57 光照——圣灵赐予属灵的悟性Illumination- The Holy Spirit gives spiritual understanding
《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。
57 光照——圣灵赐予属灵的悟性
Illumination - The Holy Spirit gives spiritual understanding
然而，属血气的人不领会神圣灵的事，反倒以为愚拙。并且不能知道，因为这些事唯有属灵的人才能看透。（林前2:14）
基督徒蒙召得以认识有关神的事，这种知识不只是形式上熟悉圣经的词汇，和基督教的思想而已；乃是明白圣经所见证的三一神的实存，与祂诸般作为之间的关系。这样的认识对一般人来说，绝非自然有的，尽管他们可能熟悉基督教的思想（这种人像林前2:14里的[属血气的人]一样，不能领受基督徒告诉他的事；或像耶稣在太15:14里所严责的瞎子领瞎子者；又或像在大马色的路上，尚未被基督遇见之前的保罗）。只有圣灵——这位神深奥的参透者（林前2:10）——才能在我们因罪衍昏暗的心思、心灵里，促成这样的认识。这是为什么圣经称之为[属灵的悟性]（[属灵的]意思是指[圣灵所赐予的]，西1:9；另参路24:25；约一5:20）。那些接受纯正话语的人是[从那圣者受了恩膏，并且知道这一切的事]（[事]或作[真理]；约一2:20）。
圣灵这种分赐知识的工作，我们称之为[光照]或[照明]，这不是指给予什么新的启示，而是指圣灵在我们里面作工，使我们能掌握并爱慕所听到的或讲到，那些教师和作者对我们所解释的圣经启示。在我们心思和道德系统里的罪，将我们的心思和意志都遮盖住了，以致我们抓不住、甚至抵挡圣经的力量。对我们而言，神显得遥远到犹如不实在似的，我们在神的真理跟前，是钝拙的、无动于衷的。然而圣灵开启了我们的心思，并且调整了我们的心灵，使我们能明白属灵的事（弗1:17-18；3:18-19；林后3:14-16；4:6）。正如圣灵曾籍着灵感，将圣经的真理供应给我们，现在祂籍着光照，将这真理解释给我们。如此说来，所谓光照乃是将神所启示的真理应用到我们心里，使我们能抓住圣经经文所揭示的，并变成为自己所经历的实际。
光照是圣灵对基督徒一生之久的职事，在我们归正之前就已经开始了的，使我们能渐渐地把握住关乎耶稣的真理，并渐渐地感受到真理所衡量我们、暴露我们。耶稣说圣灵要世人为罪自责，因为他们不信耶稣；又为耶稣在父神的右边这事实自责（因这证明了天父欢迎祂回到天上）；也为自己今日与将来要受审判的事实而自责（约16:8-11）。这种三重自责乃是神所用的方法，使那些先前贪爱罪中之乐、对神圣救主毫不在乎的人，能对罪恶觉得厌恶，而看基督为宝贵的。
要从圣灵光照的职事中获得完全的益处，只有籍着严谨的读经，认真的祷告，并确实地顺服我们已经蒙开启而了解的真理。这和路德的格言相呼应，他说有三件事可铸造出一位神学家：祷告（oratio）、默想（meditatio，指在神的同在中思想经文），和试炼（tentatio，指在遭遇压力要我们不顾圣经所说的话时，为了持守圣经原则所面临的挣扎）。
ILLUMINATION
THE HOLY SPIRIT GIVES
SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING
ILLUMINATION
THE
HOLY SPIRIT GIVES SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING
The
man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of
God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because
they are spiritually discerned. 1 CORINTHIANS 2:14
The
knowledge of divine things to which Christians are called is more than a formal
acquaintance with biblical words and Christian ideas. It is a realizing of the
reality and relevance of those activities of the triune God to which Scripture
testifies. Such awareness is natural to none, familiar with Christian ideas
though they may be (like “the man without the Spirit” in 1 Cor. 2:14 who cannot
receive what Christians tell him, or the blind leaders of the blind of whom
Jesus speaks so caustically in Matt. 15:14, or like Paul himself before Christ
met him on the Damascus road). Only the Holy Spirit, searcher of the deep things
of God (1 Cor. 2:10), can bring about this realization in our sin-darkened
minds and hearts. That is why it is called “spiritual understanding” (spiritual
means “Spirit-given,” Col. 1:9; cf. Luke 24:25; 1 John 5:20). Those who, along
with sound verbal instruction, “have an anointing from the Holy One... know the
truth” (1 John 2:20).
The
work of the Spirit in imparting this knowledge is called “illumination,” or
enlightening. It is not a giving of new revelation, but a work within us that
enables us to grasp and to love the revelation that is there before us in the
biblical text as heard and read, and as explained by teachers and writers. Sin
in our mental and moral system clouds our minds and wills so that we miss and
resist the force of Scripture. God seems to us remote to the point of
unreality, and in the face of God’s truth we are dull and apathetic. The
Spirit, however, opens and unveils our minds and attunes our hearts so that we
understand (Eph. 1:17-18; 3:18-19; 2 Cor. 3:14-16; 4:6). As by inspiration he
provided Scripture truth for us, so now by illumination he interprets it to us.
Illumination is thus the applying of God’s revealed truth to our hearts, so
that we grasp as reality for ourselves what the sacred text sets forth.
Illumination,
which is a lifelong ministry of the Holy Spirit to Christians, starts before
conversion with a growing grasp of the truth about Jesus and a growing sense of
being measured and exposed by it. Jesus said that the Spirit would “convict the
world” of the sin of not believing in him, of the fact that he was in the right
with God the Father (as his welcome back to heaven proved), and of the reality
of judgment both here and hereafter (John 16:8-11). This threefold conviction
is still God’s means of making sin repulsive and Christ adorable in the eyes of
persons who previously loved sin and cared nothing for the divine Savior.
The
way to benefit fully from the Spirit’s ministry of illumination is by serious
Bible study, serious prayer, and serious response in obedience to whatever
truths one has been shown already. This corresponds to Luther’s dictum that
three things make a theologian: oratio (prayer), meditatio (thinking in God’s
presence about the text), and tentatio (trial, the struggle for biblical
fidelity in the face of pressure to disregard what Scripture says).
