34 律法——神立法并要求人顺服Law - God legislates, anddemands obedience
《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。
34 律法——神立法并要求人顺服
Law - God legislates, and demands obedience
摩西将以色列人召了来,对他们说:[以色列人哪,我今日晓谕你们的律例、典章,你们要听。可以学习,谨守遵行。] (申5:1)
人受造就不是自治的,也就是说,神并没有叫人自由到为自己设立自己的律法;人乃是神治的,亦即人要受到的约束、遵守造物主的律法而活。这其实不难,因为神是这样构造了人,当人感恩顺服的时,会带给他最高的幸福感;责任和喜悦并行,正如这两者在耶稣身上同时实现一样(约4:34;;另参诗112:1;119:14,16,47-48,97-113,127-128,163-167)。堕落之人的心不喜欢神的律法,一方面是因为那是律法,还有是因为那是神的律法;凡认识基督的人会发现;不但他们因出于对恩典的感激之情,爱慕律法、想要遵守它(罗7:18-22;12:1-2);圣灵也会引领他们进入某种程度的顺服——这顺服是发自内心、前所未有(罗7:6;8:4-6;来10:16)。
神的道德律在圣经里斑斑可考:十诫、其他摩西的律例、先知的讲论、耶稣的教训和新约书信等。它反应出神的神圣的品行,和祂对受造的人类所定的举止。耶稣总结道德律为爱神与爱人的两大诫命(太22:37-40);祂说,旧约圣经所有道德指引的总纲在此。基督和使徒们的道德教训是将旧有律法拓深、并应用到新的处境上——即救主所管治的神国生活中;也就是在这后五旬节的圣灵时代里,神的百姓蒙召要在他们自己中国活出属天的生活、并形成神回应世俗的另类文化。
圣经的律法可分好几类:道德律所命令个人与团体应有的行为,永远是我们的责任。旧约圣经中的政治律[一般称为民法],则是将道德律的原则应用到以色列全国中,但这应用只限于当以色列处在旧约时代的神治政体时,亦即在世为选民之祭。旧约圣经中的仪礼律,是与洁净、饮食和祭祀等方面有关的律法,为教导的目的而暂时设立,到了新约时代则被废除了(太15:20;可7:15-19;提前4:3-5;来10:1-14;13:9-10),因为他们过去所象征的意义如今都已应验。摩西书上讲道德律、司法律和仪礼律同列,为了带给我们一个信息:伏在神之下的生活应被视为是整体性的,属神之人的生活绝不是分隔式的,而是全方位的合一;而且神身为立法者,祂所具的权柄,能给予全部的法令以相等的约束力。不过律例有不同的种类,也有不同的目的;政治律和仪礼律的应用有其限制;由祂所提及的经文,和祂其余的教训两者看来,耶稣所肯定神之律法那不变的普及型,只是与道德律有关,这是十分清楚的(太5:17-19;另参路16:16-17)。
神要求每一个人以全人向祂所赐下律法的整全涵义全然顺服。律法[约束全人.....要求人永远完整的顺服];[律法是属灵的,所以,它能触及心思、意志和情感,以及灵魂所有其他的能力,与他的言语、工作和心态。]换句话说,渴慕之心和作为都必须正确,单有法利赛人外在的顺服并不够(太15:7-8;23:25-28);而律法引申出来的推论也是它内容的一部分——[哪里有所命令的责任,与之相反的罪就要禁止,哪里有罪被禁止,与之相反的责任就当遵行。]《西敏斯特大要理问答》第九十九问。
LAW
GOD LEGISLATES, AND DEMANDS
OBEDIENCE
Moses
summoned all Israel and said: Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in
your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. DEUTERONOMY 5:1
Man
was not created autonomous, that is, free to be a law to himself, but
theonomous, that is, bound to keep the law of his Maker. This was no hardship,
for God had so constructed him that grateful obedience would have brought him
highest happiness; duty and delight would have coincided, as they did in Jesus
(John 4:34; cf. Pss. 112:1; 119:14, 16, 47-48, 97-113, 127-128, 163-167). The
fallen human heart dislikes God’s law, both because it is a law and because it
is God’s; those who know Christ, however, find not only that they love the law
and want to keep it, out of gratitude for grace (Rom. 7:18-22; 12:1-2), but
also that the Holy Spirit leads them into a degree of obedience, starting with
the heart, that was never theirs before (Rom. 7:6; 8:4-6; Heb. 10:16).
God’s
moral law is abundantly set forth in Scripture, the Decalogue (the Ten
Commandments), other Mosaic statutes, sermons by the prophets, the teaching of
Jesus, and the New Testament letters. It reflects his holy character and his
purposes for created human beings. God commands the behavior that he loves to
see and forbids that which offends him. Jesus summarizes the moral law in the
two great commandments, love your God and love your neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40),
on which, he says, all the Old Testament moral instructions “hang” (depend).
The moral teaching of Christ and his apostles is the old law deepened and
reapplied to new circumstances—life in the kingdom of God, where the Savior
reigns, and in the post-Pentecost era of the Spirit, where God’s people are
called to live heaven’s life among themselves and to be God’s counterculture in
the world.
Biblical
law is of various sorts. Moral laws command personal and community behavior
that is always our duty. The political laws of the Old Testament applied
principles of the moral law to Israel’s national situation when Israel was a
church-state, God’s people on earth. The Old Testament laws about ceremonial
purity, diet, and sacrifice were temporary enactments for instructional
purposes which the New Testament cancels (Matt. 15:20; Mark 7:15-19; 1 Tim.
4:3-5; Heb. 10:1-14, 13:9-10) because their symbolic meaning had been
fulfilled. The juxtaposing of moral, judicial, and ritual law in the Mosaic
books carried the message that life under God is to be seen and lived not
compartmentally but as a many-sided unity, and also that God’s authority as
legislator gave equal force to the entire code. However, the laws were of
different kinds, with different purposes, and the political and ceremonial laws
were of limited application, and it seems clear both from the immediate context
and from the rest of his teaching that Jesus’ affirmation of the unchanging
universal force of God’s law relates to the moral law as such (Matt. 5:17-19;
cf. Luke 16:16-17).
God
requires the total obedience of each total person to the total implications of
his law as given. It binds “the whole man... unto entire obedience for ever”;
“it is spiritual, and so reacheth the understanding, will, affections, and all
other powers of the soul as well as the words, works, and gestures” (in other
words, desiring must be right as well as doings, and Pharisaic externality is
not enough: Matt. 15:7-8; 23:25-28); and the corollaries of the law are part of
its content—“where a duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden; and,
where a sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded” (Westminster Larger
Catechism Q.99).