我們返回聖經,   使我們成為更好的讀者。事實上，那些在不受純正教義教導的人最容易扭曲經文,  並「自取滅亡」（彼後三16）。

純正教義的對象

基督教的教義有雙重對象。教義的首要對象是上帝，次要的對象是與上帝有關的一切事情。教義教導我們看上帝為:   萬有都是本於祂，倚靠祂，歸於祂。 教義指導我們過榮耀上帝的生活（羅十一36；林前八6 ）。

當我們檢查在聖經中向我們呈現的教義的雙重對象時，我們看到一個明確的模式的出現（羅六17；提後一13）。這個模式是:   1. 三位一體（林前八6；弗四至六章；多三4–7）；2.  肯定創造（提前二13–15；四1–4）；3. 以福音為中心（提前三16；多二11–14）；4. 以教會為主導（提前十四至十五章）。在一些最被廣泛接受的基督教教導之總結的信經裡，如使徒信經、海德堡要理問答裡，聖經的獨特教義模式都留下了它的印記，並在基督教歷史上，對教會使用的崇拜形式起了指導作用。

純正教義的目標   

教義促成許多目標。純正的教義使我們脫離假教義的圈套（提後二24–26；多一9-11），不然假教義會威脅抑制我們的屬靈成長（弗四14）,   和滋生宗教紛爭（羅十六17）。教義為上帝對教會內（提前四16）外（太五13-16；多二9–10；彼前三1–6）的拯救工作效勞。尤其重要的是，教義促成上帝的榮耀。教義作為上帝福音的榮光之一，光芒照耀（提前一10至 11），在基督裡，藉著引領我們對上帝的信心和愛心，教義能讓我們行走在上帝的面前，把上帝應得的榮耀歸給祂（彼前四11；彼後三18）。

上帝愛我們；出於祂的良善,   上帝賜給我們教義這份美好的恩賜（詩一一九68），好叫我們能夠認識祂和祂的福音，好叫我們行事為人討祂喜悅。教義是我們天父的教導，在基督裡啟示,   在聖經中透過聖靈傳遞給我們,   为了上帝的名的榮耀，在教會裡，教義要被接受、認信,  和遵循。

本文原刊于Tabletalk杂誌。  

What Is Sound Doctrine?

FROM Scott Swain

When I was young, I only thought of my future: Whom would I marry? What vocation would I pursue? Where would I live? Now that I am the father of four children, I think only of their futures.

As he approached the final days of his ministry, the Apostle Paul set his thoughts on the future well-being of Timothy, his “beloved child” in the faith (2 Tim. 1:2). He wrote to him about the things that matter most for life and ministry. Not only did Paul commend to his young protégé the glorious gospel of God (vv. 8–10) and the divinely inspired Scriptures (3:16–17), but he also instructed Timothy regarding the importance of sound doctrine: “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (1:13–14). According to Paul, doctrine is among the things that matter most for the well-being of the Christian and the church. Sound, or “healthy,” doctrine provides a pattern that, when followed, promotes healthy faith and love. Sound doctrine is a valuable heritage that is to be treasured in this generation and faithfully transmitted to the next (2:2).

What is doctrine? In its basic sense, doctrine is any sort of teaching. The Bible, for example, talks about the teachings of men (Mark 7:7–8), the teachings of demons (1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 2:24), and the teachings of God (John 6:45; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 John 2:27). Here, we are concerned with divine teaching, the teaching of God. According to one definition, doctrine is teaching from God about God that directs us to the glory of God. This definition provides a helpful anatomy of sound doctrine, identifying doctrine’s source, object, and ultimate end. We will consider these elements of sound doctrine.

The Source of Sound Doctrine

The triune God is the ultimate “doctor,” or teacher, when it comes to Christian doctrine. The God who knows and loves Himself in the perfect fellowship of the Trinity has graciously willed to make Himself known to us and loved by us (Matt. 11:25–27; 1 Cor. 2:10–12). This doctrine, taught by the Father through the son in the Holy Spirit, informs our faith and guides our love.

Though the triune God is the ultimate source of doctrine, He has chosen to minister doctrine to us through His prophets and Apostles in Holy Scripture. until the day when God speaks to us face-to-face in His eternal kingdom, Holy Scripture is the source and norm of sound doctrine (2 Tim. 3:16; see Mark 7:7–8). Doctrine is drawn from Holy Scripture as from a fountain. Doctrine is measured by Holy Scripture as by a rule. Furthermore, doctrine leads us back to Scripture by equipping us to become better readers. Indeed, those “untaught” in sound doctrine are most prone to twisting the Scriptures “to their own destruction” (2 peter 3:16).

The Object of Sound Doctrine

Christian doctrine has a twofold object. The primary object of doctrine is God; the secondary object is all things in relation to God. Doctrine teaches us to see God as the one from whom and through whom and to whom all things exist, and doctrine directs our lives to this God’s glory (Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6).

When we examine the twofold object of doctrine as it is presented to us in Holy Scripture, a definite pattern emerges (Rom. 6:17; 2 Tim. 1:13). The pattern of sound doctrine is (1) Trinitarian (1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:4–6; Titus 3:4–7), (2) creation affirming (1 Tim. 2:13–15; 4:1–4), (3) gospel centered (1 Tim. 3:16; Titus 2:11–14), and (4) church oriented (1 Tim. 3:14–15). The Bible’s distinctive doctrinal pattern has left its mark on some of the most widely accepted summaries of Christian teaching, such as the Apostles’ Creed and the Heidelberg Catechism, and has informed the shape of historic Christian worship.

The End of Sound Doctrine

Doctrine promotes a number of ends. Sound doctrine delivers us from the snare of false teaching (2 Tim. 2:24–26; Titus 1:9-11), which otherwise threatens to arrest spiritual development (Eph. 4:14) and to foster ecclesiastical discord (Rom. 16:17). Doctrine serves God’s saving work both inside (1 Tim. 4:16) and outside the church (Matt. 5:13-16; Titus 2:9–10; 1 Peter 3:1–6). Above all, doctrine promotes God’s glory. Doctrine shines forth as one of the glorious rays of the gospel of God (1 Tim. 1:10–11) and, by directing our faith and love toward God in Christ, it enables us to walk in His presence and give Him the glory He deserves (1 Peter 4:11; 2 Peter 3:18).

God loves us; and in His goodness He has given us the good gift of doctrine (Ps. 119:68) that we might learn of Him and of His gospel, and that we might please Him in our walk. Doctrine is the teaching of our heavenly Father, revealed in Jesus Christ, and transmitted to us by the Holy Spirit in Holy Scripture, and it is to be received, confessed, and followed in the church, to the glory of God’s name.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

成為基督徒的權利 The Right to Be a Christian

作者: Albert Mohler    譯者:  Maria Marta

http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/right-be-christian

https://plus.google.com/u/1/106695469993489516884/posts/SUf7gxNXFg4

道德革命要求法律革命。對性革命以及性解放的各種成因來說，這是毋庸置疑的事實。只有當法律結構與新道德的理解對準成一直線時，革命才算完成。「對準成一直線」恰好是美國公共生活在同性戀解放議題上所發生的情況。

每個社會都有一個系統結構，它要麽影響行為，要麽強制行為。社會為了與通常或至少在很大程度上被認為是道德正確和錯誤的標準對準，社會最終要朝著立法行為和規範行為的方向發展。沒有道德控制與影響的體系，文明是不會延續的。

縱觀幾乎所有的西方歷史，在較大的社會裡，這一發展過程是以一種對基督教教會和基督徒毫無威脅的方式出現的。只要文化的道德判斷與教會的信念和教義相配，教會和文化就不會在法庭上爭執。此外，在這樣條件下，要發現基督徒處在道德評估錯誤的那一面是不可能的。

在當今時代，當文化變得更加世俗化，西方社會逐漸遠離他們過去所擁抱的基督教道德時，一切開始發生變化。 這一代基督徒認識到，我們並不代表普遍存在於學術界、創造性文化，和法律領域的同一個道德框架。 公共生活的世俗化，和與基督教根源分離的社會，令到許多美國人似乎沒意識到這個事實：現在備受指責的基督教信仰和教義，曾經被認為不僅是主流信仰，而且對整個社會規劃更是必不可少的 。 隨著性革命對社會的入侵，隨著在致力同性戀解放和同性婚姻合法化过程中產生的問題的日益凸顯，基督徒現正面臨一系列宗教自由的挑戰，這是前幾代人無法想象的。

在其中一個最重要的這些案例中，法官裁定婚禮攝影師因拒絕為同性婚禮服務而違反法律。 在一個令人難以置信的決定中透露，法院聲稱，攝影師的宗教自由確實受到侵犯，因為他被強制參加同性婚禮。 雖然如此，法院仍斷定新道德戰勝了宗教自由上的顧慮。

同樣，我們看到宗教機構，特別是學院與學校，都要面對基於性、性行為，和性取向的不得歧視的要求，這些要求等於向性革命投降。在某些管轄區，立法者正在考慮將仇恨犯罪立法，即排斥並宣布與新道德共識相沖突的言論為非法。

現在我們面臨一場不可避免的抵觸自由的沖突。在劇烈、激進的道德轉變的背景下，這場沖突是難忍受、巨大，與顯著的。在這些情況下，抵觸自由的沖突意味著，新道德體制在法院和監管型政府的支持下，將優先考慮性愛自由，而非宗教自由。在過去的幾十年裏，我們看到性革命的到來。性愛自由被提升為一項權利，比宗教自由更基本的權利。現在，性愛自由排斥、顛覆，和抵銷宗教自由---------一種被這個國家的創建者和憲政秩序所高度珍視的自由。我們必須記住，憲法的制定者並不相信他們創造權利，而是承認「自然法」及「自然神的旨意」賦予全人類權利。

現在我們所面臨的對宗教自由的挑戰，託付給身處在性愛自由和宗教自由互相抵觸這一沖突領域的每一個信徒、每一個宗教機構，和每一個會眾。這一挑戰並沒有對「自由派神學」（theological liberals）以及他們的教會和宗派構成威脅，因為那些教會為了迎合新道德而作了自我調整，而且自我感覺相當良好。此外，一些這樣的自由宗派和教會給自己命名為新道德的捍衛者，和法律修改的真正擁護者，即擁護為限制更保守的教會和宗派的宗教自由的權利而對現行法律的某些部分進行修改。

有趣的是，勞赫（Jonathan Rauch），一個同性戀婚姻的早期倡導者，警告他那些道德革命者夥伴：你們也必須小心，以免踐踏良心的權利，和你們的敵手的宗教自由。在勞赫的著作《Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought》中，他表達了自己的擔憂：

「今天，我擔心在同性戀平等的問題上，許多與我站在同一陣線的人忘記了曾使我們得自由的體制對我們的恩情。一些同性戀者-------並非全部，也非大多數，而是相當一部份------想刪除歧視性的看法。『歧視是歧視，偏執是偏執，』 他們說：『歧視性的看法是無法忍受的，無論它們是否會碰巧成為某人的宗教或道德信條。』

勞赫還表示，「我希望當同性戀者-------和非同性戀者-------在遇到憎恨或歧視性的意見時，我們不是以力圖壓制或懲罰對方的方式作回應，而是以設法糾正他們的方式作回應」。沒有跡象表明勞赫的忠告被接受。對「宗教自由的挑戰」與「信仰堅定的基督徒的良心、行為，和信仰的權利」的對抗所作的檢查表明，這一切是多麽的嚴峻。我們可以肯定我們的戰爭還未結束，只是開始而已。

本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌2017年一月號 。

The Right to Be a Christian

by Albert Mohler

Moral revolutions require legal revolutions. This is certainly the case with the sexual revolution and its various causes of sexual liberation. A revolution is only complete when the legal structure aligns itself with a new moral understanding. This alignment is exactly what is taking place in American public life on the issue of gay liberation.

Every society has a structure of systems that either influence or coerce behavior. Eventually, societies move to legislate and regulate behavior in order to align the society with what is commonly, or at least largely, considered morally right and wrong. Civilization could not survive without a system of moral controls and influences.

Throughout almost all of Western history, this process has played out in a non-threatening way for the Christian church and Christians in the larger society. So long as the moral judgment of the culture matched the convictions and teachings of the church, the church and culture were not at odds in the courts. Furthermore, under these conditions, to be found on the wrong side of a moral assessment was unlikely for Christians.

All that began to change in the modern age as the culture became more secularized and as Western societies moved more progressively distant from the Christian morality they had embraced in the past. Christians in this generation recognize that we do not represent the same moral framework now pervasively presented in academia, the creative culture, and the arena of law. The secularization of public life and the separation of society from its Christian roots have left many Americans seemingly unaware of the fact that the very beliefs and teachings for which Christians are now criticized were once considered not only mainstream beliefs, but essential to the entire project of society. As the sexual revolution pervades society, and as the issues raised by the efforts of gay liberation and the legalization of same-sex marriage come to the fore, Christians now face an array of religious liberty challenges that were inconceivable in previous generations.

In one of the most important of these cases, a judge found that a wedding photographer broke the law by refusing to serve at a same-sex wedding. In an incredibly revealing decision, the court stated that the religious liberties of the photographer would indeed be violated by coerced participation in a same-sex wedding. Nevertheless, the court found that the new morality trumped concern for religious liberty.

Similarly, we have seen religious institutions, especially colleges and schools, confronted by demands that amount to a surrender to the sexual revolution with regard to nondiscrimination on the basis of sex, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation. In some jurisdictions, lawmakers are contemplating hate crime legislation that would marginalize and criminalize speech that is in conflict with the new moral consensus.

We now face an inevitable conflict of liberties. In this context of acute and radical moral change, the conflict of liberties is excruciating, immense, and eminent. In this case, the conflict of liberties means that the new moral regime, with the backing of the courts and the regulatory state, will prioritize erotic liberty over religious liberty. Over the course of the last several decades, we have seen this revolution coming. Erotic liberty has been elevated as a right more fundamental than religious liberty. Erotic liberty now marginalizes, subverts, and neutralizes religious liberty—a liberty highly prized by the builders of this nation and its constitutional order. We must remember that the framers of the Constitution did not believe they were creating rights but rather acknowledging rights given to all humanity by “nature and nature’s God.”

The religious liberty challenge we now face consigns every believer, every religious institution, and every congregation in the arena of conflict where erotic liberty and religious liberty now clash. This poses no danger to theological liberals and their churches and denominations because those churches have accommodated themselves to the new morality and find themselves quite comfortable. Furthermore, some of these liberal denominations and churches style themselves as defenders of the new morality and actually advocate legal modifications that restrict the religious liberty rights of more conservative churches and denominations.

Interestingly, Jonathan Rauch, one of the early advocates of gay marriage, warned his fellow moral revolutionaries that they must be careful lest they trample upon the conscience rights and religious liberty of their adversaries. In his book, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought, Rauch voiced his concern:

Today, I fear that many people on my side of the gay-equality question are forgetting our debt to the system that freed us. Some gay people—not all, not even most, but quite a few—want to expunge discriminatory views. “Discrimination is discrimination and bigotry is bigotry,” they say, “and they are intolerable whether or not they happen to be someone’s religion or moral creed.”

Rauch also stated, “I hope that when gay people—and non-gay people—encounter hateful or discriminatory opinions, we respond not by trying to silence or punish them but by trying to correct them.” There are few signs that Rauch’s admonition is being heard. A review of the religious liberty challenges already confronting the conscience, conduct, and belief rights of convictional Christians shows us how daunting all this really is. We can be sure this is not the end of our struggle. It is only the beginning.

福音那令人信服的獨一性The Gospel’s CompellingUniqueness

作者: Jared Wilson  譯者: Maria Marta 

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/gospels-compelling-uniqueness/

https://plus.google.com/u/1/106695469993489516884/posts/fZCcnyWvs6m

關於耶穌，說祂是模棱兩可，自相矛盾是不可能的。但祂是這樣說自己的（太十二30）。因此，當耶穌周遊城鎮鄉村傳道、教導，和事奉時，祂在祂所遇到的人身上產生強烈的兩極化影響，這就不足為奇了。一些人以敬畏之愛回應，而另一些人則以滿腔仇恨回應。如果耶穌僅僅如許多現代思想家所臆斷的那樣--------一個高尚的道德老師，那（祂產生的兩極化影響）就不可能是真實的。不，耶穌決不會如道德老師那樣的安全。基督耶穌是跨越時空的屬靈斷決（spiritual disruption）。

正如耶穌在地上事奉期間，耶穌基督與其教會的真理宣稱不斷引起共鳴和遭到排斥。當然，這些排斥是今天許多福音派所關注的。他們當中的一些人對這些排斥予以足夠的關注，目的是尋求切削基督信仰較鋒利的部分，使基督信仰更具吸引力。我們在遭搀杂的耶穌基督的信息中發現，我們既能削弱大眾反對祂的程度，也能令他們的熱情降溫。現代福音派所傳講的安全的耶穌是沒有攻擊性的，但他也是難以令人信服的。

對安全的耶穌說不，我們必須擁抱真正的耶穌-----耶穌如過去那樣，祂現在也包括祂那背十字架的要求和袒露靈魂的真理。我們會發現，當我們擁抱真正的耶穌時，我們會惹起所有對真耶穌的仇恨，但同時也會激起對祂無盡的愛。耶穌自己描述的這種現象：

「猶太人圍著他，對他說：『你使我們心裡懸疑不定，要到幾時呢？如果你是基督，就公開地告訴我們吧！』耶穌對他們說：『我已經告訴你們，你們卻不相信；我奉我父的名所作的事，可以為我作證。只是你們不信，因為你們不是我的羊。我的羊聽我的聲音，我也認識他們，他們也跟隨我。我賜給他們永生，他們永不滅亡，誰也不能把他們從我手裡奪去。那位把羊群賜給我的父比一切都大，也沒有人能把他們從我父的手裡奪去。我與父原為一。』」（约十24–30新譯本）

這裏有些很精妙的亮光，在靈性層面閃現。從根本上講，耶穌告訴我們猶太人缺乏對祂的忠誠，原因並非缺乏信息。祂告訴他們真理。有些人「用耳朵聽」，有些人卻沒有。沒有中間地帶。你要麽屬於祂，要麽不屬於祂.

耶穌基督的福音信息是如此令人信服，從這第一個方面看出來：你不得不作出回應。如果你更深入一點閱讀到這一段落，你會注意到耶穌說「我與父原為一」之後，民眾拿起石頭要砸死祂。

當你表明立場，你會得到回應，但回應並不總是正面的。有些人有時會帶著敵意來拒絕它。但其他人將挺身而進。擁有基督信仰的人不能做的事情就是對自己的信仰模棱兩可。福音迫使人立即做出決定。

我想這可能就是促成新英格蘭 (New England，美國東北部六州的總稱) 發生一場靜悄悄的復興的原因了，新英格蘭是目前全國最少教會的地區，那裡塞滿了那些聲稱要愛、包容，和寬容的人。自1970年以來，波士頓（Boston）的人口減少了，但該市的教會數量幾乎翻了一番，同一時期返教會的人數也增加了三倍多。

整個新英格蘭，保守派教會在緩慢增長，而其他教會都在持續下降。鑒於在主流教會和非正統的公理教會中找到「安全的耶穌」，你可能認為上述情況不應屬實。但事實證明，在福音派團體裡可找到令人信服的耶穌。

持保守神學的福音派教會，如何在東北部這片硬土上傳講這古舊的故事，帶領人信主呢？嗯，這似乎是反直覺的，但是當你表明立場，你往往會感動人。

耶穌基督的福音特別令人信服的另一個原因：提供確據。不像其他宗教或哲學，基督教不為人類的意志或人類的智力提供確定性。相反它確定上帝的旨意和贖罪。基督教獨有的福音所提供的保障不同於其他宗教所提供的保障，其他宗教說：「如果你千依百順，你就能得救。」

這種宗教表面上聽起來很有保障，但有許多的變數。每一種其他的宗教都是被牽動的，乖乖就範的跑步機。你永遠無法確知，為達到目標，自己要走足夠的遠或要做得足夠的好。但基督教，因為耶穌基督所成就的工作，提供了確據，即是說，「使上帝愛你少些這件事，你是無能為力的。」

我記得在華盛頓與一個穆斯林出租車司機分享福音，司機說的一件事真的把我卡住了。他承認，自己是一個名義上的穆斯林，他是「屬靈卻不宗教」的伊斯蘭教版，我問他，關於赦免，他相信什麽？他說，有一些事情你可以做，但這些事是如此邪惡，以致於你不蒙上帝赦免。他說這就是伊斯蘭恐怖主義的問題之一-------真主不會赦免。恐怖主義太可怕了。我欣賞他領會罪的嚴重性。謀殺的確是一種可怕的，配得承受憤怒的罪------大規模謀殺尤其如此。但我希望他也能領會恩典的偉大引力。

他無法想象一位上帝會對殺人犯熟視無睹。但是我們沒有一位對謀殺視而不見的上帝。祂懲罰兇手；祂懲罰一切的罪。對那些悔改並信靠耶穌的人來說，刑罰恰恰被基督在十字架上承擔了。

這種獨一專有的恩典--------拯救的恩典是基督教獨一專有的，唯獨賜給那些信靠基督的人--------提供最好的一種確據，因為它斷定躲避上帝忿怒的安全地帶只能在上帝身上找到。沒有什麼地方比上帝自己更安全的了。

Rev. Jared C. Wilson is director of content strategy for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., and managing editor of For the Church. He blogs at The Gospel Coalition. He is on Twitter @JaredCWilson.

本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌2017年一月號 。

The Gospel’s Compelling Uniqueness

by Jared Wilson

It is impossible to be ambivalent about Jesus. He said so Himself (Matt. 12:30). It should come as no surprise, then, to see that as Jesus traveled around preaching, teaching, and doing ministry, He had an immensely polarizing effect on those He encountered. Some responded in loving awe and others in seething hatred. And this would not have been true if Jesus had simply been what many modern thinkers assume He was—a good moral teacher. No, Jesus is not quite so safe as all that. Jesus Christ is a spiritual disruption of the space-time continuum.

Just as in the days of his earthly ministry, the truth claims of Christ and His church continue to both resonate and repel. Of course, it’s the repulsion that many evangelicals today are concerned about. Some of them are concerned enough about it that they seek to soften some of the harder edges of the Christian faith to make it more appealing. And what we discover in adulterating the message of Jesus is that we may soften people’s objections to Him, but we also temper their enthusiasm. The safe Jesus of modern evangelicalism is not offensive, but neither is He very compelling.

No, we must embrace the real Jesus—Jesus as He was and is, with all His cross-taking demands and soul-baring truths. And when we do so, we will discover that for all the animosity the real Jesus stirs up, there are also a good many affections for Him stirred up, as well. This is how Jesus Himself described this phenomenon:

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:24–30)

There is something fascinating here, something that plays out on the spiritual plane. Jesus is basically saying that the Jews’ lack of devotion to Him is not due to a lack of data. He’s told them the truth. But some have “the ears to hear” and others do not. There is no middle ground. You either belong to Him or you don’t.

This is the first way in which the message of Christ’s gospel is so compelling: you have to respond to it. And you will notice if you read a little further into the passage that after Jesus says, “I and the Father are one,” they take up stones to kill Him.

When you draw a line in the sand, you’re going to get a reaction, and not always a positive one. Some people are going to reject it, sometimes with hostility. But others will lean in. The thing people can’t do with an exclusive Christianity is truly be ambivalent about it. The gospel forces the issue.

I think this may be what is contributing to the quiet revival in New England, which is now the least-churched region of the nation and is chock-full of people who claim to love inclusion and tolerance. Since 1970, the population of Boston has declined, but the number of churches in the city has almost doubled, and the number of people attending church has more than tripled in that same period.

Across New England, conservative churches are on a slow increase, while all others are in a continuing decline. You would think this should not be the case, given that the “safe Jesus” is found in the more liberal mainline and heterodox congregationalist churches. But the compelling Jesus, it turns out, is found in the evangelical communities.

How are evangelical churches with conservative theology preaching this old story bringing people to the faith in the hard soil of the Northeast? Well, it seems counterintuitive, but when you draw a line in the sand, you tend to move people.

But the gospel of Jesus is singularly compelling for another reason: it provides security. Unlike other religions or philosophies, Christianity doesn’t offer certainty of human will or human intellect. It offers instead certainty of divine will and atonement. The security that Christianity’s exclusive gospel offers is different from the security offered by other religions, which say, “If you can jump through these hoops, you can be saved.”

That sort of religion sounds secure on the surface, but there are too many variables involved. Every other religion is a treadmill of hoop-jumping. You can never be sure you’ll go far enough or get good enough at it to “make it.” Christianity, however, because of what Christ has done, offers the security that says, “There’s nothing you could do to make God love you less.”

I remember sharing the gospel with a Muslim cab driver in Washington, D.C., and one thing the driver said really stuck with me. He was a nominal Muslim by his own admission; he was Islam’s version of “spiritual, but not religious.” I asked him what he believed about forgiveness, and he said there were things you could do that would be so bad that God couldn’t forgive you. He said that was one of the problems with Islamic terrorism—Allah won’t forgive that. It’s too terrible. I appreciated that he got the gravity of sin. Murder is indeed a terrible, wrath-deserving sin—mass murder even more so. But I wanted him to also somehow grasp the great gravity of grace.

He could not imagine a God who would turn a blind eye to murder. But we don’t have a God who turns a blind eye to murder. He punishes every murder; He punishes every sin. It’s just that, for those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, the punishment is borne by Christ on the cross.

This kind of exclusivity—saving grace is exclusive to Christianity and exclusive to those who trust in Christ—provides the best kind of security because it posits that refuge from God’s wrath is only found in God Himself. And there is no place more secure than God Himself.

救恩次序 Ordo Salutis

駱鴻銘譯自：Robert Reymond ，《系統神學》，712頁。

Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: T. Nelson, 1998), 712.]

https://www.facebook.com/peddrluo/posts/10155078987704653?pnref=story

https://plus.google.com/u/1/106695469993489516884/posts/QrqTTuGNv8k?sfc=false

完全憑靠基督的救贖活動所賺得的救恩，其施行是從聖父對那在靈性上已死的被揀選的罪人，發出不可抗拒的宣召開始的。這宣召通常是在福音的宣告裡、也藉著這個宣告而發布的。基督的靈，藉著宣召、並伴隨著宣召，重生那在靈性上已死的被揀選的罪人，使他有能力悔改其罪，並且唯獨在信心中領受基督而得救，並完全靠賴基督，藉此與耶穌基督聯合。他信靠基督的那一刻，上帝就赦免他一切的罪過，並宣告他在祂眼中是義人，會有最終的成聖，領養他進入祂家中，並賜給他嗣子的靈的印記，直到救贖的日子。這個罪人，如今已經是個基督徒了，就開始經歷一生逐漸成聖的過程，在這整個過程中，他也靠著聖靈的能力在聖潔中堅忍到底，這整個系列的行動和過程，其目的和目標是他會得著榮耀，當基督再來時，最終要被帶進到末世的狀態。到那時，他和神的兒子（人最高的善）會有一模一樣的形象，如此，基督也會在最高的意義上，「在許多弟兄中作長子。」（羅八29）

Robert Reymond’s “brief synopsis” of the ordo salutis, the order of events in God’s application of Christ’s salvation to the elect sinner:

“The application of salvation, purchased in its entirety by Christ’s redemptive activity, commences with God the Father’s irresistible summons to the spiritually dead elect sinner, normally issued in and by the proclamation of the gospel, to enter into fellowship with Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ, working by and with that summons, regenerates the spiritually dead elect sinner, enabling him thereby to repent of his sins and in faith to receive and to rest upon Christ alone for salvation, in which activity he is united to Jesus Christ. The moment he believes in Christ, God forgives him of all his sins and declares him righteous in his sight, definitively sanctifies him, adopts him into his family and seals him to the day of redemption with the indwelling Spirit of adoption. The sinner, now a Christian, begins to experience the lifelong process of progressive sanctification, throughout which time he also perseveres in holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the end and goal of this entire series of acts and processes being his glorification, into which state he is finally brought in the Eschaton at the return of Christ. At that point he will be fully conformed to the image of the Son of God, his summum bonum, and Christ will then be in the highest sense possible ‘the Firstborn among many brethren.’”

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“ Ordo Salutis” is Latin for of “ the order of salvation”, which refers to the sequence of conceptual stepts involved in the salvation of the Chritian. The sequence is meant to be logical instead of chronological : some steps occur sequentially while others occur instantaneously . What follows is a classically Reformed understanding of the way in which God saves his people.

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Today I’ve got an infographic for you, and one that I is going to kick off a series called “Visual Theology”–an attempt to display theology using a combination of words and pictures.  I have asked one designer to take a shot at displaying the ordo salutis, which is to say, the order of salvation, which refers to the sequence of conceptual steps involved in the salvation of the Christian. I will let the graphic explain it from here.

-----Tim Challies

http://www.challies.com/visual-theology/visual-theology-the-order-of-salvation

You can also download this infographic in a high-quality PDF (10 MB).

https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/OrdoSalutis_Infographic_HIGH.pdf