改革宗信仰基础11：道成肉身Basics of the Reformed Faith:The Incarnation
作者: Kim Riddlebarger 译者/校对者: 牛泓/王一
https://www.wscal.edu/blog/basics-of-the-reformed-faith-the-incarnation
基督教信仰的最核心教义是道成肉身：耶稣基督，三一上帝的第二位格，圣父的永恒之子，为了将我们从罪恶当中拯救出来，取了真实的人性。正是这项教义使基督教成为与众不同的超自然宗教，上帝藉着基督使我们与他和好（参林后5:18），不是为了道德提升、启蒙或信徒个人的福祉，而是为了拯救那些上帝在基督耶稣里所拣选的罪）。
耶稣基督的道成肉身是上帝信实守约的证明。这是人类历史上最伟大的故事的转折点。在人类历史的开端，上帝将亚当安置在伊甸园，命令他不可吃分别善恶树的果子。但是亚当吃了禁果，使全人类陷入了罪恶和死亡当中。然而，当上帝向亚当、夏娃和蛇宣告咒诅的时候（创3），他也同时向亚当应许要藉着那位女人的后裔把他从罪恶当中拯救出来，也就是藉着夏娃肉身的后裔将上帝的百姓从罪恶当中拯救出来（创3:15）。这样，就要有另一位亚当来消除第一亚当带给我们的影响，他必须顺服亚当所违背的行为之约，并且只有他才能将我们从罪恶的权势中拯救出来。这就引我们来到耶稣基督道成肉身的教义面前。上帝在耶稣基督里实现了他的应许，基督就是我们的以马内利（上帝与我们同在）。如果我们中的任何人要从第一位亚当带给我们的灾难中得到拯救，上帝的道必须成为肉身（约1:17）。除此以外，别无他法。
旧约充满了各种各样的弥赛亚预言，在这些预言中，上帝救赎他百姓的应许被阐述的非常具体。事实上，在整本旧约圣经中，有大约61个主要弥赛亚预言是关于耶稣基督降生的，而所有这些预言都在耶稣基督降生这件事上清楚应验了，正如整本新约圣经所论述的。我们已经谈过，《创世记》三章15节当中上帝对亚当和夏娃的应许，在耶稣基督死在十字架上的时刻已经得到了应验。耶稣不仅仅击败了撒旦，他也为了他的百姓受苦，为他们带来了救赎。另外一个救赎应许在基督里实现的例子是在《以赛亚书》7:14。我们可以找到这则奇妙的预言：“因此，主自己要给你们一个兆头，必有童女怀孕生子，给他起名叫以马内利。”这将要来的那一位的不仅仅是以超自然的方式受孕的，他更是上帝在肉身显现。这就是为何旧约的救赎观是一种盼望性和预见性的救赎观。
当进入新约时代，我们会立刻发现一些戏剧性的、完全超乎所有人意料的事情正在发生。在《马太福音》里，我们可以找到很多古老的弥赛亚预言得到应验的记录。在太1:18-23，圣经这样记载：“耶稣基督降生的事记在下面：他母亲马利亚已经许配了约瑟，还没有迎娶，马利亚就从圣灵怀了孕。 她丈夫约瑟是个义人，不愿意明明地羞辱她，想要暗暗地把她休了。 正思念这事的时候，有主的使者向他梦中显现，说：‘大卫的子孙约瑟，不要怕！只管娶过你的妻子马利亚来，因她所怀的孕是从圣灵来的。 她将要生一个儿子，你要给他起名叫耶稣，因他要将自己的百姓从罪恶里救出来。’这一切的事成就是要应验主藉先知所说的话， 说：必有童女怀孕生子；人要称他的名为以马内利。（以马内利翻出来就是‘神与我们同在’。） ”
在耶稣基督的成孕和降生这一事件中，上帝实现了他给亚当应许，即他将要差遣女人的后裔来击伤蛇的头。但同时，耶稣基督的降生也实现了上帝向亚伯拉罕所作的应许，即藉着亚伯拉罕的后裔使万国蒙福（创22:15-18）。这就是为何《马太福音》以家谱开始，这家谱经大卫的家室和犹大支派将我们的主的先祖直追溯到亚伯拉罕。上帝实现了他的应许，主的家谱就是证据。
上帝为何要赐下他永恒的独生子？这对我们又有何意义？道成肉身的原理对我们来说是个奥秘。保罗在《提摩太前书》3:16里论到道成肉身时说：“大哉，敬虔的奥秘，无人不以为然！就是神（耶稣）在肉身显现，被圣灵称义 ，被天使看见，被传于外邦，被世人信服，被接在荣耀里。” 但是，道成肉身作为历史事实是不容置疑的。圣经也清楚地教导耶稣是完全的人和完全的神。保罗在《腓立比书》2:6-8里论到耶稣时说：“他本有神的形像，不以自己与神同等为强夺的；反倒虚己，取了奴仆的形像，成为人的样式；既有人的样子，就自己卑微，存心顺服，以至于死，且死在十字架上。” 耶稣是披上肉身的上帝，他有两本性（神性和人性），同时他只有一个位格。
藉着道成肉身，上帝以耶稣基督这个位格来到世界将我们从罪恶当中拯救出来。这就是基督教最核心的教义，道成为肉身，以将他的百姓从罪恶当中拯救出来。
Basics
of the Reformed Faith: The Incarnation
Kim
Riddlebarger
At
the very heart of the Christian faith we find the doctrine of the
Incarnation–Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity and the eternal
son of God took to himself a true human nature for the purpose of saving us
from our sins. It is this doctrine which marks Christianity off as a
supernatural religion, grounded in specific truth claims–i.e., God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:18)–and which aims
not for the moral improvement, enlightenment, or personal benefit of its
adherents, but for the salvation of all those sinners whom God has chosen to
save in Jesus Christ.
The
incarnation of Jesus Christ is the proof that God keeps his promises. This
event is the key turning point in what is truly the greatest story ever told.
At the dawn of human history, God placed Adam in Eden and commanded him not to
eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam ate from the
forbidden tree, plunging the entire human race into sin and death. But even as
God was pronouncing the curse upon Adam, Eve, and the serpent (cf. Genesis 3),
God promised to rescue Adam from his sin through the seed of the woman–that is,
through a biological descendant from Eve who will redeem God’s people from
their sin (Genesis 3:15). It will take a second Adam–one who obeys the covenant
of works which Adam broke and who alone can redeem us from the guilt and power
of sin–to undo the consequences brought upon us by the first Adam. And this
brings us to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the person in whom God fulfills
his promises and who is our Immanuel (God with us). The Word must become flesh
if any of us are to be saved from the havoc wrought upon us by the first Adam
(cf. John 1:17). There is no other way.
The
Old Testament is filled with various messianic prophecies, in which God’s
promise to redeem his people are set forth with an amazing specificity. In
fact, there are some sixty-one major messianic prophecies regarding the coming
of Jesus Christ found throughout the Old Testament, all of which are explicitly
fulfilled by the coming of Jesus Christ in human flesh as detailed in
throughout New Testament. We have already seen that God’s promise to Adam and
Eve in Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled when Jesus dies upon the cross. Jesus not only
crushes Satan, but suffers for his people to bring about their redemption. As
but one additional illustration of God’s redemptive promises being fulfilled in
Christ, in Isaiah 7:14 we find this amazing prophecy: “Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel.” The coming one is not only supernaturally
conceived, he will be God in human flesh. This is why the Old Testament
perspective on redemption is one of longing, anticipation, expectation, and
hope.
When
we come to the New Testament era, we immediately discover that something very
dramatic and completely beyond all human expectation is taking place. In
Matthew’s gospel, we find the historical record of the fulfillment of a number
of these ancient messianic prophecies. In Matthew 1:18-23, we read these words:
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had
been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child
from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to
put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these
things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
`Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this
took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: `Behold, the
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’
(which means, God with us).”
In
the supernatural conception and birth of Jesus Christ, God fulfills his promise
to Adam to send the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent.
But the birth of Jesus Christ also fulfills the promise God made to Abraham, to
bless the world through one his biological descendants (Genesis 22:15-18). This
explains why the gospel of Matthew opens with a genealogical record, which
traces our Lord’s ancestry back to Abraham through the line of Judah and the
house of David. God keeps his promises, and our Lord’s genealogy chart is the
proof.
Why
did God send his eternal son, and what does this mean for us? While the
mechanics of the incarnation largely remain a mystery–in fact, Paul speaks of
the incarnation in 1 Timothy 3:16 as such, “great indeed, we confess, is the
mystery of godliness: [Jesus] was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the
Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world,
taken up in glory”–the fact of the incarnation is beyond question. That Jesus
is fully man and fully God is clearly taught in Holy Scripture. In, Philippians
2:6-8, Paul says of Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross.” Jesus is God in human flesh, he has two natures (one human,
one divine), yet he is one person.
In
the Incarnation, God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to save us
from our sins. That the Word became flesh to save us from our sins is the very
heart of Christianity.