泥巴

God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. His justice requires (as he has revealed himself in the Word) that the sins we have committed against his infinite majesty be punished with both temporal and eternal punishments, of soul as well as body. We cannot escape these punishments unless satisfaction is given to God’s justice.

第二条、基督满足了上帝的公义

尽管我们自己不能满足上帝的公义，也不能救自己脱离上帝的忿怒，但是上帝在他丰富的怜悯中把他的独生子赐给我们作为中保，使他在十字架上为我们、代替我们成为罪和咒诅，好使他为我们满足上帝的公义。

Article 2: The Satisfaction Made by Christ

Since, however, we ourselves cannot give this satisfaction or deliver ourselves from God’s anger, God in his boundless mercy has given us as a guarantee his only begotten Son, who was made to be sin and a curse for us, in our place, on the cross, in order that he might give satisfaction for us.

第三条、基督的死具有无限价值

上帝儿子的死，是唯一的、最完全的赎罪祭，能满足公义对罪的要求；这赎罪祭有无限的价值，足以赎全世界的罪。

Article 3: The Infinite Value of Christ’s Death

This death of God’s Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.

第四条、无限价值的原因

基督的死具有无限的价值与尊严是因为这位受死的人——必须如此才能作我们的救主——不但是一个真实且完全圣洁的人，更是上帝的独生子，与圣父、圣灵拥有同样永恒而无限的本质。另一个原因是，这死伴随了经历上帝的忿怒与咒诅，这本是我们因着自己的罪所配得的。

Article 4: Reasons for This Infinite Value

This death is of such great value and worth for the reason that the person who suffered it is — as was necessary to be our Savior — not only a true and perfectly holy man, but also the only begotten Son of God, of the same eternal and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Another reason is that this death was accompanied by the experience of God’s anger and curse, which we by our sins had fully deserved.

第五条、向所有人宣讲福音的命令

除此之外，福音的应许是，任何人相信这位钉十字架的基督，就不至灭亡，反得永生。这应许，要与悔改和相信的命令一起，向万国万民宣告传扬，不作区分、没有差别，上帝在祂的美意中把这福音传给他们。

Article 5: The Mandate to Proclaim the Gospel to All

Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel.

第六条、不信是人的责任

但是，许多人被福音呼召，却不悔改，也不相信基督，而是在不信中灭亡。但这不是因为基督在十字架上所献的祭有任何缺点，或是不足够，而是他们自己的过错。

Article 6: Unbelief Man’s Responsibility

However, that many who have been called through the gospel do not repent or believe in Christ but perish in unbelief is not because the sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross is deficient or insufficient, but because they themselves are at fault.

第七条、信心是上帝的礼物

但那些真正相信的人，就因基督受死而得救，脱离罪恶，不致灭亡。他们领受这好处，完全是出于上帝的恩典——祂不欠任何人——从永恒中在基督里赐给他们。

Article 7: Faith God’s Gift

But all who genuinely believe and are delivered and saved by Christ’s death from their sins and from destruction receive this favor solely from God’s grace — which he owes to no one — given to them in Christ from eternity.

第八条、基督之死的功效

父上帝完全自由的计划，无比恩典的旨意和安排，就是祂儿子宝贵的死，所产生的重生和拯救的功效要在所有选民身上工作，好把称义的信心唯独赐给他们，借此带领他们不至失落，必定得救。换句话说，上帝的旨意是，基督要通过在十字架上的宝血（借此祂确立了新约），有效的从各民、各族、各国、各方中买赎且仅买赎那些上帝从永恒中拣选以致得救的人，是圣父赐祂的那些人；基督要赐他们信心（这信心，连同其他圣灵其他拯救的礼物，都是祂用自己的死买来给他们的）；基督要用祂的血洗净他们一切的罪，包括原罪与本罪，不论是他们有信心之前还是之后所犯的一切罪；基督要信实的保守他们到底；基督要最终把他们献给自己，做荣耀的子民，无有瑕疵。

Article 8: The Saving Effectiveness of Christ’s Death

For it was the entirely free plan and very gracious will and intention of God the Father that the enlivening and saving effectiveness of his Son’s costly death should work itself out in all his chosen ones, in order that he might grant justifying faith to them only and thereby lead them without fail to salvation. In other words, it was God’s will that Christ through the blood of the cross (by which he confirmed the new covenant) should effectively redeem from every people, tribe, nation, and language all those and only those who were chosen from eternity to salvation and given to him by the Father; that he should grant them faith (which, like the Holy Spirit’s other saving gifts, he acquired for them by his death); that he should cleanse them by his blood from all their sins, both original and actual, whether committed before or after their coming to faith; that he should faithfully preserve them to the very end; and that he should finally present them to himself, a glorious people, without spot or wrinkle.

第九条、上帝的计划应验

这计划，是出于上帝对选民永恒的爱，从创立世界直到今天，祂一直都在以大能成全这计划，并且还要在未来一直继续成全，阴间的权柄要拦阻这计划本是虚妄。这计划的最终结果是选民都按照自己的时间聚集合一，而且任何时候都一定有信徒组成的教会，建立在基督的宝血上，坚定爱祂，忠心敬拜祂，并且——从今世直到永远——称颂赞美祂，祂是教会的救主，曾在十字架上为她舍命，如同新郎为新娘一样。

Article 9: The Fulfillment of God’s Plan

This plan, arising out of God’s eternal love for his chosen ones, from the beginning of the world to the present time has been powerfully carried out and will also be carried out in the future, the gates of hell seeking vainly to prevail against it. As a result the chosen are gathered into one, all in their own time, and there is always a church of believers founded on Christ’s blood, a church which steadfastly loves, persistently worships, and — here and in all eternity — praises him as her Savior who laid down his life for her on the cross, as a bridegroom for his bride.

反对错误教导

在阐明正统教义之后，本总会反对以下的错误教导︰

Rejection of the Errors

Having set forth the orthodox teaching, the Synod rejects the errors of those

错误教导之一

父上帝已经预定祂的儿子要死在十字架上，但没有颁布特定的计划，要拯救任何人；这样，即使基督成就的救赎从来没有施行在任何人身上成为现实，基督的死成就的必要性、有效性和价值，仍旧完整如常、完美无缺。

I. Who teach that God the Father appointed his Son to death on the cross without a fixed and definite plan to save anyone by name, so that the necessity, usefulness, and worth of what Christ’s death obtained could have stood intact and altogether perfect, complete and whole, even if the redemption that was obtained had never in actual fact been applied to any individual.

反对理由：这种教导是对父上帝的智慧和耶稣的功劳的一种侮辱，并且违反圣经。因为救主曾说︰“我为羊舍命...我也认识他们”（约十15、27）。先知以赛亚论到救主也说︰“耶和华以他为赎罪祭。他必看见后裔，并且延长年日，耶和华所喜悦的事，必在他手中亨通”（赛五十三10）。最后，而这教导违反我们在大公信经中所宣告、相信的关于教会的真理。

For this assertion is an insult to the wisdom of God the Father and to the merit of Jesus Christ, and it is contrary to Scripture. For the Savior speaks as follows: “I lay down my life for the sheep, and I know them” (John 10:15, 27). And Isaiah the prophet says concerning the Savior: “When he shall make himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand” (Isa. 53:10). Finally, this undermines the article of the creed in which we confess what we believe concerning the Church.

错误教导之二

基督受死的目的不是要借着祂的血建立新的恩典之约，而只是为父上帝获得重新与人立约的权利，不论这个约是恩典之约还是行为之约。

II. Who teach that the purpose of Christ’s death was not to establish in actual fact a new covenant of grace by his blood, but only to acquire for the Father the mere right to enter once more into a covenant with men, whether of grace or of works.

反对理由：这教导违反圣经，因为圣经教导说，基督“已成为更美之约的中保”，这更美之约就是“新约”（来七22；九15），“人死了，遗命才有效力”（或译作：“只有当祭物死了，约才生效”，来九17）。

For this conflicts with Scripture, which teaches that Christ “has become the guarantee and mediator of a better — “that is, “a new-covenant” (Heb. 7:22; 9:15), “and that a will is in force only when someone has died” (Heb. 9:17).

错误教导之三

基督通过祂对公义的满足，并没有为任何人赚得拯救，也没有为任何人赚得信心，借此将基督对公义的满足有效的施行在身上以致得救。而是说，基督通过对公义的满足，只是让祂使父上帝有权或有意再次与人相交，并让父上帝按祂所喜悦的制定新的条件，而人是否能满足这些条件取决于人的自由选择；结果是，可能没有任何人能履行这条件，或是每个人都能履行这条件。

III. Who teach that Christ, by the satisfaction which he gave, did not certainly merit for anyone salvation itself and the faith by which this satisfaction of Christ is effectively applied to salvation, but only acquired for the Father the authority or plenary will to relate in a new way with men and to impose such new conditions as he chose, and that the satisfying of these conditions depends on the free choice of man; consequently, that it was possible that either all or none would fulfill them.

反对理由：这种教导太轻视基督的死，完全不承认基督因祂的死得到的最重要的果效与益处，并从地狱里召唤回来伯拉纠主义的错误。

For they have too low an opinion of the death of Christ, do not at all acknowledge the foremost fruit or benefit which it brings forth, and summon back from hell the Pelagian error.

错误教导之四

父上帝透过基督的死与人所立的新的恩典之约，不在于我们因信心接受基督的功德，而在上帝面前称义而得救，而是在于上帝不再要求人完全顺服律法，而是把我们不完全的信心和顺服算成是完全顺服律法，并且上帝按着祂的恩典认定这种不完全的信心和顺服配得永生的赏赐。

IV. Who teach that what is involved in the new covenant of grace which God the Father made with men through the intervening of Christ’s death is not that we are justified before God and saved through faith, insofar as it accepts Christ’s merit, but rather that God, having withdrawn his demand for perfect obedience to the law, counts faith itself, and the imperfect obedience of faith, as perfect obedience to the law, and graciously looks upon this as worthy of the reward of eternal life.

反对理由：这违反圣经所说︰“如今却蒙上帝的恩典，因基督耶稣的救赎，就白白的称义。上帝设立耶稣作挽回祭，是凭着耶稣的血，借着人的信”（罗三24-25）。这种教导和不敬虔的苏西尼一样，都在宣扬一种在上帝面前的新奇的称义，不符全体教会的共识。

For they contradict Scripture: “They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ, whom God presented as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (Rom. 3:24-25). And along with the ungodly Socinus, they introduce a new and foreign justification of man before God, against the consensus of the whole church.

错误教导之五

全人类都被上帝接纳到与上帝和好的地位，进入恩典之约的恩典中，所以没有人应该因为原罪而被定罪，所以每个人都脱离原罪的罪责。

V. Who teach that all people have been received into the state of reconciliation and into the grace of the covenant, so that no one on account of original sin is liable to condemnation, or is to be condemned, but that all are free from the guilt of this sin.

反对理由：这种教导与圣经冲突。圣经说︰我们「本为可怒之子」（弗二3）。

For this opinion conflicts with Scripture which asserts that we are by nature children of wrath.

错误教导之六

有人利用“获取”与“施行”上的区分，想灌输给粗心大意，没有经验之人这样的思想，就上帝本身而言，祂已经决定要把基督的死所带来的益处，一律平等地施行在每个人身上；至于有人罪得赦免得永生，有人则否，原因在于他们自己的自由选择（恩典是毫无分别给了每个人，而人有自由选择把恩典应用在身上），而不在于上帝怜悯的独特礼物，以大能运行在他们心中，使得他们，而不是别人，把恩典应用自己身上。

VI. Who make use of the distinction between obtaining and applying in order to instill in the unwary and inexperienced the opinion that God, as far as he is concerned, wished to bestow equally upon all people the benefits which are gained by Christ’s death; but that the distinction by which some rather than others come to share in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life depends on their own free choice (which applies itself to the grace offered indiscriminately) but does not depend on the unique gift of mercy which effectively works in them, so that they, rather than others, apply that grace to themselves.

反对理由：这种教导假装提出一个可以接受的区分，其实是企图将伯拉纠主义错误教导的毒素放在人们心中。

For, while pretending to set forth this distinction in an acceptable sense, they attempt to give the people the deadly poison of Pelagianism.

错误教导之七

基督既不能死，也不必须死，也没有真的为那些上帝极其所爱并拣选得永生的人死，因为他们不需要基督的死。

VII. Who teach that Christ neither could die, nor had to die, nor did die for those whom God so dearly loved and chose to eternal life, since such people do not need the death of Christ.

反对理由：这种教导违反使徒保罗所说︰“基督爱我，为我舍己”（加二20），“谁能控告上帝所拣选的人呢？有上帝称他们为义了。谁能定他们的罪呢？有基督耶稣已经死了”（罗八33-34），就是“已经为他们死了”；也违反救主所说︰“我为羊舍命”（约十15）、“你们要彼此相爱，像我爱你们一样，这就是我的命令。人为朋友舍命，人的爱心没有比这个大的”（约十五12-13）。

For they contradict the apostle, who says: “Christ loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20), and likewise: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who died,” that is, for them (Rom. 8:33-34). They also contradict the Savior, who asserts: “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15), and “My command is this: Love one another as I loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13).