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


30 堕落——第一对人类犯了罪The Fall - The first humancouple sinned

《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。


30 堕落——第一对人类犯了罪
The Fall - The first human couple sinned

于是女人见那棵树的果子好作食物,也悦人眼目,且是可喜爱的,能使人有智慧,就摘下果子来吃了;又给他丈夫,他丈夫也吃了。(创3:6

保罗在罗马书里坚称:所有的人类按其天然光景来说,都在罪的愧疚和权势之下,也在死亡的辖制之下,而且无由逃脱神的愤怒(罗3:9,195:17,211:18-19;另参1:18-3:20全段)。他将人的这种的光景回溯到[一人]所犯的罪上;而这个人,保罗对雅典人称之为人类的共祖(罗5:12-14;徒17:26;另参林前15:22)。这是使徒对记载在创世纪第三章之历史所做的权威性的解释,在那里我们看到人类堕落的记述,它说明最早的人何如从神面前滑跌出去,从敬虔落入罪恶和失落中。那段历史的重点,从保罗解释得观点来看如下:

1)神创造了第一个人作为他所有后裔的代表,正如祂使耶稣基督成为所有神选民的代表一样(罗5:15-198:29-309:22-26)。在上述两种情况下,这位代表会将他所代表的,牵涉到他个人行为的结果里,不论是好是坏。举个例来说吧,正如一位国家领袖向外宣战时,就将他的国民牵涉到他这决定所带来的结果中。神所拣选的这个安排——让亚当能决定他后裔的命运——神学家称之为[工作之约],虽然这不是一个圣经上的词条。

2)神将第一个人放在幸福的光景中;并应许如果他以完全、积极顺服的生活,表现出他对神的忠诚,尤其是不吃那称为分别善恶之树的果子,他和他的后裔就能持续活在此幸福之中。这棵树之所以被如此定命,是因为它关乎亚当要让神来告诉他何为好歹,还是他自己寻求、决定,不理会神所说的。吃了这颗树的果子,就等于宣告说:他自己能知道,能决定何为好歹了,用不着神了。

3)亚当被夏娃引诱,而夏娃又是被蛇引诱(蛇是撒旦的化身,参林后11:311:14;启12:9),以吃禁果公然顶撞神。其结局是:第一,表现在亚当之罪里那种反对神、自我抬举的心态,变成了他生命,他秉性的一部分,并传给了他后裔(创6:5;罗3:9-20)。其次,亚当和夏娃发现自己被一种败坏和罪疚的感觉抓住,而事实也是如此,使他们在神面前感动羞愧、恐惧。第三,他们也被咒诅要受到痛苦并死亡,同时也被逐出伊甸园。虽然如此,神也同时开始向他们显明救赎的恩典:神给他们做了皮衣,以遮盖他们的赤身露体;又应许他们,女人的后裔有一天要打破蛇的头,藉此预表了基督。

虽然创世纪多少以象征性的文学风格来讲述这段故事,但它也要我们把它当做历史事实来讲。在创世纪里,亚当与以色列的列祖相连,又透过列祖与全人类以家谱相连(创5,10,11章)。这样,亚当和亚伯拉罕、以撒、雅各一样,都是时历史里的一部分。所有创世纪里在亚当以后来的主要人物——除约瑟之外——都在某方面显出自己是罪人:而约瑟的死,和创世纪故事里几乎所有其他每一个人死的一样,都被仔细记录了下来(创50:22-26)。保罗所说[在亚当里众人都死了](林前15:22)的宣告,不过是将创世纪已经确实暗指的事,说得更明白而已。

我们可以很公平的说,人类堕落的叙述是世上谨见叫人信服的说法,它解释了人性败坏的原因。巴斯喀曾说:原罪的教义似乎是对理性的一种触犯,但是一旦接受了,反而最能解释整个人类的光景。他说得很对,这个说法可以、也应当把整个人类堕落的叙述包括在里面。


THE FALL
THE FIRST HUMAN COUPLE SINNED

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. GENESIS 3:6
Paul, in Romans, affirms that all mankind is naturally under the guilt and power of sin, the reign of death, and the inescapable wrath of God (Rom. 3:9, 19; 5:17, 21; 1:18-19; cf. the whole section, 1:18-3:20). He traces this back to the sin of the one man whom, when speaking at Athens, he described as our common ancestor (Rom. 5:12-14; Acts 17:26; cf. 1 Cor. 15:22). This is authoritative apostolic interpretation of the history recorded in Genesis 3, where we find the account of the Fall, the original human lapse from God and godliness into sin and lostness. The main points in that history, as seen through the lens of Paul’s interpretation, are as follows:

(a) God made the first man the representative for all his posterity, just as he was to make Jesus Christ the representative for all God’s elect (Rom. 5:15-19 with 8:29-30; 9:22-26). In each case the representative was to involve those whom he represented in the fruits of his personal action, whether for good or ill, just as a national leader involves his people in the consequences of his action when, for instance, he declares war. This divinely chosen arrangement, whereby Adam would determine the destiny of his descendants, has been called the covenant of works, though this is not a biblical phrase.

(b) God set the first man in a state of happiness and promised to continue this to him and his posterity after him if he showed fidelity by a course of perfect positive obedience and specifically by not eating from a tree described as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It would seem that the tree bore this name because the issue was whether Adam would let God tell him what was good and bad for him or would seek to decide that for himself, in disregard of what God had said. By eating from this tree Adam would, in effect, be claiming that he could know and decide what was good and evil for him without any reference to God.

(c) Adam, led by Eve, who was herself led by the serpent (Satan in disguise: 2 Cor. 11:3 with v. 14; Rev. 12:9), defied God by eating the forbidden fruit. The results were that, first, the anti-God, self-aggrandizing mindset expressed in Adam’s sin became part of him and of the moral nature that he passed on to his descendants (Gen. 6:5; Rom. 3:9-20). Second, Adam and Eve found themselves gripped by a sense of pollution and guilt that made them ashamed and fearful before God—with good reason. Third, they were cursed with expectations of pain and death, and they were expelled from Eden. At the same time, however, God began to show them saving mercy; he made them skin garments to cover their nakedness, and he promised that the woman’s seed would one day break the serpent’s head. This foreshadowed Christ.

Though telling the story in a somewhat figurative style, Genesis asks us to read it as history; in Genesis, Adam is linked to the patriarchs and with them to the rest of mankind by genealogy (chs. 5, 10, 11), which makes him as much a part of space-time history as were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All the book’s main characters after Adam, except Joseph, are shown as sinners in one way or another, and the death of Joseph, like the death of almost everyone else in the story, is carefully recorded (Gen. 50:22-26); Paul’s statement “In Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22) only makes explicit what Genesis already clearly implies.

It may fairly be claimed that the Fall narrative gives the only convincing explanation of the perversity of human nature that the world has ever seen. Pascal said that the doctrine of original sin seems an offense to reason, but once accepted it makes total sense of the entire human condition. He was right, and the same thing may and should be said of the Fall narrative itself.