17 神的圣洁——神就是光Holiness- God is light
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to
Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
17 神的圣洁——神就是光
我是耶和华你们的神，所以你们要成为圣洁，因为我是圣洁的。
（利11:44）
当圣经称神或神的一个位格为圣洁时（如经上经常如此称呼：利11:44-45；书24:19；赛1:4；6:3；41:14,16,20；57:15；结39:7；摩4:2；约17:11；徒5:3-4,32；启15:4），圣洁这个字的意思是指，每一件有关神的事情都将与我们分开，并且使神成为我们可畏、可慕、可惧的对象。圣洁涵盖了神超越的伟大和祂德性完美的所有层面；因此，它可以说是神所有属性中一个能在每一点上指明了神之所以为神的属性。神性情和祂性格的每一面都可以说圣洁的，只因为圣洁是属乎祂的。然而，祂呼召罪人在祂面前要不断地自我降卑（赛6:5）。
公正之意，是在任何情况下都做对的事，它乃是神圣洁的一种表达。神以立法者、审判官，以及信守应许者和罪恶赦免者之身份，展现了祂的公正。祂的道德律是[圣洁、公义、良善]（罗7:12），要求人的行为与祂的性情相称。祂的审判公平，按照真实应得的功过施行（创18:25；诗7:11；96:13；徒17:31）。祂的[愤怒]，即祂对罪主动而有的司法敌意，彰显出来时，是全然公义的（罗2:5-16）；祂个别特定的[审判]（报复性的惩罚），也是荣耀、配得称颂的（启16:5,7；19:1-4）。当神籍祂的作为拯救祂的百姓，来实践祂对恩约的承诺时，那是公正的，就是祂公义的表现（赛51:5-6；56:1；63:1；约一1:9）。当神因罪人信靠基督而称他们为义时，祂是以公正得到伸张为基础去做得，即在代替我们的基督这人身上，惩罚了我们的罪恶---神籍着采取这种称义罪人的怜悯方式，显明了神是全然公义的（罗3:25-26）；而我们的称义本身在司法上来说，也显明为合法的。
当约翰说神就是[光]，在祂毫无黑暗时，这种喻象肯定神是圣洁、纯洁，使祂和蓄意不圣洁的人之间的交通成为不可能的事；也因为这样，祂就要求基督徒以追求生活中的圣洁、公义，为最该关切的事（约一1:5-2:1；林后6:14-7：1；来12:10-17）。信徒蒙了重生、赦免以后，就要行出与神自己性情相称的圣洁，并讨神的喜悦---这点一直都是新约圣经的呼召，正如以往在旧约圣经中一样（申30:1-10；弗4:17-5:14；彼前1:13-22）。因为神是圣洁的，所以神的百姓也必须是圣洁的。
HOLINESS
GOD
IS LIGHT
I am
the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy....
LEVITICUS 11:44
When Scripture
calls God, or individual persons of the Godhead, “holy” (as it often does: Lev.
11:44-45; Josh. 24:19; Isa. 2:2; Ps. 99:9; Isa. 1:4; 6:3; 41:14, 16, 20; 57:15;
Ezek. 39:7; Amos 4:2; John 17:11; Acts 5:3-4, 32; Rev. 15:4), the word
signifies everything about God that sets him apart from us and makes him an
object of awe, adoration, and dread to us. It covers all aspects of his
transcendent greatness and moral perfection and thus is an attribute of all his
attributes, pointing to the “Godness” of God at every point. Every facet of
God’s nature and every aspect of his character may properly be spoken of as
holy, just because it is his. The core of the concept, however, is God’s
purity, which cannot tolerate any form of sin (Hab. 1:13) and thus calls sinners
to constant self-abasement in his presence (Isa. 6:5).
Justice,
which means doing in all circumstances things that are right, is one expression
of God’s holiness. God displays his justice as legislator and judge, and also
as promise-keeper and pardoner of sin. His moral law, requiring behavior that
matches his own, is “holy, righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12). He judges justly,
according to actual desert (Gen. 18:25; Pss. 7:11; 96:13; Acts 17:31). His
“wrath,” that is, his active judicial hostility to sin, is wholly just in its
manifestations (Rom. 2:5-16), and his particular “judgments” (retributive
punishments) are glorious and praiseworthy (Rev. 16:5, 7; 19:1-4). Whenever God
fulfills his covenant commitment by acting to save his people, it is a gesture
of “righteousness,” that is, justice (Isa. 51:5-6; 56:1; 63:1; 1 John 1:9).
When God justifies sinners through faith in Christ, he does so on the basis of
justice done, that is, the punishment of our sins in the person of Christ our
substitute; thus the form taken by his justifying mercy shows him to be utterly
and totally just (Rom. 3:25-26), and our justification itself is shown to be
judicially justified.
When
John says that God is “light,” with no darkness in him at all, the image is
affirming God’s holy purity, which makes fellowship between him and the
willfully unholy impossible and requires the pursuit of holiness and
righteousness of life to be a central concern for Christian people (1 John
1:5-2:1; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1; Heb. 12:10-17). The summons to believers, regenerate
and forgiven as they are, to practice a holiness that will match God’s own, and
so please him, is constant in the New Testament, as indeed it was in the Old
Testament (Deut. 30:1-10; Eph. 4:17-5:14; 1 Pet. 1:13-22). Because God is holy,
God’s people must be holy too.