感謝讚美上帝護理的大能与豐盛的供應。 本網誌內的所有資源純屬學習交流之用。

2020-03-24


32 无能——堕落的人是自由又是被捆绑的Inability - Fallen humanbeings are both free and enslaved

《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。


3无能——堕落的人是自由又是被捆绑的
Inability - Fallen human beings are both free and enslaved

人心比万物都诡诈,坏到极处,谁能识投呢?(耶17:9

想要弄清楚人类堕落的光景,我们得首先区分过去两个世纪所说的自由代理(free agency),和自有基督教以来所说的自由意志(free will)之说的不同。奥古斯丁、路德、加尔文和其他的人论及自由意志时,将两种意思都包括在内;但是他们认为,第一种意思是不重要的,第二种才是重要的。可是这种说法很是叫人困惑,我们最好把这两种意思分开,而只用自由代理来表示第一种意思。(注1

自由代理是人类之所以为人类的标记。人照着他所要做的,做他自己的决定,在他所理解之对错的时光中及感情的倾向下,选择他所喜好的,此乃所有人都是自由代理人之意。因此之故,他们是道德的代理人,必须为自己的抉择,向神、向人负责。亚当在他所犯罪之前、之后,就是如此;我们如今也是如此;就连将来在恩典中被肯定、得荣的圣徒,即使他们不再会犯罪了,仍是如此。虽然人不能犯罪将是天上的快慰与荣耀之一,但这并没有使任何人失去他的人性;得荣的圣徒仍然按着他们的天性做抉择,而且他们的选择一点都不会因为总是对的、好的,而被视为比不上自由代理人所做的选择。

而自由意志从第二世纪起,就被基督教的教师们定义为:在环境所能提供的情况下,人有作道德抉择的能力;根据此意思,奥古斯丁很肯定地反对伯拉纠(pelagius)和大多数的希腊教父们说法,而认为原罪剥夺了我们的自由意志。我们没有天然的呢里去分辨并选择神的道路,因为我们没有天然向神的倾向;我们的心已被罪恶所捆绑,只有重生的恩典能将我们从做罪的奴役捆绑下释放出来。这正是保罗在罗马书6:16-23所教导的实际;只有得释放的意志(保罗称之为主所释放的人)才会自由地、打心底地选择公义。永远地爱好公义——亦即心倾向于讨神喜悦的生活方式——是基督所赐自由的一面(约8:34-36;加5:1,13)。

我们要注意:意志是一个抽象物。我的意志并不像我的手或脚,是听我指挥动或不动的一部分。它是整个的我选择要行动,然后就开始行动。如果我们不管意志这个字,每个人这么说:我是道德责任的自由代理人;我是基督必须释放的罪的奴隶;直到神更新我的心之前,我是堕落的人,在我里头我只会选择顶撞神。这样说,就能够把有关自由代理人,和有关基督从罪恶的权势夏释放罪奴的真理表达得更清楚。

译者注:Free Agency 这个词在此译作[自由代理]Agency 一字常指有行动能力的代理人;其实在此的代理者,恰好就是自己!所有若译成[自由行动者]亦可。作者所强调的是:我们这整个人是自由、可行动的、而非只有意志这一个部分是自由的。


INABILITY
FALLEN HUMAN BEINGS ARE BOTH FREE AND ENSLAVED

Gary: In service of my risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Maranatha!
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? JEREMIAH 17:9

Clear thought about the fallen human condition requires a distinction between what for the past two centuries has been called free agency and what since the start of Christianity has been called free will. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and others spoke of free will in two senses, the first trivial, the second important; but this was confusing, and it is better always to use free agency for their first sense.

Free agency is a mark of human beings as such. All humans are free agents in the sense that they make their own decisions as to what they will do, choosing as they please in the light of their sense of right and wrong and the inclinations they feel. Thus they are moral agents, answerable to God and each other for their voluntary choices. So was Adam, both before and after he sinned; so are we now, and so are the glorified saints who are confirmed in grace in such a sense that they no longer have it in them to sin. Inability to sin will be one of the delights and glories of heaven, but it will not terminate anyone’s humanness; glorified saints will still make choices in accordance with their nature, and those choices will not be any the less the product of human free agency just because they will always be good and right.

Free will, however, has been defined by Christian teachers from the second century on as the ability to choose all the moral options that a situation offers, and Augustine affirmed against Pelagius and most of the Greek Fathers that original sin has robbed us of free will in this sense. We have no natural ability to discern and choose God’s way because we have no natural inclination Godward; our hearts are in bondage to sin, and only the grace of regeneration can free us from that slavery. This, for substance, was what Paul taught in Romans 6:16-23; only the freed will (Paul says, the freed person) freely and heartily chooses righteousness. A permanent love of righteousness—that is, an inclination of heart to the way of living that pleases God—is one aspect of the freedom that Christ gives (John 8:34-36; Gal. 5:1, 13).

It is worth observing that will is an abstraction. My will is not a part of me which I choose to move or not to move, like my hand or my foot; it is precisely me choosing to act and then going into action. The truth about free agency, and about Christ freeing sin’s slave from sin’s dominion, can be expressed more clearly if the word will is dropped and each person says: I am the morally responsible free agency; I am the slave of sin whom Christ must liberate; I am the fallen being who only have it in me to choose against God till God renews my heart.