39 道成肉身——神差遣衪的儿子来拯救我们Incarnation - God sent HisSon, to save us
《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。
39 道成肉身——神差遣衪的儿子来拯救我们
Incarnation - God sent His
Son, to save us道成了肉身，住在我们中间，充充满满的有恩典有真理。我们也见过祂的荣光，正是父独生子的荣光。（约1:14）
三位一体与道成肉身两项教义彼此息息相关。三位一体的教义宣称，耶稣其人也是真正的神；而道成肉身的教义则宜称说，具有神性的耶稣也真正具有人性。这两项教义合起来，宣告出新约圣经所阐明之救主的实情——救主是子神，按着父神的旨意，由父神那里而来，在十字架上成为了罪人的代替者（太20:28；26:36-46；约1:29；3:13-17；罗5:8；8:32；林后5:19-21；8:9；腓2:5-8）。
有关三位一体的真理是在尼西大会（主后三二五年）上提出来的，当时亚流认为耶稣是神首先的与最高贵的受造之物；教会以肯定耶稣与父神属乎相同的[本质]或[本体]（亦或相同存在的实体）与之对抗。由此可知，只有一位神，不是两位，父神与子神是有别的，但在神性上是合一的，子之为神就如同父之为神一样。尼西亚信经说，子与父是[同质的]，子是父所[生]的（回应约1:14,17；3:16,18，参见新国际版研读本圣经的原文译注），而非父所[造]的，尼西亚信经藉此毫不含糊地承认这位加利利人的神性。
教会对道成肉身之教义的认信，是发生在迦克墩大会（主后四五一年）上。当时的教会一方面在对抗涅斯多留派的思想——此派认为耶稣有两个位格，即神的儿子与耶稣其人同在一个肉身之内，另一方面也在对抗犹提乾派的思想——此派则认为耶稣的神性吞蚀了祂的人性。迦克墩大会同时排斥这两种学说，肯定耶稣是神而人者，两性在一个位格之内，所谓两性，乃指祂有能力可按不同的身份分开来经历、表达、反应和行动；而且这两性或两种本质在祂有位格的实存里联合，却不掺杂，没有混乱，没有分离，也没有分组；而且每种本质都各自保持有它自己原有的属性。换句话说，在我们（人性）里面所有的性质和能力，与在神里面所有的性质和能力，都存在这位加利利人的位格内，既真实，又有区分，过去如此、现在如此，将来也是如此。迦克墩信经就这样以明确的术语，肯定了从天而来之主的完备人性。
道成肉身，这个属乎历史性基督教核心的奥秘神迹，在新约圣经的见证里也居于中心地位。犹太人居然会接受这样的教义，真是叫人惊奇。新约作者九分之八像耶稣原来的门徒一样，是犹太人，他们是在只有一位神、人绝非神的犹太人道理之下受教的。然而他们都教导说，耶稣是神所立的弥赛亚，即旧约圣经所应许的、圣灵所膏立的大卫后裔（见赛11:1-5，[基督]即弥赛亚一词的希腊文）。他们都以教师、罪的背负者、统治者——先知、祭司、君王——的三重职分来举荐耶稣。换言之，他们都坚持说，耶稣这位弥赛亚应当是人们敬拜、信靠的对象。这么做即等于说，耶稣是神不亚于祂是人。让我们看一看四位主要的新约神学家（约翰、保罗、希伯来书的作者，和彼得）怎样说明这点：
约翰福音用它序言的宣告（约1:1-18），作为目击证人之叙述的架构（约1:14；19:35；21:24）：耶稣是永远具有神性的道（话），是创造之工的代理人，也是一切生命与光的源头（约1:1-5,9），却籍着成为[肉身]显现为神的儿子、恩典与真理源头，祂乃是[独生神]（约1:14,18；参见新国际版研究本圣经的原文译注。和合本采用[独生子]的经文，英文新国际则译作[独生神]，用意是强调耶稣的神性）。约翰福音用有特殊意义的[我是]的陈述，来强调它的信息，因为[我是]（希腊文为egoeimi）一词曾被希腊文译本用来翻译出埃及记3:14里神的名字。无论何时，只要约翰记载耶稣说[我是]时，他就是含蓄地在宣告祂的神性（约8:28,58就是一例）。另七处宣告祂的恩典的[我是]陈述有：（1）生命的粮，赐予属灵的食物（约6:35,48,51）；（2）世上的光，驱逐黑暗（约8:12；9:5）；（3）羊的门，使人来到神面前（约10:7,9）；（4）好牧人，保护羊脱离危险（约10:11,14）；（5）复活与生命，胜过死亡（约11:25）；（6）道路、真理、生命，引人与父神交通（约14:6））；（7）真葡萄树，培育使果实累累（约15:1,5）最高潮是多马敬拜耶稣，称祂是[我的主、我的神]（约20:28），然后耶稣祝福所有与多马有同样信心的人，并鼓励祂的读者也加入这个行列（约20:29-31）。
保罗则似乎是引用了一首宣告耶稣神性的赞美诗（腓2:6）他说：[神本性一切的丰盛，都有形有体的居住在基督里面]（西2:9；另参西1:19）；他称扬子神耶稣是父神的形象，是父神创造并托住万有的代理者（西1:15-17）；他宣告祂是[主]（乃王权的尊号，有神性的意味），而按照约珥书2：32要人向耶和华呼求的命令来看，祂正是我们必须祈求救恩的对象（罗10:9-13）；保罗又称祂为[在万有之上......的神]（罗9:5）、[神和.....救主]（多2:13）；他个人向祂祷告（林后12:8-9），仰望祂成为神恩典的来源（林后13:14）。这些见证十分显明；相信耶稣的神性，是保罗神学与宗教的根基。
希伯来书的作用旨在阐释基督之为大祭司的完全，他开宗明义就宣告神儿子完全的神性，以及因之而有的独特尊荣（来1:3,6,8-12）；然后又在第二章中，称扬主完全的人性。他所描述的基督之所以能将大祭司的职分履行得如此完全，全在于祂那无穷不毁的神性生命，与祂完全之人性经验——经历过试探、压力与痛苦——的联结（来2:14-17；4:14-5:2；7:13-28；12:2-3）。
彼得（彼前3:14）引用以赛亚8:12-13一事迹亦饶有意义，他引用旧约圣经希腊译本（七十士译本）的经文，鼓励教会不要怕世人所怕的，却要尊主为圣，然而以赛亚书的七十士译文说：[尊耶和华为圣]时，彼得却欲将之改为：[尊主耶稣为圣]（彼前3:15）彼得要将全能神所当得的敬畏，归给他的主，拿撒勒人耶稣。
新约圣经禁止人敬拜天使（西2:18，启22:8-9），却命令人要敬拜耶稣，并且一直将焦点放在这位神而人者得主救主身上，以祂为我们此时此地信、望、爱的对象，没有这些重点的宗教不是基督教，在这件事上我们不可有错！
INCARNATION
GOD SENT HIS SON, TO SAVE US
The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
JOHN 1:14
Trinity
and Incarnation belong together. The doctrine of the Trinity declares that the
man Jesus is truly divine; that of the Incarnation declares that the divine
Jesus is truly human. Together they proclaim the full reality of the Savior
whom the New Testament sets forth, the Son who came from the Father’s side at
the Father’s will to become the sinner’s substitute on the cross (Matt. 20:28;
26:36-46; John 1:29; 3:13-17; Rom. 5:8; 8:32; 2 Cor. 5:19-21; 8:9; Phil.
2:5-8).
The
moment of truth regarding the doctrine of the Trinity came at the Council of
Nicaea (A.D.325), when the church countered the Arian idea that Jesus was God’s
first and noblest creature by affirming that he was of the same “substance” or
“essence” (i.e., the same existing entity) as the Father. Thus there is one
God, not two; the distinction between Father and Son is within the divine
unity, and the Son is God in the same sense as the Father is. In saying that
Son and Father are “of one substance,” and that the Son is “begotten” (echoing
“only-begotten,” John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18, and NIV text notes) but “not made,”
the Nicene Creed unequivocally recognized the deity of the man from Galilee.
A
crucial event for the church’s confession of the doctrine of the Incarnation
came at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D.451), when the church countered both the
Nestorian idea that Jesus was two personalities—the Son of God and a man—under
one skin, and the Eutychian idea that Jesus’ divinity had swallowed up his
humanity. Rejecting both, the council affirmed that Jesus is one divine-human
person in two natures (i.e., with two sets of capacities for experience,
expression, reaction, and action); and that the two natures are united in his
personal being without mixture, confusion, separation, or division; and that
each nature retained its own attributes. In other words, all the qualities and
powers that are in us, as well as all the qualities and powers that are in God,
were, are, and ever will be really and distinguishably present in the one
person of the man from Galilee. Thus the Chalcedonian formula affirms the full
humanity of the Lord from heaven in categorical terms.
The
Incarnation, this mysterious miracle at the heart of historic Christianity, is
central in the New Testament witness. That Jews should ever have come to such a
belief is amazing. Eight of the nine New Testament writers, like Jesus’
original disciples, were Jews, drilled in the Jewish axiom that there is only
one God and that no human is divine. They all teach, however, that Jesus is
God’s Messiah, the Spirit-anointed son of David promised in the Old Testament
(e.g., Isa. 11:1-5; Christos, “Christ,” is Greek for Messiah). They all present
him in a threefold role as teacher, sin-bearer, and ruler—prophet, priest, and
king. And in other words, they all insist that Jesus the Messiah should be
personally worshiped and trusted—which is to say that he is God no less than he
is man. Observe how the four most masterful New Testament theologians (John,
Paul, the writer of Hebrews, and Peter) speak to this.
John’s
Gospel frames its eyewitness narratives (John 1:14; 19:35; 21:24) with the
declarations of its prologue (1:1-18): that Jesus is the eternal divine Logos
(Word), agent of Creation and source of all life and light (vv. 1-5, 9), who
through becoming “flesh” was revealed as Son of God and source of grace and
truth, indeed as “God the only begotten” (vv. 14, 18; NIV text notes). The
Gospel is punctuated with “I am” statements that have special significance
because I am (Greek: ego eimi) was used to render God’s name in the Greek
translation of Exodus 3:14; whenever John reports Jesus as saying ego eimi, a
claim to deity is implicit. Examples of this are John 8:28, 58, and the seven
declarations of his grace as (a) the Bread of Life, giving spiritual food (6:35,
48, 51); (b) the Light of the World, banishing darkness (8:12; 9:5); (c) the
gate for the sheep, giving access to God (10:7, 9); (d) the Good Shepherd,
protecting from peril (10:11, 14); (e) the Resurrection and Life, overcoming
our death (11:25); (f) the Way, Truth, and Life, guiding to fellowship with the
Father (14:6); (g) the true Vine, nurturing for fruitfulness (15:1, 5).
Climactically, Thomas worships Jesus as “my Lord and my God” (20:28). Jesus
then pronounces a blessing on all who share Thomas’s faith and John urges his
readers to join their number (20:29-31).
Paul
quotes from what seems to be a hymn that declares Jesus’ personal deity (Phil.
2:6); states that “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily
form” (Col. 2:9; cf. 1:19); hails Jesus the Son as the Father’s image and as
his agent in creating and upholding everything (Col. 1:15-17); declares him to
be “Lord” (a title of kingship, with divine overtones), to whom one must pray
for salvation according to the injunction to call on Yahweh in Joel 2:32 (Rom.
10:9-13); calls him “God over all” (Rom. 9:5) and “God and Savior” (Titus
2:13); and prays to him personally (2 Cor. 12:8-9), looking to him as a source
of divine grace (2 Cor. 13:14). The testimony is explicit: faith in Jesus’
deity is basic to Paul’s theology and religion.
The
writer to the Hebrews, purporting to expound the perfection of Christ’s high
priesthood, starts by declaring the full deity and consequent unique dignity of
the Son of God (Heb. 1:3, 6, 8-12), whose full humanity he then celebrates in
chapter 2. The perfection, and indeed the very possibility, of the high
priesthood that he describes Christ as fulfilling depends on the conjunction of
an endless, unfailing divine life with a full human experience of temptation,
pressure, and pain (Heb. 2:14-17; 4:14-5:2; 7:13-28; 12:2-3).
Not
less significant is Peter’s use of Isaiah 8:12-13 (1 Pet. 3:14). He cites the
Greek (Septuagint) version, urging the churches not to fear what others fear
but to set apart the Lord as holy. But where the Septuagint text of Isaiah
says, “Set apart the Lord himself,” Peter writes, “Set apart Christ as Lord” (1
Pet. 3:15). Peter would give the adoring fear due to the Almighty to Jesus of
Nazareth, his Master and Lord.
The
New Testament forbids worship of angels (Col. 2:18; Rev. 22:8-9) but commands
worship of Jesus and focuses consistently on the divine-human Savior and Lord
as the proper object of faith, hope, and love here and now. Religion that lacks
these emphases is not Christianity. Let there be no mistake about that!