《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。
64 自由——救恩带来自由
Liberty - Salvation brings freedom
基督释放了我们，叫我们得以自由，所以要站立得稳，不要再被奴仆的扼挟制。（加5:1）
新约圣经视在基督里的救恩为释放，看基督徒生活为一种自由——基督已释放了我们，使我们得自由（加5:1；约8:32,36）。基督的释放行动并不是一椿社会、政治或经济上的改良，如今日一些人有时认为的。它乃是与以下三点有关：
第一，基督徒已从误将律法当成救恩的制度中释放了出来。他们既在基督里因信称义，就不再活在神的律法之下，而是活在祂的恩典之下（罗3:19；6:14-15；加3:23-25）。这是意指他们在神前的地位（即罗5:1-2中[想和]与[进入]），是完全建立于他们已在基督里被神接纳与领养的这个根基上；现在不会、将来也不会需要倚靠他们行为的表现，这个地位也不会因为他们行为的失败，而有所危殆。他们现今不是靠着自己的完全活着，乃是靠着他们蒙神赦免而活；而且只要他们活在世上一天，此原则就永不改变。
所有自然的宗教都否定此点，因为堕落之人天然的本性设定说：人惟有籍着遵守律法的操练、正确的礼义和禁欲主义，才能使他们与终极实存之间的关系得以保存下去（不论这终极实存是被他想成一位有位格的神，还是以其他的形式存在），这是世人所设计的各种宗教所表达的信息，也是世上宗教规定人建立他自己的已义所当用的方法。这正是保罗看见不信的犹太人所要做的事（罗10:3），但保罗的经历告诉他，这是没有指望的事，没有一个人的表现够好，因为不管人外在的工作有多正确，他的内心总有不对的欲念，又缺少正确的渴求（罗7:7-11；另参腓3：6）。神首先要看的，就是人内心。
律法所能做的事，不过是挑起、暴露与定罪那弥漫在我们道德装饰下的罪恶；它只会叫我们看出罪恶的实在、深度与罪疚（罗3:19；林前15:56；加3:10）。因此之故，视律法为工作之约，并靠律法来寻求公义（加3:10-12；4:21-31），其虚妄就显得格外清楚了；它正如不知道该做什么的可悲一样，叫人一目了然。基督正是要将我们从这种受律法捆绑的光景下释放出来。
其次，基督徒已经从罪的权势下得了释放（约8:34-36；罗6:14-23）。他们已经超自然地重生了，籍着基督的死与祂复活的生命与祂联合，而向神活着（罗6:3-11）；这意思是说，他们心中现在最深的渴慕，乃是以实行公义来侍奉神（罗6:18,22）。罪的辖制不只牵涉到不断的悖逆行为，也涉及总是缺少遵行律法的热心，有的时候还有憎恨、厌恶律法的态度。但如今心态改变了，我们因着蒙神白白恩典的接纳、受感恩之心的催促，靠圣灵加添能力，我们就能[按着心灵的新样，不按着仪文的旧样]服侍主（罗7:6）。这乃是说：他们现在顺服时是喜乐的，并且顺服成为他们向所未有的一种生活方式，罪不再作他们的主。从这个角度来看，他们是已从捆绑中释放了。
第三，基督徒已经从视物质享受和身体快慰在本质上为邪恶的那种迷信观念中被释放了出来。保罗反对那种迷信，他坚称基督徒要将所有的受造之物，和他们所能带给人的快乐，当成是神所赐的礼物，并好好自由地去享受（提前4:1-5）；只要我们在享受时，没有逾越道德律，也没有妨碍我们自己或别人的属灵的福祉（林前6:12-13；8:7-13）。改革宗神学家反对中古世纪种种不同形式的律法主义时，也重申过以上的重点。
LIBERTY
SALVATION BRINGS FREEDOM
It is
for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. GALATIANS 5:1
The
New Testament sees salvation in Christ as liberation and the Christian life as
one of liberty—Christ has freed us for freedom (Gal. 5:1; John 8:32, 36).
Christ’s liberating action is not a matter of socio-politico-economic
improvement, as is sometimes suggested today, but relates to the following
three points:
First,
Christians have been set free from the law as a system of salvation. Being
justified by faith in Christ, they are no longer under God’s law, but under his
grace (Rom. 3:19; 6:14-15; Gal. 3:23-25). This means that their standing with
God (the “peace” and “access” of Rom. 5:1-2) rests wholly on the fact that they
have been accepted and adopted in Christ. It does not, nor ever will it, depend
on what they do; it will never be imperiled by what they fail to do. They live,
and as long as they are in this world will live, not by being perfect, but by
being forgiven.
All
natural religion, then, is negated, for the natural instinct of fallen man, as
expressed in every form of religion that the world has ever devised, is to
suppose that one gains and keeps a right relationship with ultimate reality
(whether conceived as a personal God or in other terms) by disciplines of law
observance, right ritual, and asceticism. This is how the world’s faiths
prescribe the establishing of one’s own righteousness—the very thing Paul saw
unbelieving Jews trying to do (Rom. 10:3). Paul’s experience had taught him
that this is a hopeless enterprise. No human performance is ever good enough,
for there are always wrong desires in the heart, along with a lack of right
ones, regardless of how correct one’s outward motions are (Rom. 7:7-11; cf.
Phil. 3:6), and it is at the heart that God looks first.
All
the law can do is arouse, expose, and condemn the sin that permeates our moral
makeup, and so make us aware of its reality, depth, and guilt (Rom. 3:19; 1
Cor. 15:56; Gal. 3:10). So the futility of treating the law as a covenant of
works, and seeking righteousness by it, becomes plain (Gal. 3:10-12; 4:21-31),
as does the misery of not knowing what else to do. This is the bondage to the
law from which Christ sets us free.
Second,
Christians have been set free from sin’s domination (John 8:34-36; Rom.
6:14-23). They have been supernaturally regenerated and made alive to God
through union with Christ in his death and risen life (Rom. 6:3-11), and this
means that the deepest desire of their heart now is to serve God by practicing
righteousness (Rom. 6:18, 22). Sin’s domination involved not only constant acts
of disobedience, but also a constant lack of zeal for law-keeping, rising sometimes
to positive resentment and hatred toward the law. Now, however, being changed
in heart, motivated by gratitude for acceptance through free grace, and
energized by the Holy Spirit, they “serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not
in the old way of the written code” (Rom. 7:6). This means that their attempts
at obedience are now joyful and integrated in a way that was never true before.
Sin rules them no longer. In this respect, too, they have been liberated from
bondage.
Third,
Christians have been set free from the superstition that treats matter and
physical pleasure as intrinsically evil. Against this idea, Paul insists that
Christians are free to enjoy as God’s good gifts all created things and the
pleasures that they yield (1 Tim. 4:1-5), provided only that we do not
transgress the moral law in our enjoyments or hinder our own spiritual
well-being or that of others (1 Cor. 6:12-13; 8:7-13). The Reformers renewed
this emphasis against various forms of medieval legalism.
