上帝的话语：恩典的管道TheWord as a Means of Grace
作者: Carl Trueman 译者/校对者: 述宁/煦
导言
Introduction1
中世纪天主教会与宗教改革的教会之间关于恩典的理解差异，最为明显地体现在他们各自敬拜场所的建筑上。进入一个中世纪中期（High Middle Ages）宏伟的大教堂，如科隆大教堂，就是进入一个专注于圣礼（特别是弥撒）并且处处体现圣礼的地方。一进入教堂，人的眼光就被吸引到高高的祭坛上，因为建筑师知道他的神学：在礼仪中发生的最重要的事情就是弥撒庆典，在其中基督实际降临下来，在恩典中和他的子民相遇；因着饼和酒变成了主耶稣的身体和血，基督与他的百姓同在。天堂与人间相遇，因此所有的目光都应该关注于这个奥秘发生的地方。The
differences over grace between the medieval Catholic Church and the churches of
the Reformation are nowhere more obviously apparent than in the architecture of
their respective places of worship. To enter one of the great cathedrals of the
high Middle Ages, such as that of Cologne, is to enter a space that is focused
on and saturated in the sacraments, specifically the Mass. As one enters the
building, one’s eyes are drawn to the high altar because the architect knew his
theology. He knew that the most important thing that happened in the liturgy
was the celebration of the Mass, where Christ literally came down to meet his
people in grace. As the bread and wine became the body and blood of the Lord
Jesus, Christ was present with his people. Heaven met earth and all eyes should
thus be focused on the place where this mystery took place.
而进入一个更正教的大教堂，比方说爱丁堡的圣吉尔斯大教堂（St. Giles’），像进入了一个完全不同的世界。人们不仅是找不到传统的中世纪式敬虔的精致美学特点，他们的眼光也不是被吸引到任何祭坛上，而是被吸引到抬高了的讲台那里。同样，建筑师充分理解他的神学：在更正教教会的敬拜中发生的最重要的事情就是读经，尤其是（按小教理问答中使用的副词）宣讲上帝的道。上帝的临在不是通过发生在祭坛上的面包和酒的事件。能够领会上帝的不是眼睛和舌头，而是耳朵。上帝来到他的百姓那里乃是藉着他的传道人的口对他的道的宣讲。事实上，正如《第二瑞士信条》（the Second Helvetic Confession）极为醒目地在其开篇第一章所表达的：
Enter
a Protestant cathedral, say, St. Giles’ in Edinburgh, and one enters a very
different world. Not only are the usual elaborate aesthetics of medieval piety
missing, one’s eyes are drawn not to any altar but rather to the elevated
pulpit. Again, the architect knew his theology well, for the most important
thing that happens in a Protestant service is the reading and especially (to
use the adverb employed in the Shorter Catechism) the preaching of God’s word.
God’s presence is mediated not under the accidents of bread and wine at the
altar. It is not the eyes and the tongue that apprehend God. It is the
ears. God comes to his people but
through the declaration of his word by the mouths of his preachers. Indeed, as
the Second Helvetic Confession so dramatically expressed it in the very first
chapter:
我们相信，在现今，当上帝的话语在教会中由合法呼召的传道人宣讲出来，那么就是上帝的话语本身在被宣讲并且被信众所接受。
We
believe that today, when this word of God is proclaimed in the Church by
preachers who have been legitimately called, then the very word of God itself
is proclaimed and received by the faithful.
这里的语句强调：上帝的话语本身。当传道人忠实地讲道时，会众实际上听到的是上帝的话语。我们可以用另一种方式说：当传道人忠实地讲道时，事实上就是上帝在对会众说话。
The
language is emphatic: the very word of God itself. When the preacher preaches
faithfully, the congregation actually hears God’s word. We might put this
another way: when the preacher preaches faithfully, it is really God who speaks
to the congregation.
当然，信条的作者海里希•布林格（Heirich Bullinger）并不认为他的讲道因此就应该被视为上帝的话语而被纳入到上帝所默示的圣经正典中。他所要表达的观点是这样的：当上帝的话语被正确地解析和宣告时，上帝通过传道者的言语满有权柄和能力地对他的子民说话。布林格的这种表述，代表了宗教改革的更正教传统：上帝以恩典对待他的子民的首要途径是上帝的话语，而不是圣礼。上帝通过宣告出来的话语对他的百姓说话，圣礼因为依附于上帝的话语而获得其意义。这一点也在改革宗教会中通过建筑风格得到了加强：将圣礼用的桌子象征性地放置在讲台的前方较低的位置。
Of
course, Heinrich Bullinger, the Confession’s author, did not believe that his
sermons were so to be seen as the word of God that they should therefore be
inserted into the canon of inspired scripture. The point he was making was
this: when God’s word was correctly parsed and proclaimed, God spoke to his
people through the words of the preacher in an authoritative and powerful way.
In so doing, Bullinger stands as representative of the Reformation Protestant
tradition: it is the word of God, not the sacraments, which was the primary
means of God dealing graciously with his people. God addressed his people
through the word proclaimed; the sacraments gained their significance from
being attached to the Word, a point which was also architecturally reinforced
in Reformed by having the table placed symbolically in front of, and beneath,
the pulpit.
了解这一点是至关重要的。更正教信仰不仅仅是一套神学教义，这些教义与实践有着直接的关系。如果认真地对待宗教改革对于恩典的理解，那么阅读上帝话语，特别是宣讲上帝的话语就处在更正教实践的中心。宣讲圣道是恩典的一种途径，并且事实上是恩典的主要途径。这是上帝为其恩典性目标所命定的途径。为了使组成教会的男女老少能在他们的生命中结出果子，上帝首要的行动就是在讲台上宣告他大能的拯救行动。
Understanding
this point is crucial. Protestantism is not simply a set of theological
doctrines. Those doctrines stand in direct relation to practice. If the
Reformation understanding of grace is taken seriously, then the reading and
especially the preaching of the Word of God, will stand at the center of
Protestant practice. Preaching the word is a means of grace, in fact the
primary means of grace. It is the means God has appointed for bringing his
gracious purpose to fruition in the lives of the men and women who make up the
church. God acts first and foremost in the proclamation from the pulpit of his
mighty saving acts.
这意味着，传道人需要明白他们所做的是执行一个需要谨慎和热忱的神学性行动，因为他们所处理的是上帝的话语，并且是把最为重要的信息传递给人的耳朵。这也有赖于确信，因为信息的力量最终并不在于他们这些信使身上，而是在于通过信息说话的上帝。那些不明白这一任务的各种要素的传道人，再没有什么能比他们更快让教会衰亡了。传道人需要明白上帝的恩典，不仅仅是因为他们由此就能够宣讲恩典的内容，更是因为这恩典使他们能够宣讲！
That
means that preachers need to understand that what they do is perform a
theological action which demands care and earnestness because they handle the
Word of God and bring the most important message of all to people’s ears. And
it also rests upon confidence because the power of the message does not reside ultimately
in them as messengers but in the God who speaks through the message. Nothing
kills churches faster than preachers who do not seem to understand these
various elements of the task. Preachers need to understand God’s grace, not
simply so that they can preach its content but also so that they can preach,
period.
一种关于上帝之言说（God`s Speech）的神学
A
Theology of God’s Speech
改教家们（事实上，所有反伯拉纠者）对恩典的理解的核心理念是：恩典从根本上讲是外来的。对于改教家们而言，事实上也是对保罗而言，这恩典主要是通过被宣告的上帝话语闯入个人的生命之中。福音不是一种体验，它是对耶稣基督的身份的宣告，这身份包括组成按他的形像所造的人类身份的所有内容。然而，为了了解改教家们的立场，我们需要明白圣经中关于言说的教导，特别是关于上帝的言说的教导。这为更正教的思想提供了基础，即被宣告出来的上帝的话语是如何拥有救赎大能的。
At
the heart of the Reformers’—indeed, of all anti-Pelagian—understandings of
grace is the idea that grace is something which ultimately comes from without.
For the Reformers, as indeed for Paul, this grace breaks into the lives of
individuals primarily through the Word proclaimed. The gospel is not an
experience, it is the declaration of the identity of Jesus Christ, with all of
that entails for the identity of human beings made in his image. Yet in order
to understand the Reformers’ position, we need to understand something of the
biblical teaching on speech, specifically God’s speech. This provides the
foundation for the Protestant understanding of how the Word proclaimed can be
powerful unto salvation.
从圣经中呈现的对上帝作为的描述，改教家们得到了了解上帝话语的线索。除了上帝存在的事实，圣经揭示关于上帝的最早事件之一就是上帝主要通过话语行事。这就是在创世记第一章中世界如何被造出来：上帝说话，运用他的话语；一开始是虚无，上帝说话，事物就出现了，上帝说话使它们成为存在。
The
Reformers took their cue on the Word of God from the description of how God
acts which they found presented in scripture. One of the very first things
which the Bible reveals about him, beyond the fact of his mere existence, is
that he is one who acts primarily through speech. This is how the creation is
brought about in Genesis 1. God speaks, he uses words. There was nothing, God
spoke, and then there was something, that which God had spoken into existence.
现在，可以合理地推测“说”一词对于上帝和人类并不相同：例如，上帝的“说”不涉及使用声带，而且——直到物质被创造出来——不存在任何可以与物理声音联系在一起的振动。然而，圣经却清楚地暗示，与上帝的创造作为最为接近的类比，就是人类的“说”这一行为。
Now,
presumably speech is not predicated of God and humans in a univocal manner:
God’s speech did not involve the use of vocal chords, for example, and until
matter was created there could have been none of the vibrations which we
associate with physical sound. Yet by implication the Bible makes it clear that
the closest analogy to God’s creative act is the human act of speech.
这是更正教信仰的伟大洞见之一，这个观念是我们得以了解上帝及其所创造的世界的核心要点。我们应该注意到，上帝说话——这一创造性力量与我们早先所看到的路德对十字架和称义的理解是相关的。上帝通过宣告，让某一事物成为它本质上所不是的；因信凭着恩典而称义，则取决于这种宣告的能力。上帝的说话决定现实（reality），创造现实。因此，事实上有罪的人被上帝宣告为义，因为他披戴了基督归算（imputed）给人的、外在的（extrinsic）义。他虽然不是世界所认为的任何“真实的”义人，但他真正是义的，仅仅因为上帝说他是这样。
It is
one of the great insights of Protestantism that this is central to how we are
to understand God and the world he created. We should note that this creative
power of God’s speech correlates with what we saw earlier with regard to
Luther’s understanding of the cross and of justification. Justification by
grace through faith depended upon the power of God’s declaration to make a
thing to be that which it intrinsically was not. God’s speech determines
reality, creates reality. Thus, the person who is actually sinful is declared
by God to be righteous because clothed in the imputed, extrinsic righteousness
of Christ. He is not righteous in any way that the world would recognize as
being “real.” But he is really righteous simply because God has said that he is
such.
这与十字架的作为类似：基督被挂在十字架上，表面上看是一个被撕裂、被打败的罪人，但他实际上却是上帝圣洁、得胜的羔羊；对世界而言，十字架显然意味着那个被挂在上面的人的惨败，但上帝宣告的事实正相反，这是征服罪恶的一个壮观而决定性的胜利。没有任何经验主义的观察可以让人得出这个结论，只有通过上帝的话语启示出来的真理才能够。只有抓住那话语的信心才能承认真理。因此，由信心所抓住的那话语使十字架成为上帝救赎的大能。
This
finds its parallel in the work of the cross. Christ hangs on the cross,
apparently a crushed, defeated sinner yet in reality the holy, triumphing Lamb
of God. To the world, the cross is obviously a crushing defeat of the one who
hangs there. But God declares that it is the opposite, a spectacular and decisive
triumph over evil. No empirical observation can lead to this conclusion, only
the revelation of the truth via the Word of God can do so. Only faith grasping
that word can acknowledge the truth. And thus that word grasped by faith makes
the cross the power of God to salvation.
当然，在创世记第一章里所描述的创造是上帝一系列言语性的行动。重复的语句“上帝说……”，标注了被造界的不同部分并将其带入存在。上帝的话语并不仅仅是描述性的，它是强有力的、创造性的。诗篇33:6很好地总结道：“诸天藉耶和华的命而造，万象藉他口中的气而成。”
Creation
is, of course, described in Genesis 1 as a series of verbal actions by God.
“And God said….” is the repeated refrain which punctuates the account and
brings into existence various parts of the created realm. God’s word is not
simply a descriptive thing. It is a powerful, creative thing. Psalm 33:6
summarizes this well: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by
the breath of his mouth all their hosts.”
话语的这种超越性、创造性的力量正是路德所理解的语言本质的核心内容，正如他在《创世记讲座》著名的段落中所说的：
This
transcendent creative power of words lies at the heart of Luther’s
understanding of the nature of language, as he makes clear in a famous passage
in his Lectures on Genesis:
谁能设想这些显然不能继续存在于水中的活物被从水中带出来的可能性？但上帝只说了一句话，鸟儿就被立刻从水中带出来。只要上帝说话，所有的事情都是可能的，所以由水中可以造鱼也可以造鸟。因此，任何鸟类和任何鱼类，不过是神圣语言规则中的名词；通过这种语言规则，那些不可能的事情变得非常容易，而那些明显相反的事物却变得非常相似，反之亦然。[2]
Who
could conceive of the possibility of bringing forth from the water a being
which clearly could not continue to exist in water? But God speaks a mere Word,
and immediately the birds are brought forth from the water. If the Word is
spoken, all things are possible, so that out of the water are made either fish
or birds. Therefore any bird whatever and any fish whatever are nothing but
nouns in the divine rule of language; through this rule of language those
things that are impossible become very easy, while those that are clearly
opposite become very much alike, and vice versa.2
把被造物描述为“不过是神圣语言规则中的名词”，这句话令人赞叹不已，它阐明了路德的语言哲学的明确含义：言语构造了现实。正是上帝的话让海洋产生出飞鸟来，而就自然而言这是不可能的事。这是中世纪晚期的唯名论，它与后现代主义文学理论的某些方面有一定的相似之处，后者强调了词语的建构性。在某种程度上，我们都能感受到语言的创造性力量：使用种族性称谓被认为是令人讨厌的，因为这对被如此称呼的人产生了一些作用，这诋毁了他们，从而对他们的现实有负面的转化。语言是创造性的，这是我们本能地知道的，关于言论自由和政治正确性的激烈辩论就证明了这点。
The
phrase that describes creatures as “nothing but nouns in the divine rule of
language” is fascinating, drawing out the clear implications of Luther’s
linguistic philosophy: words constitute reality. It is God’s speech which makes
the sea produce birds, a natural impossibility. This is the late medieval
nominalism which we noted earlier and which bears some similarities to certain
aspects of postmodern literary theory which emphasizes the constructive nature
of words. To an extent we can all sense the creative power of language: the use
of a racial epithet is regarded as obnoxious because it does something to the
people to whom it is applied. It denigrates them and thus transforms reality
for them in a negative way. Language is creative and we instinctively know
that, as demonstrated by the heated debates over freedom of speech and
political correctness.
然而，路德这里对语言的理解，在一个非常重要的方面并不是和激进的后现代主义者一致的。对于路德来说，语言是创造性的，因为它是由上帝所说出的，并且上帝用这种言辞作为工具来决定现实实际的样子。上帝本身是不可知的，在他发言之前，人类不能对他可能做的或不做的事加以限制。但是，当他说话时，他的能力运用那言语创造事物，并且构建现实。这一现实具有一定的稳定性和确定性，正是因为这是掌管着所有事物的全权而全能的上帝的言语。相比之下，我可能会整天朝着大海尖叫呐喊，命令它献出鱼和鸟，但这不会起作用，因为我仅仅是一个被造物，而不是创造者。这位说话的、掌管万物的上帝，他的语言是创造性的。而从“上帝通过他的话语说话”转换到“传道人向会众传讲上帝的话语”，了解这一点是关键所在。
Yet
Luther’s understanding of language here is not that of radical postmodernists
in one very important way. For Luther, language is creative because it is
spoken by God and he uses this speech as the instrument for determining what
exactly reality is. He is in himself unknowable. Prior to his speaking human
beings cannot put a limit on what he may or may not do. But when he speaks, his
power uses that speech to bring things into being and to constitute reality.
That reality has a stability and a certainty to it precisely because it is the
speech of the sovereign and omnipotent God who rules over all things. By contrast, I might scream and shout at the
ocean all day long, commanding it to give forth fish and birds but it will not
happen because I am a mere creature and not creator. It is because it is God
who speaks, God who controls all things, that his language is creative. This is
a crucial point to understand when it comes to making the transition from God
speaking in his Word to the preacher speaking God’s word to the congregation.
关于上帝的言语，还有一个进一步的重要方面。上帝的言语创造和决定现实，但魔鬼的计谋却是要创造一个替代性的语言世界，它具有栩栩如生的现实外表，但从根本上讲却是虚假的。以下就是路德所描述的发生在伊甸园里的诱惑：
There
is also a further aspect to God’s speech which is important. As God’s speech
creates and determines reality, so the scheme of the Devil is to create an
alternative linguistic world which possesses a compelling appearance of reality
but which is ultimately false. Here is how Luther describes the temptation in
the Garden:
摩西非常谨慎地说：“蛇说”，也就是说，蛇用话语来攻击上帝的话语（the Word）。耶和华对亚当所说的话语是：“只是分别善恶树上的果子，你不可吃。”对于亚当而言，这话语就是福音和律法，这是他的敬拜，这是他纯洁无罪的状态下能够献给上帝的事奉和顺服。而撒但正是要攻击并试图摧毁这些。他的意图不只是——正如那些无知的人所以为的那样——指出那树的存在，并发出采摘它的果实的邀请。他确实指出了它的存在，但他随后又添加了另一个新的说明，就像他现在在教会里所做的那样。[3]
Moses
expresses himself very carefully and says: “The serpent said,” that is, with a
word it attacks the Word. The Word which the Lord had spoken to Adam was: “Do
not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” For Adam this Word
was Gospel and Law; it was his worship; it was his service and the obedience he
could offer God in this state of innocence. These Satan attacks and tries to
destroy. Nor is it only his intention, as those who lack knowledge think, to
point out the tree and issue an invitation to pick its fruit. He points it out
indeed; but then he adds another and a new statement, as he still does in the
church.3
这一点是了解什么是讲道以及讲道为何重要的关键点。蛇提出另一种替代性的话语，藉此来挑战上帝的话语。加尔文这样说道：“他想给女人注入疑惑，以引诱她相信那并非来自上帝的话，为此含糊其辞地给出一个似是而非的理由。”[4]
This
point will be critical in understanding what preaching is and why it is
important. The serpent is challenging God’s Word by presenting another,
alternative Word. Calvin puts it this way: “he wished to inject into the woman
a doubt which might induce her to believe that not to be the word of God, for
which a plausible reason did not manifestly appear.”4
蛇的诡计是语言性的：通过暗示另一种解释来破坏上帝所设定的现实。上帝和撒但之间的争战引发了语言的争战。
The
serpent’s game is a linguistic one: undermining how God had specified reality
to be by hinting at an alternative account. The struggle between God and Satan
then, begins a struggle over speech.
创世记的最初几章还指出了另一个关于言语的重要神学事实：把上帝与人类（而不是其他的被造物）联系在一起的，就是说话、沟通和用话语做事的能力。事实上，话语，特别是它的意涵、规则和主权，是上帝形像的一部分，而人类正是按这形像被造的。没有其他哪种被造物被赋予了语言的能力，没有任何其他被造物被赋予了随这一能力而来的使命。如此，上帝用他大能的话语创造了亚当并且给他命名。对亚当的命名标志着他（上帝）对这个人（亚当）的主权。然后他赋予亚当管理其他被造物的权柄，而他（亚当）给它们起名明确表明了这一点。创世记2:19-20说得很清楚：耶和华神将各种被造物带到亚当那里，叫他为它们起名。无论他给每个被造物取了什么名字，那就是它们的名字。亚当因此有责任带给上帝所造的被造物一定的秩序。因此，我们也可以说，相对于上帝的话语，在一种从属意义上，亚当的话语也是“创造性的”。人类的话语带有能力，可以用来规范并由此（在被造物的范围内）改变现实。
The
early chapters of Genesis also point to another significant theological fact
about speech: one of the things which connect God to human beings and to no
other creature is the ability to talk, to communicate and to do things with
words. Indeed, speech, particularly as it connotes rule and sovereignty, is
part of the image of God in which human beings are made. No other creature is
given the power of speech, and no other creature is given the mandate which
comes with that power. Thus, as God creates by the word of his power and names
Adam. This naming of Adam is the sign of his authority over the man. He then
gives to Adam authority over all other creatures, a point made clear by his
responsibility to name them. Genesis 2:19-20 makes this clear: the Lord brings
the creatures to Adam, that he might name them; and whatever name he gave to
each creature, that was its name. Adam is thus responsible for bringing a
certain element of order to the creation which God has made. We might thus say
that Adam’s speech too is “creative” in a subordinate manner to that of God
himself. Human words carry power and can be used to order and thus (within
creaturely limits) to change reality.
话语的这种创造性能力并不仅限于创世记前面的章节。在整本旧约中，上帝的话语一直是他行动的主要方式，并且不断地重塑现实或创造新的事物。他呼召亚伯拉罕，并赐他圣约的应许。他从燃烧着的荆棘中呼召摩西，又在西奈山上对摩西说话，赐给他律法。布林格意味深长地将这些称为“讲道”：
This creative power of
speech is not restricted to the early chapters of Genesis. Throughout the Old Testament, God’s speech
continues to be the primary mode of his action and continues to reshape reality
or to bring new things into being. He calls Abraham and gives him a
covenant promise. He calls to Moses from the burning bush. He speaks again to
Moses on Sinai and gives him the Law. Significantly, Heinrich Bullinger refers
to this as “preaching.”
在西奈山上，上帝亲自向以色列的会众讲道，讲述得如此直白，好让他们可以明白包含了所有敬虔之实质的十诫。[5]
In
the mount Sina [sic] the Lord himself preached to the great congregation of
Israel, rehearsing so plainly, that they might understand those ten
commandments, wherein is contained every point of godliness.5
通过使用这种讲道的语言，布林格指向他所看到的一个明确的类比，就是上帝在与他的子民相交过程中的行动，与上帝的仆人向上帝子民传讲上帝话语时的行动之间的类比。上帝通过他的话语来做事。他创造，他命令，他应许。他也通过他仆人宣讲他的话语来做事。因此，圣经中上帝也通过不同的先知说话：他给他们详细的文字，以对他的子民甚至是对其他国家说话，或者用他们的话来完成他自己的旨意。[6]对于了解改教后教会中恩典和讲道之间的联系，这是非常重要的：新约以及之后的后使徒时期的传道人是旧约先知的继承者，因为他们将上帝的话语带给上帝的子民以及周边世界。他们所宣讲的话语是上帝用来成就他旨意的途径，其力量因此来源于上帝的作为，而不是传道人的口才。
By
using this language of preaching, Bullinger points towards a clear analogy
which he sees between the act of God in addressing his people and that which
God’s servants do when they speak God’s words to his people. God does things
through his Word. He creates, he commands, he promises. And he does things
through his Word proclaimed by his servants. Thus, God in the Bible also speaks
through various prophets, giving them detailed words to say to his people or
even to foreign nations, or using their words to accomplish his own purposes.6
This is a very important for understanding the connection between grace and
preaching in the Reformation church: New Testament and then post-apostolic
preachers are the successors of the Old Testament prophets as they bring God’s
Word to bear upon God’s people and upon the world around. The word they
proclaim is the means God uses to accomplish his purposes. Its power is thus
rooted in divine action, not in the eloquence of the preacher.
其中一个明显的含义是，神圣的话语不仅仅是（甚至不可能主要是）关乎信息沟通。它是上帝的临在和能力的典型模式。话语是上帝临在的方式，或者，用一个更现代的表述，是他如何使他的临在被感觉到的方式。上帝的话语创造了宇宙，也创造了上帝的子民。上帝呼召亚伯兰，使他成为万国的父。遇见上帝就是上帝或者他所选择的代言人向其说话。犹太人的与众不同在于上帝以一种特殊的方式对他们说话，就是通过他的盟约应许向他们说话。他的统治是借助和通过他的话语来实施的。犹太人是拥有上帝的律法和应许的人，它们是上帝对他们施行恩典的管道。
One
obvious implication of this is that divine speech is not simply, or perhaps
even primarily, a matter of communicating information. It is the typical mode
of his presence and power. Speech is how God is present or, to use a more
modern idiom, how he makes his presence felt. God’s speech created the universe
and it also created the people of God. God called Abram and made him the father
of all nations. To meet God is to be addressed by him or by his chosen
speakers. The Jews were special because God spoke to them in a special way, by
means of his covenant promises. His rule was exercised by and through his Word.
The Jews were those who had God’s Law and his promises. These were the means by
which God was gracious to them.
上帝通过话语而临在并不限于在犹太人中间。当上帝对外邦人讲话时，他也临在于他们中间，无论是在一般性情况下，比如对巴比伦的审判，还是出于怜悯，比如像乃缦这样的特殊情况，他使用并且通过他的话语对他们行使他的主权。当上帝不再说话，这就是他从他的百姓那里收回他的恩惠的记号。因此，阿摩司预言上帝话语的缺乏会导致人们在地上流荡，四处寻求上帝，却徒然而返。沉默的上帝就是“不在场”的上帝。
This presence of God by
speech is not restricted to the Jews. When God addressed the Gentiles, he was
present to them also, whether in general matters, such as the judgment against
Babylon or in mercy, as in the particular case of Naaman. His
sovereignty over them was also exercised in and through his Word. When God
ceased to speak, it was a sign that he had withdrawn his favor from his people.
Thus Amos predicts a famine of the Word of God which will cause the people to
wander over the face of the earth seeking God but doing so in vain. A silent
God was an absent God.
当我们进入新约时，看到其中上帝话语的力量继续被强调。在耶稣接受洗礼时，圣父让圣灵以鸽子的形式降临在他身上，公开地承认他的儿子。事实很明显：现在上帝在基督里与他的百姓同在，而这一临在是通过话语被显明出来的。在基督里显明出来的恩典，是通过口头宣告为开端的。之后，当基督在旷野中面对魔鬼的试探时，他所选择的武器就是上帝的话语，话语是支撑基督的武器。当魔鬼故伎重演，像在伊甸园里那样歪曲上帝的话语，基督娴熟地运用上帝的话语，赶跑了他的敌人。之后，福音书里有许多例子，基督运用言语赶鬼，医治病人，甚至让死人复活。他大能的作为并不都是语言性的（例如医治患血漏病的女人），但大多数时候是的。通过话语这一途径，基督展现他的主权，并把恩典带进个人的生命之中。
When
we move to the New Testament, the power of the speech of God continues to be
emphasized. At Jesus’ baptism, the Father publicly recognized his Son by
speech, as the Holy Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove. The point
is clear: God in Christ is now present with his people, a presence signified by
the Word. The economy of grace which is manifested in Christ is inaugurated by
a verbal declaration. Then, when Christ is confronted with the Devil’s
temptations in the wilderness, his weapon of choice is the Word of God. The
Word is the means by which Christ is upheld. As the Devil does what he did in
the Garden, that is, pervert the Word, so Christ aptly applies it and puts his
enemy to flight. Then there are the many examples throughout the gospels of
Christ’s speech casting out demons, healing the sick and even raising the dead.
Not all his acts of power are linguistic (for example, the healing of the woman
with the flow of blood) but most are. The Word was the means by which Christ
demonstrated his sovereignty and brought grace to bear in the lives of
individuals.
这种话语导向的显明上帝临在和大能的途径，在耶稣升天后的使徒教会中继续。讲道是使徒行传的叙述核心，也是在保罗新约书信中，上帝恩典的目标实际得以实现的核心。改教家们看到，正是通过话语的宣告，使徒们扩展上帝的国度。预言性的话语是拆毁幻想、建立现实的话语。因此，传道人站在当代的属灵争战的中心，既是为了审判，也是为了恩典。
This
Word-oriented means of God’s presence and power continued into the
post-ascension apostolic church. Preaching is central to the narrative of the
Book of Acts and lies at the heart of the practical realization of God’s
gracious purposes in Paul’s New Testament letters. It was by means of verbal
declaration that the Reformers saw the apostles expanding the kingdom. The
prophetic Word was a word which tore down illusions and built up realities.
Thus, the preacher stood at the very center of the spiritual struggle of the
present age, both for judgment and for grace.
被传讲的话语和上帝的恩典
The Word Preached and the Grace of God
毫不奇怪，改教家们认为他们自己是持守圣经立场的，即强调上帝的话语是他施行审判和恩典的作为的途径。因此，在宗教改革中，讲道就是力量，讲道的职分是教会内最重要的一个职分。所有权威的改教家们都是传道人，讲台是他们职业生涯的中心。他们的各种改革都是围绕着宣讲话语，并被它所驱动。
It
is not surprising that the Reformers saw themselves a standing in continuity
with this biblical emphasis on God’s Words as his means of action, both for
judgment and for grace. Thus, in the Reformation, preaching was power and the
preaching office was the most significant one within the church. All of the
major Reformers were preachers, with the pulpit being the center of their
professional lives.
这明显具有文化因素：在一个文化水平很低的年代，许多人常常是通过传道人来了解周围世界。因此，路德的讲道经常会以一个附录结束，它和讲道的主要内容没有什么联系，主要是对时事的某些评论。[7]讲道的这种政治意义有助于人们理解，为什么英国在16和17世纪一直试图规范这种做法，甚至在16世纪30年代试图完全压制它。
Their
various reformations were all centered on and driven by the proclamation of the
Word. There were obvious cultural aspects to this: in an age of low literacy,
the preacher was often the person through whom many people obtained their
understanding of the world around. Thus, Luther’s sermons often ended with an
appendix, not connected to the main exposition which offered commentary on some
aspect of current affairs.7 This political significance of preaching helps to
explain the constant attempts in England to regulate the practice in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and even to suppress it entirely at points
in the 1630s.
然而，讲道在文化方面的力量显然只是其中一小部分内容，并且不是改教家们特别感兴趣的事情。对他们来说，我们在上面提到的关于话语的圣经神学才是其驱动因素。上帝讲道，因此他的仆人必须讲道。传道人拥有能力，是因为他们的言语以某种方式与道相关联，并且因此是上帝在这个世界上完成他旨意的途径。确实，宗教改革的传道人在某些方面把自己看做是圣经中的伟大先知的继承者。这经常反映在他们对讲道工作所用的称谓上。在宗教改革时期的苏黎世和后来在伦敦举行的牧者大会被称为“预言”，因为在那里他们会听到彼此如何传讲上帝之道，并且相互批评和鼓励。威廉•帕金斯（William Perkins）关于如何讲道的经典文章就以“预言的艺术”为题。传道人不只是讲师或老师。他的任务不仅仅是描述性的。他的任务不亚于预言：他宣讲上帝的话语，是要推翻人类对世界的虚构和幻想，取而代之的是建造现实，就是按照上帝通过他权能的话语所宣告的现实。正如《第二瑞士信条》所宣称的那样，被传讲的上帝话语就是上帝的话语。
Yet
the cultural power of preaching is clearly only a small part of the story and
not one which would have interested the Reformers to any significant degree.
For them, the biblical theology of the Word which we have noted above was the
driving factor. God’s preached and so his servants must preach. Preachers had
power because their words connected in some way to the Word and were thus the
means of God accomplishing his purposes in this world. Indeed, Reformation
preachers saw themselves as the successors in some ways of the great prophets
of scripture. This is reflected often in the language they applied to the
preaching task. The gatherings of ministers in Reformation Zurich and later in
London, where they would hear each other proclaim the Word and offer critique
and encouragement, were known as “prophesyings.” William Perkins classic text
on how to preach was entitled The Arte of Prophesying. The preacher was not
merely a lecturer or teacher. His task was not simply descriptive. His task was
no less than prophetic: in proclaiming the Word of God he was to tear down
human inventions and illusions about the world and to build in their place
reality as God had declared it to be through the Word of his power. As the
Second Helvetic Confession declared, the Word of God preached is the Word of
God.
路德在1522年提供了一个展示对上帝话语的信心的很好例子。当时，他从瓦特堡回到维腾堡，以便恢复这个小镇的秩序，因为在那里的宗教改革运动已经落到了激进的废除偶像者操控之下，正迅速陷入到混乱当中。在当局要求恢复秩序的压力下，路德做了他所知道的能够改变现状的那一件事：他讲道。在这一系列讲道中，他提出了关于上帝话语的最著名的评论之一：
A
good example of such confidence in the Word is provided by Luther in 1522. This
was the moment when he returned to Wittenberg from his time at the Wartburg
Castle in order to bring order back to a town whose Reformation had fallen
under the sway of radical iconoclasts and was quickly descending into chaos.
Under pressure from the authorities to restore order, Luther did the one thing
he knew would have power to transform the situation: he preached. And during
this series of sermons, he made one of his most famous comments about the Word
of God:
我会传讲它，教导它，为此著书立传，但我不会强行约束任何人，因为信心必须自由生发，不受任何强迫。以我自己为例，我反对赎罪卷和所有教皇制度的信奉者，但我从不强制别人。我只是教导、讲道、撰写上帝的话语；其他我什么都没做。而当我睡觉时（参见可4:26-29），或者与我的朋友菲利普和阿姆斯多夫一起喝维腾堡啤酒时，上帝的话语大大地削弱了教皇权柄，而从来没有哪位国王或皇帝曾经给它造成过这样大的损失。我什么也没做；上帝的话语成就了一切。[8]
I will preach it, teach it,
write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely
without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and
all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote
God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or
drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly
weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon
it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.8
路德的语言通常充满大量的修辞，但其内容反映了他的神学：改教首先是被宣告的道（话语）的运动，因为这正是上帝达到他的恩典目的的方式。只要路德传讲这道，他就可以确信，上帝会用它来破除人的骄傲，并以恩典把罪人带到基督那里。
The
rhetoric is typical of Luther’s exuberance yet the content reflected his
theology: the Reformation was above all a movement of the proclaimed Word
because that was how God achieved his gracious purposes. As long as Luther
preached that Word, he could be confident that God would use it to tear down
human pride and bring sinners by grace to Christ.
讲道与成文的道
Preaching and the Word Written
鉴于此，权威问题（从未远离宗教改革的现场）现在变得尖锐起来。如果说讲道是上帝实现其目的的主要途径，那么什么是衡量后使徒时期讲道的权威性规范标准呢？我们多次注意到，宗教改革涉及对中世纪教会圣礼中心论的恩典观的根本性批判，这一事实意味着，这也是对中世纪对教会和权威的理解的基本批判。鉴于此，这种讲道的内容就需要被关注。如果上帝的话语是恩典的主要途径，那么传讲上帝话语是否只是圣灵所激发的自发或狂热行为，还是某种需要被管理和规范的行为？
Given
this, the question of authority—never far from the surface in the
Reformation—now becomes acute. If preaching is God’s primary means of
accomplishing his purposes, what are the authoritative norms for post-apostolic
preaching? We have noted a number of times that the fact that the Reformation
involved a fundamental critique of the medieval church’s sacramentally centered
view of grace meant that it was also a basic critique of medieval
understandings of church and authority. Given this, the question of the content
of this preaching comes to the fore. If the Word is the primary means of grace,
is preaching the word simply a spontaneous or ecstatic thing prompted by the
Holy Spirit or is it regulated and normed in some way?
在回答这个问题时，首先要注意的是，讲道实践的内容是被两种理解所塑造：即对恩典的理解（上帝自由地给人恩惠）以及对称义的理解（上帝的义借着对上帝应许的信心被给予相信他的人）。那拯救含有应许性的内容，它要求讲道也必须含有特定的内容。一个应许，或者任何应许都需要有内容：被应许的事情和做出应许的那位。它也设定某些事情，比如应许者的基本正直性（integrity），即他能够、愿意并且会履行他的应许。
The
first thing to note in answering this is that the practical content of
preaching is shaped both by the understanding of grace—God’s freely bestowed
favor—and of justification—God’s righteousness given to the believer via the
instrumentality of faith in God’s promise. That salvation has a promissory
content demands that preaching must have a specific content too. A promise, any
promise, requires content: a thing promised and one who promises. It also
assumes certain things, such as the promiser’s basic integrity—that he is able,
desires and will deliver on the promise.
因此，讲道必须强调应许以及上帝这位应许者的品质。这就意味着谈论人的罪以及上帝的回应——即基督所体现出来的恩典。因此，讲道就是传讲基督，而基督也不是个无内涵的咒语，任何内容都可以倒入其中。而这指引传道人回到圣经，把它当作权威来规范讲道中的所有陈述。讲道要成为真正的讲道，它必须表达圣经的教导，那样它才带有上帝的能力。
Thus,
preaching must highlight the promise and the character of the God who makes the
promise. That means talking about human sin and the grace that is embodied in
Christ which is the divine response. Thus, to preach is to preach Christ, and
Christ is no empty cypher into which any content can be poured. And that points
the preacher back to scripture as the norming authority of all statements made
in sermons. For a sermon to be true preaching, it must express the teaching of
the Bible. Then it comes with divine power.
虽然路德不是宗教改革运动中最伟大的释经家，但是他因信透过恩典而称义的神学，在许多方面为宗教改革的讲道设定了基本的标准。对照律法和福音而摧毁自义并产生在基督里的信心，是基督徒生活的基础，也是讲道内容的基础。正如传道人要将要理问答和敬拜仪式从律法转移到福音，他在讲道中也应如此。恩典的模式要从讲台发出的讲道中被反映出来——事实上，被颁布出来。每篇讲道都应是人类境况以及上帝的恩典性回应的一个缩影。传道人必须首先宣讲律法，然后宣讲在基督里的应许。[9]这内容完全是由上帝的存在和作为来规范的——就是上帝在整个历史中的伟大作为，他圣经的话语，他儿子的道成肉身、生、死和复活所揭示出来的。必须教导这两者，否则就会出现问题，不是绝望就是放肆。[10]
In
many ways, while Luther was not the greatest exegete of the Reformation, his
theology of justification by grace through faith set the basic criteria for
Reformation preaching. The antithesis of Law and Gospel as destroying
self-righteousness and creating faith in Christ was foundational to the
Christian life and foundational to the content of preaching. As his Catechisms
and his liturgies move from Law to Gospel, so the preacher was to do this in
his sermons. The pattern of the economy of grace was to be reflected, indeed,
enacted, in the preaching which came from the pulpit. Each sermon was to be a
microcosm of the human condition and the divine, gracious response. The
preacher must first declare the Law and then declare the promise in Christ.9
This is content regulated entirely by the being and action of God as revealed
in his great deeds throughout history, the words of his scriptures and the
incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of his Son. Both must be taught or
else problems ensue, either despair or presumption.10
讲道是由圣经所规范的这种理解，是改教家们对于后使徒时期事工，以及对旧约先知事工的理解的另一个连接点。事实上，（旧约先知）是后使徒时期传道人的先例模式。加尔文自己对摩西和旧约先知的描述，也可以同样适用于当代传道人：
This
understanding of preaching as regulated by scripture was another point of
contact between the Reformers’s understanding of post-apostolic ministry and
that of the Old Testament prophets. Indeed, the precedential model for the
post-apostolic preacher. Calvin himself describes Moses and the Old Testament
prophets in terms that might equally apply to contemporary preachers:
先是颁布了律法，后来派遣了先知作为律法的解释者。虽然律法的运用是多方面的，但分派给摩西和所有先知的特别职分是教导上帝与人之间和好的方法。[11]
[T]he
law was promulgated, and prophets were afterwards added to be its interpreters.
For though the uses of the law were manifold, and the special office assigned
to Moses and all the prophets was to teach the method of reconciliation between
God and man.11
加尔文使用“和好”一词，与保罗在哥林多后书第五章中对自己的使徒事工的描述（也暗示了那些追随他脚步的人的事工）相互呼应。后使徒时期的讲道应当像圣经时代的讲道一样：阐释上帝所启示的真理。当然，圣经记载的传道人所说的话，由于它们的经典地位，具有特殊的权威。但是，对于后使徒时期的传道人来说，一篇扎实的讲道，其原则——对上帝启示的阐释和应用——仍然是一样的。
Calvin’s
use of the term ministry of reconciliation resonates with Paul’s
characterization of his own apostolic ministry (and, by implication, that of
those who follow in his footsteps) in 1 Corinthians 6. Post-apostolic preaching
was to be like the preaching of biblical times: an exposition of God’s revealed
truth. Of course, the words of the preachers recorded in the Bible possessed a
peculiar authority by virtue of their canonical status. But the principle of a
sound sermon—the exegesis and application of divine revelation—remained the
same for post-apostolic preachers.
布林格对此如此表示：
Bullinger expresses the
matter thus:
但是我们读到，在世界万物被创造的开始，耶和华就使用这种普通的手段。他要赐一些人知识和信心，就派遣教师给他们，藉着上帝的话向他们传讲真正的信心。不是人的能力、意志或事工给人带来信心，也不是因为人口所说出来的话语本身能够带给人信心，而是因为人的声音以及传讲上帝的话语，确实教导了我们什么是真信心，以及上帝的确愿意和要求我们相信。因为唯独上帝自己，透过差派圣灵进入人的心灵和头脑，打开我们的心，使我们的头脑信服，促使我们全心全意地相信那些，我们通过他的话语和教导要我们学习去相信的。主完全可以借助来自天上的神迹，不借助任何讲道，就把对基督的信心赐给了凯撒利亚的百夫长哥尼流；但他却借着一位天使，差遣他去听彼得讲道，而当彼得讲道的时候，上帝借着他的圣灵在哥尼流的心中作工，使他相信彼得所传的道。[12]
But
we read, that the Lord hath used this ordinary means even from the first
creation of all things. Whom he meaneth to bestow knowledge and faith on, to
them he sendeth teachers, by the word of God to preach true faith unto them.
Not because it lieth in man’s power, will, or ministry, to give faith; nor
because the outward word spoken by man’s mouth is able of itself to bring
faith: but the voice of man, and the preaching of God’s word, do teach us what
true faith is, or what God doth will and command us to believe. For God himself
alone, by sending his Holy Spirit into the hearts and minds of men, doth open
our hearts, persuade our minds, and cause us with all our heart to believe that
which we by his word and teaching have learned to believe. The Lord could by
miracle from heaven, without any preaching at all, have bestowed faith in
Christ upon Cornelius the Centurion at Cesaria: but yet by an angel he doth
send him to the preaching of Peter; and while Peter preacheth, God by his Holy
Spirit worketh in the heart of Cornelius, causing him to believe his
preaching.12
布林格在这里清楚地表明，信心是讲道的结果。这不仅仅是因为讲道阐述了人类心智能够把握并相信的应许。更确切地说，讲道本身就是圣灵所使用用来创造这种信心的工具；或许，我们也可以加上使人的心刚硬的功用，比如法老的例子。
Here
Bullinger makes it clear that faith is the product of preaching. This is not
simply in the sense that preaching sets forth the promise that the human mind
can then grasp and trust. Rather the preaching itself is an instrument used by
the Holy Spirit as the means for creating this faith or, we might perhaps add
in the case of, say, Pharaoh, of hardening the heart.
事实上，在《论意志的捆绑》（The Bondage of the Will）中，关于法老的心变硬的这个圣经记载，是路德用了较长的篇幅来分析的经文之一，因为伊拉斯谟在他的《论自由意志》中使用了这个记载。在圣经叙述中存在着“法老使自己的心刚硬”到“上帝使法老的心刚硬”的转换，路德对这个问题的解答专注在被宣讲的话语的作用上。像所有未悔改重生的人一样，法老被罪恶所束缚。当上帝的话语临到，但主没有选择让圣灵用话语去释放他的时候，他的心就越来越刚硬，他也在邪恶中愈加难以自拔。这是因为，上帝的话语不是事实的堆砌，它对人们提出道德上的要求。它谴责他们的不义，并向他们指明基督的丰盛（all-sufficiency），而他的恩典本身揭示了人类的不足（insufficiency）。因此，法老的心既被主借着话语变刚硬了，同时法老也选择了让自己的心变硬，因为他没有借着信心回应上帝。[13]
Indeed, in The Bondage of
the Will, the case of Pharaoh’s hardening is one of the biblical passages to
which Luther had to respond at some length because of the use made by it of
Erasmus in his Diatribe. Luther’s resolution of the problems of both
the shift in narrative from Pharaoh hardening his own heart to it being
hardened by God focuses on the role of the proclaimed Word. Pharaoh is, like
all unregenerate people, in bondage to sin. When God’s Word comes from outside
and the Lord chooses not to have the Spirit use that Word to liberate him, he
grows harder and more implacable in his wickedness. This is because God’s Word
is not simply a collection of facts. It makes moral demands upon people. It
condemns their unrighteousness and points them towards the all-sufficiency of
Christ whose grace in itself is also a reminder of human insufficiency. Thus,
Pharaoh is both hardened by the Lord via the Word and yet chooses to be harden
himself by not responding in faith to that which is presented to him.13
当然，在这背后的事实是，恩典是基于预定的神圣命定。因此传讲上帝话语就成为及时揭示拣选和实现拣选的途径。这就是加尔文在《基督教要义》第三卷中所做的反思的要点——为什么传讲福音对所有听到的人并没有显示出相同的拯救力量：
Behind
this, of course, stands the fact that grace rests upon the divine decree of
predestination. Preaching the Word thus becomes the means by which election is
realized and revealed in time. This is the point Calvin makes in Book 3 of the
Institutes when he reflects upon why the preaching of the Gospel does not seem
to have the same saving power amongst all those who hear it:
实际上，生命之约并不是相同地传讲给所有的人的，且听到这信息的人也不都同样地接受，而这些不同彰显了神圣判断的深不可测，这无疑附属于上帝永恒拣选的目的。[14]
The
covenant of life is not preached equally to all, and among those to whom it is
preached, does not always meet with the same reception. This diversity displays
the unsearchable depth of the divine judgment, and is without doubt subordinate
to God’s purpose of eternal election.14
换句话说，讲道不仅仅是涉及如何描述事物，讲道是带有能力的。它是上帝为他的子民实现他恩典目的的途径。它本身就是一种属灵层面建设性的实践行为；它面向一个人，被上帝用来通过圣灵更新这个人，或者使他在罪中变为刚硬。一个人不可能听到上帝的话语却无动于衷，因为上帝的话语是上帝实现他恩典和审判这两个目的的途径。上帝的话语是起初上帝藉圣灵创造世界的工具，所以，他的话语在他的国度扩张的过程中仍是藉圣灵进行再创造的工具。
In
other words, preaching is not simply a question of describing something;
preaching is powerful. It is God’s means of bringing into reality his gracious
purposes for his people. It is itself a spiritually constructive exercise which
confronts the individual and is used by God to transform him through the Holy
Spirit or to harden him in his sin. One cannot hear the Word of God and be left
indifferent to it, for the Word of God is the means by which God works out his
purposes, both of grace and of judgment. As God’s Word was God’s instrument for
creation by the Spirit in the beginning, so his Word remains his instrument for
recreation by the Spirit in the ongoing extension of his kingdom.
圣言和圣灵
Word and Spirit
宗教改革中，话语（圣言）与圣灵之间的这种联系对于区分主流更正教与其他激进的运动是至关重要的。事实上，在宗教改革初期，出现了比路德甚至慈运理更为激进的声音，他们不仅对传统天主教会提出了挑战，而且也给权威的改教家们带来了挑战。因此，在1521-1522年间，在路德藏身瓦特堡而不在维腾堡的时候，维腾堡的领导层欢迎所谓的茨维考（Zwickau）[15]先知的到来。这三个人代表了在整个宗教改革中持续存在的一种神学倾向，甚至在今天的教会里我们也能找到它的翻版。他们所做的，是将圣灵和圣言完全分离开来，或者至少是和成文的圣经分离开来，其结果是混乱。实际上，这种立场使得教会领导权被那些最有魅力和最有影响力的人所控制，他们传递的信念是：他们的计划就是上帝自己的计划。
This
connection between Word and Spirit is crucial in the Reformation for dividing
magisterial Protestantism from more radical movements. Indeed, early on in the Reformation,
more radical voices than those of Luther or even Zwingli emerged which posed a
challenge not simply to traditional Catholicism but also to the magisterial
Reformers themselves. Thus, in 1521-22, during Luther’s absence while he
sojourned at the Wartburg, the Wittenberg leadership welcomed the arrival of
the so-called Zwickau prophets to the town. These three men were representative
of a theological tendency which was to continue throughout the Reformation and
indeed finds counterparts even in the church today. What they did was offer a
radical separation of Spirit from Word, or at least from the written word of
scripture. The result was chaos. In effect, this position cedes church
leadership to the most charismatic and forceful personalities who convey the
conviction that their plans are those of God himself.
对于路德来说，在1521-1522年间，他以前的朋友，同时也是宗教改革的战友，安德烈亚斯•博登斯坦•冯•卡尔斯塔特（Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt），就是一个主要的例子。卡尔施塔特声称，他在圣言之外被圣灵所引导，发展到一个更具活力的、在社会和政治实践上更激进的宗教改革版本。卡尔斯塔特曾经与路德并肩作战，但此时他已经受到别人的影响。路德这样谴责他前任同事的神学：
For Luther, the prime
example of this in 1521-22 was his former friend and co-belligerent in the
Reformation, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt.
Karlstadt
claimed to be led by the Spirit beyond the Word to a more dynamic and, in
practice, socially and politically radical version of the Reformation.
Karlstadt had once stood shoulder to shoulder with Luther but by this time he
had come under the influence of others. Here is Luther’s denunciation of his
former colleague’s theology:
但是，如果你问一个人如何获得这种崇高的灵，他们不会把你引向外在的福音，而是引向某个想象的领域说：保持在我现在的“自我抽离”的状态，你将会有相同的经验。天上的声音会降临，上帝自己也会对你说话。如果你进一步询问这个“自我抽离”的性质，你会发现他们知道的，就像卡尔斯塔特博士所知道的希腊文和希伯来文一样多。你看到了魔鬼，敌对上帝的命令的人吗？他用他所说的“灵，灵，灵”这个词，把桥梁、途径、道路、梯子，以及圣灵临到你们的一切方式都拆毁了。他想要教导你的，不是上帝在洗礼的物质标志中的外在秩序和上帝圣言的口头宣告，不是圣灵怎样临到你，而是你如何接近圣灵。他们要你学习如何在云端行走和御风而行。他们不告诉你如何、何时、何地、是什么，而是要你体验他们所体验的。[16]
But
should you ask how one gains access to this same lofty spirit they do not refer
you to the outward gospel but to some imaginary realm, saying: Remain in “self
abstraction” where I now am and you will have the same experience. A heavenly
voice will come, and God himself will speak to you. If you inquire further as
to the nature of this “self abstraction,” you will find that they know as much
about it as Dr. Karlstadt knows of Greek and Hebrew. Do you not see here the
devil, the enemy of God’s order? With all his mouthing of the words, “Spirit,
Spirit, Spirit,” he tears down the bridge, the path, the way, the ladder, and
all the means by which the Spirit might come to you. Instead of the outward
order of God in the material sign of baptism and the oral proclamation of the
Word of God he wants to teach you, not how the Spirit comes to you but how you
come to the Spirit. They would have you learn how to journey on the clouds and
ride on the wind. They do not tell you how or when, whither or what, but you
are to experience what they do.15
问题显而易见：这种脱离了圣言、声称被圣灵直接感动的宣告，最终拒绝了任何批评，因为他们只承认某种主观的、神秘的权威。这种讲道，不受圣言的控制，只受传道人的品味和奇思异想的左右。
The
problem was clear: claims to such direct inspiration from the Spirit, separate
from the Word, were ultimately immune from criticism through their
acknowledgment only of some kind of subjective, mystical authority. This
preaching was preaching unregulated by the Word and subject only to the tastes
and whims of the preacher.
相比之下，路德以及事实上所有其他权威的改教家们都关注保持圣言和圣灵的联合，这样，声称后者不能不涉及对前者的向外宣告，并且圣礼本身就与圣言紧密联系在一起。同样值得注意的是，路德在上面的段落谈论这种强调圣灵所隐含的神学方向：如果将圣言和圣灵脱离开来，基督教就会变成了一种对上帝的追求，就是人试图抓上帝的一种功德。而将圣灵与圣言联系在一起，就使圣灵成为中介，使恩典和基督教信仰能抓住罪人。激进的灵性主义者（spiritualist）具有某种形式的善功的义。而那些将圣言视为是上帝通过圣灵使用的管道的人却知道这是出于恩典。
By contrast, Luther and indeed all the other
magisterial Reformers were concerned to keep together both Word and Spirit,
such that claims to the latter which did not involve the outward proclamation
of the former, and the sacraments which were themselves tied to the Word. It is
also worth noting the theological direction which Luther speaks of such a
Spirit emphasis implying in the passage above. Detaching Spirit from Word turns
Christianity into a quest for God, a work in which man engages in trying to
reach out to the Divine. Tying Spirit to Word makes the Spirit the agent of
grace and Christianity into something which seizes hold of the sinner. The
spiritualist radicals have a form of works righteousness. Those who see the
Word as the instrument of God through the Spirit know that this is of grace.
加尔文也同样强调圣言和圣灵的不可分离性：
Calvin
is similarly emphatic on inseparability of Word and Spirit:
那些拒绝圣经的人，想象他们有一种奇特的方式看透上帝，如此被错谬影响只能视其为疯狂。最近出现了某些忘乎所以的人，他们虽然大展圣灵的优越，却拒绝一切圣经的阅读，并且嘲笑那些只喜欢他们所谓的僵死的和冰冷的文字的人的纯朴。但是，我希望他们能告诉我，给他们灵感的是什么样的灵，使他们升到了如此极端的高度，以至于他们竟敢鄙视圣经的教义，认为是破旧和幼稚的。如果他们回答说这是基督的灵，那他们的信心是非常可笑的；因为他们会承认（我猜想）初代教会中的使徒和其他信徒不是被任何其他的灵所光照，而这些人都没有学到藐视上帝的话，而是每一个人都充满了对它的崇敬，因为他们的著作最清楚地证明了这一点。[17]
Those
who, rejecting Scripture, imagine that they have some peculiar way of
penetrating to God, are to be deemed not so much under the influence of error
as madness. For certain giddy men have lately appeared, who, while they make a
great display of the superiority of the Spirit, reject all reading of the
Scriptures themselves, and deride the simplicity of those who only delight in
what they call the dead and deadly letter. But I wish they would tell me what
spirit it is whose inspiration raises them to such a sublime height that they
dare despise the doctrine of Scripture as mean and childish. If they answer
that it is the Spirit of Christ, their confidence is exceedingly ridiculous;
since they will, I presume, admit that the apostles and other believers in the
primitive Church were not illuminated by any other Spirit. None of these
thereby learned to despise the word of God, but every one was imbued with
greater reverence for it, as their writings most clearly testify.16
因此，权威的改教家们强调需要把圣言与圣灵联系在一起。它们不能分开，更不要说让两者相互对立。分离它们只会导致主观性和混乱的噩梦。因此，圣经被确立为公开宣讲上帝话语的规范性标准。讲道的内容应当是圣经的内容，因此也受到后者的规范。这样，圣灵就会使用讲道把上帝的恩典带给那些听到的人。
Thus,
the magisterial Reformers emphasized the need to tie together both the Word and
the Spirit. They could not be separated, let alone set in some kind of
opposition to each other. To separate them would lead simply to a nightmare of
subjectivity and chaos. As a result, scripture was set forth as the normative
criterion for the public proclamation of God’s Word. The content of preaching
was to be the content of scripture and thus regulated by the same. Then this
would be used by the Holy Spirit to bring God’s grace to bear upon those who
heard.
因此，由圣经所规范的讲道不是僵死的文字。正如加尔文在上述引文之后的第三段话中，就哥林多后书3:8说道：“圣灵如此坚守自己的真理，正如他在圣经中所表明的那样，只有话语得到应有的尊敬和尊重时，他才会施加和发挥他的能力。”[18] 因此，按照圣经忠实地讲道就带来圣灵，这也是圣灵运行以施行其大能作为的途径。
Thus,
preaching regulated by scripture was no dead letter. As Calvin says just two
paragraphs after the above quotation, commenting on 2 Corinthians 3:8, “the
Holy Spirit so cleaves to his own truth, as he has expressed it in Scripture,
that he then only exerts and puts forth his strength when the word is received
with due honour and respect.”17 Thus,
faithful preaching of the Word in accordance with scripture brings the Spirit
to bear and is the means by which the Spirit works in order to do his deeds of
power.
这一点很重要，因为它有助于加强前面提到的事实，即对于改教家来说，讲道不是简单的信息交流。这是恩典的一种途径，一种真正的途径。事实上，这是恩典的根本途径，因为它弥补了圣经古老经文与会众之间的鸿沟，使基督的应许成为当下的现实。被传讲的上帝话语因此就是对抗性的（confrontational）、创造性的和转化性的，并且这与讲道者和他所传讲的经文，以及把他的言语转换成为上帝的言语的圣灵之间的关联有关。当然，对于路德来说，上帝的恩典只是在主耶稣基督的道成肉身中被显现出来，因此一切的讲道都必须最终把基督带给会众。基督是在圣经中所展开的上帝恩典目的的体现和实现。要将基督传讲出来，就要解释圣经是如何谈论他的。这就意味着讲道者必须用圣经记载的关于基督的事实来规范自己的宣告，而且也要接受其中所表达的诫命和应许的规范，它们清楚地说明了福音信息所指明的个体存在性危机。正如路德在《论基督徒的自由》中所说：
This is important because it
helps reinforce the fact noted above, that preaching is not, for the Reformers,
simply a matter of the communication of information. It is a means, a real
means, of grace. Indeed, it is the principle means of grace because it bridges
the gap between the ancient text of scripture and the congregation, bringing
the promise of Christ to a present reality. God’s Word preached is thus
confrontational, creative and transformative, and this is linked to the
connection between the preacher and the text he preaches and the Spirit which
takes his words and makes them the words of God. For Luther, of course, God’s
grace is only manifest in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and thus all
preaching must ultimately bring Christ to bear upon the congregation. Christ is
the very embodiment and fulfillment of God’s gracious purposes as set forth in
the Bible. To speak meaningfully about Christ is to explicate what the Bible
says about him. That means that the preacher has to regulate his declarations
by the facts set forth about Christ in scripture but also by the commands and
the promises expressed therein which drive home the personal existential
urgency of the gospel message. As Luther declares in The Freedom of the
Christian Man:
基督徒把基督的工作、生活和话语只作为历史事实来传讲，就好像这些知识足以维持生命一样，这是不够的；但这在今天的时尚里被视为我们最好的传道人所必须的。远远不止这样，甚至基督徒一点都不谈论基督，而是教导人的律法和教父的法令。现在有不少传讲基督及宣读关于基督的信息的人，他们可以将人的感情转移到对基督的同情，对犹太人的愤怒，以及那些幼稚和暧昧的废话。相反，应该宣讲基督，直到对他的信心得以确立，使他不但可以成为救主，而且可以成为你和我的救主，并且使那些关于他的以及以他的名义所说的能够对我们产生果效。这样的信心是通过传讲基督而产生和持续的，即传讲他为何降世、他所带来和赐予了什么，以及我们接受他有什么益处。[19]
[I]t
is not enough or in any sense Christian to preach the works, life, and words of
Christ as historical facts, as if the knowledge of these would suffice for the
conduct of life; yet this is the fashion among those who must today be regarded
as our best preachers. Far less is it sufficient or Christian to say nothing at
all about Christ and to teach instead the laws of men and the decrees of the
fathers. Now there are not a few who preach Christ and read about him that they
may move men’s affections to sympathy with Christ, to anger against the Jews,
and such childish and effeminate nonsense. Rather ought Christ to be preached
to the end that faith in him may be established that he may not only be Christ,
but be Christ for you and me, and that what is said of him and is denoted in
his name may be effectual in us. Such faith is produced and preserved in us by
preaching why Christ came, what he brought and bestowed, what benefit it is to
us to accept him.18
这是对传道人的强烈呼吁。讲道的目的当然不是告诉人们该如何过他们的生活，如何处理危机，或发挥他们的全部可能的潜力。它也不是简单地向他们描述基督，概述他做了些什么。它也不是通过触动人的情绪来激发人们对他的温暖而模糊的情感。基督的故事当然是能够激发强烈情感的故事，但这不是它的真正意义所在。基督不应该是一个鼓舞人心或感动人心的榜样。他是上帝的恩典的彰显，从世界之外进入，为充满罪恶并迷失的人带来救赎。因此，传道人的任务就应当专注于此。他的工作是让听到的人明白基督对自己的个人存在性意义，使他们认识到基督的话语和行为对他们有直接和永恒的意义。传道人决不能把自己当作讲师，只是解释一些历史事件。我，作为传道人，不能简单地宣告基督已经死了、复活了。我必须阐明他为什么死了、他为什么复活了。然后我必须使每个听众都听明白这对其个人的重要性。他们需要知道，我星期天上午对他们所说的话，将是他们整个星期听到的最重要的事情。这就是讲道作为一种恩典手段的意义所在。
This a powerful wake-up call
to preachers. The purpose of preaching is certainly not to tell people how to
live their lives, to handle crises or to reach their full potential, whatever
that may be. Nor
is it simply to describe Christ to them and outline what he did. Nor is it to
inspire warm, fuzzy feelings about him by playing on their emotions. Christ’s
story is certainly an emotionally powerful one but that is not where its true
significance lies. Christ is not supposed to be an inspiring or moving example.
He is the manifestation of God’s grace, coming from outside to bring salvation
to a sinful and lost people. Thus, the preacher’s task is to be focused on
that. His job is to press the personal existential significance of Christ upon
those who hear, to make them realize that Christ’s words and actions of are of
immediate and eternal significance to them. The preacher must not think of
himself as a lecturer, simply explaining some historical events. I cannot as a
preacher simply declare that Christ is died and risen. I have to bring out why
he has died and why he risen. Then I have to drive home the personal importance
of this for each and every person listening. They need to know that what I say
to them on a Sunday morning is going to be the most vital thing they hear all
week. That is what preaching as a means of grace means.
结论
Conclusion
1907年，苏格兰公理会神学家彼得•泰勒•福赛思（Peter
Taylor Forsyth）在耶鲁大学举行的莱曼•比彻（Lyman
Beecher）讲座的开场白中如此讲道：
In
his Lyman Beecher lectures, delivered at Yale in 1907, the Scottish
Congregationalist theologian, Peter Taylor Forsyth, began with this dramatic
statement:
这也许是一个冒失的开场，但我还是斗胆地说，基督教的成败取决于讲道。事实本来就如此，至少在基督教世界的某些历史时期是这样的，在那些时候，信仰被更多地建立在圣经而不是教会之上。更正教信仰赋予圣经首要的地位；哪里如此对待圣经，那里讲道就是敬拜最鲜明的特征。[20]
It
is perhaps an overbold beginning, but I will venture to say that with its
preaching Christianity stands or falls. This is surely so, at least in those
sections of Christendom which rest less upon the Church than upon the Bible.
Wherever the Bible has the primacy which is given it in Protestantism, there
preaching is the most distinctive feature of worship.19
当福赛思这样说的时候，他是和宗教改革开始的更正教思想相一致的。福赛思明白，讲道从根本上讲并不是传递信息，更不是在星期天早上让一群人娱乐几分钟。这关乎生与死，是一个极其严肃的事业，上帝正是通过它让人面对他们的罪以及在基督里的恩典。
In
saying this, Forsyth stands in the line of Protestant thinking which goes right
back to the Reformation. Forsyth understood that preaching is not ultimately
about communicating information, still less entertaining a crowd for a few
minutes on a Sunday morning. It is about life and death, an utterly serious
undertaking through which God confronts people with their sin and his grace in
Christ.
对那些持守宗教改革唯独恩典的救赎论的人来说，宣告上帝话语是恩典的主要途径。上帝使用它迫使人们思想他们的罪，驱使他们屈膝悔改，然后藉着信心将他们引到复活的基督那里。毕竟，上帝的话语被一周又一周地向会众宣告，而信心就是上帝所赐对这话语的应许的信靠；除此之外信心还会是什么呢？
For
those who hold to the Reformation understanding of salvation by grace alone,
the proclamation of the Word of God is the principle means of grace. It is the
thing which God uses to force people to reckon with their sin, to drive them to
their knees in repentance and then to draw them to the resurrected Christ by
faith. After all, what is faith but the God-given trust in the promise of God’s
Word as it is declared week by week to the congregation?
因此，改教家们对唯独恩典的强调是不能与他们所倡导的具体的教会生活形式隔离开来的。我们经常认为，形式和内容是可以被常规性地分开。有一整个行业致力于这一工作，在那里谈论处境化似乎超越了其他的事情。当然，关注处境很重要，改教家们明白这一点。路德曾经为一个学生哀叹，因为他对一群年老的寡妇和鳏夫传讲生育的功德和乐趣。所有改教家都注重圣经以及用白话讲道，但是信息的实质不是语境功能，而是来自上帝圣言的内容。
For
this reason, the Reformers’ emphasis on grace alone cannot be separated from
the specific form of church life which they advocated. We often think that form
and content can be routinely separated. There is a whole industry committed to
this, where talk of contextualization seems to trump everything else. Certainly
attention to context is important. The Reformers understood this. Luther once
bewailed a student who preached on the merits and joys of childbearing to an
audience made up of elderly widows and spinsters. All the Reformers were
committed to scripture and preaching in the vernacular. But the meat of the
message was not a function of context but of the content of the Word of God.
因此，对于相信更正教唯独恩典的观点的人来说，那些把话语放在教会中心地位的事情是不可妥协的。首先，读经必须在每一次敬拜中占据显要地位。这是上帝恩典的基础所在，因为他在那里启示自己，在那里他描述和解释了人类的状况以及他因此而施行的伟大救赎作为。其次，讲道必须在敬拜的核心位置。因为，当传道人选取经文，阐述并应用经文，并相信圣灵会用这些言语来改变那些听见它们的人，这里就是上帝真正和他的子民相遇的地方。
Thus,
those things which place the Word central in the church are non-negotiable to
those who believe in the Protestant view of grace alone. The reading of the
Word must occupy a prominent place in every service. That is foundational to
God’s grace for it is there that he reveals himself, there that he describes
and interprets the human condition and his great saving acts in response. And
then preaching must lie at the very heart of the service, for that is where God
truly meets his people, as the preacher takes the text of scripture, expounds
and applies it, and trusts the Holy Spirit to take those words and use them to
transform those who hear them.
这也对事奉的预备有影响。传道人应该训练有素，能够清楚地说话。他们应该能够正确地划分和应用真理的话语，这意味着要学习。当然，总会偶尔出现司布真或钟马田式的传道人，他们虽然接受过很少或根本没有任何正式的训练，但却是杰出的传道人；但他们是例外，而不是常态。这也是为什么改教家们要求把严格的学习当做是教牧事奉的先决条件：大多数有追求的牧者迫切需要这样的训练，以便他们得到一定程度的能力来承担教牧事奉的核心任务，即传讲上帝的话语。
This
has implications for ministerial preparation. Preachers need to be well-trained
and able to speak clearly. They need to be able rightly to divide and apply the
word of truth and that means study. Yes, there will always be the occasional
Spurgeon or Lloyd-Jones who, with little or no formal training are yet
outstanding preachers; but they are the exceptions, not the rule. There is a
reason why the Reformers required rigorous study as a prerequisite for pastoral
ministry: most aspiring ministers urgently need that if they are to the central
task of the ministry, preaching the Word, with any degree of competence.
这种关于恩典和讲道的观点也给会众带来责任。基督徒去教会的时候，他们要渴望与主相遇，主要是要听到上帝通过传道人的言语对他们说话。正是当他们听到上帝的话语，并凭着信心抓住这话语的时候，他们的心思意念才会被更新。
This
view of grace and preaching also puts an onus on congregants. Christians need to
attend church with a desire to encounter God primarily by hearing him speak to
them through the words of the preacher. It is as they hear God’s Word and as
they grasp it by faith that their hearts and minds will be transformed.
我曾经烦恼，因为在我听过的讲道中我只模糊地记得其中极少的细节。而现在我有时还会烦恼，因为我自己的讲道我只能模糊地记得很少的细节。但是，虽然我记不得在我整个求学过程中所上过的拉丁文课程的任何细节，但我仍然可以拿起一本拉丁散文或诗歌来阅读。我或许已经忘记个别课程的细节，但是我的头脑已经被发生在那里的事情改变了，从一个看拉丁文像一种不可理解的代码的人，变成了一个现在喜欢西塞罗等人的诗文和他们时代历史的人。
I
used to fret that I could remember very few of the sermons I have heard in any
detail. Now I sometimes fret that I can remember very few of the sermons I
preach in any detail either. I also remember no details from any of the Latin
lessons I took throughout my entire school career, and yet I can still pick up
a book of Latin prose or verse and read it. I may have forgotten the details of
individual classes but my mind was rewired by what happened there and I was
changed from someone for whom Latin looked like an impenetrable code to someone
who now delights in the cadences and periods of Cicero and his ilk.
我相信讲道就是这样。并不是记得所有这些细节使我们成为在恩典中成长的人。真正产生作用的，正是周复一周、年复一年地聆听上帝话语带来的缓慢但不断增长的影响。这就是我们作为基督徒逐渐成熟的方式。上帝用这种恩典的途径使我们成为他恩典的器皿。这就是为什么，更正教关于恩典的神学必须把对上帝话语清楚、有力、毫不含糊的宣告放在其存在的中心。
I
believe preaching is like that. It is not remembering all the details that
makes us into those who grow in grace. It is the slow, incremental impact of
sitting under the Word week by week, and year by year, that makes the
difference. That is how we mature as Christians. God uses this means of grace
to make us into vessels of his grace. And that is why a Protestant theology of
grace must place the clear, powerful, unequivocal proclamation of God’s Word
right at the very center of its existence.
[1] 本文取自美南浸信会神学院学报，The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology,
19.4, 2015。首次发表于2015年9月24-25日在肯塔基州路易斯维尔美南浸信会神学院举行的美南神学院神学会议上。——编者注
[2]
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works (LW), 1, p.49.
[3]
Ibid., 1, p.146.
[4]
John Calvin, Genesis, trans. J. King; Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software,
2010, 1, p.148.
[5]
Decades, trans. H. I.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1849, I. i, p.38.
[6] “但在过去，在上帝的儿子降生在这个世界之前，上帝一点一点地使圣先祖们的心，然后又使圣先知的心，与自己熟识，最后，通过他们的讲道和写作，教导整个世界。同样，我们的主基督又差遣圣灵，出于圣父和圣子，降在使徒身上，透过他们的口、话语和文字，使全世界都认识他。所有这些上帝的仆人，就好像上帝拣选的器皿，以真诚的心，从上帝自己那里领受上帝的启示。首先，他们以生动表达的声音，向世人传递他们之前了解到的上帝的圣言和话语；后来，当世界更多接近结束，他们中的一些人将它们写下，作为后代的纪念。”Decades, I. i, pp.38-39.
[7] 因此，同时最不幸的是，他最后一次在1546年的讲道中有一个附录，是针对犹太人的恶行的谴责。
[8] Luther, LW 51, p.77.
[9] “我们必须发出律法的声音，使人们恐惧并知罪，为了悔改归信、更好地生活。但是我们不能停在这里，因为那只会造成伤害而没有包扎，击打却不医治，杀害却不使生命复活，领人下地狱而不是带人回转，使人降卑而没有升高。所以，我们也必须传扬恩典的话语和赦免的应许，借以教导并唤起信心。如果没有这恩典的话语，律法的工作、懊悔、告解以及其余一切的作为和教导都是徒然的。”（Luther, LW, p.364.）
[10] 随着宗教改革的进展，路德越来越担心，因为一些路德宗的传教士只宣告福音而不宣告律法。这导致了基督徒生活中的放肆和实践上的松懈。关于这一点，请参阅Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life:
Cross and Freedom, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015, pp.159-74.
[11] John Calvin, Institutes
of the Christian Religion, 1.6.2.
[12]
Decades, I. iv, pp.84-85.
[13]
Luther, LW 33, p.183.
[14]
Calvin, Institutes, 3.21.1.
[15]
德国中东部的一座城市。——编者注
[16]
Luther, LW 40, p.147.
[17]
Calvin, Institutes, 1.9.1.
[18]
Ibid., 1.9.3.
[19]
Luther, LW 31, p.357.
[20]
P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, London: Independent
Press, 1907, p.1.
1
This article was first presented at The Southern Seminary Theology Conference
on September 24-25, 2015 at the The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
Louisville, KY.
2
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works (LW) 1, 49.
3
Ibid., 1, 146.
4
John Calvin, Genesis (trans. J. King; Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010)
1, 148.
5
Decades (trans. H. I.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1849) I. i, 38. 6
“But in times past, and before that the Son of God was born in the world, God,
by little and little, made himself acquainted with the hearts of the holy
fathers, and after that with the minds of the holy prophets; and last of all,
by their preaching and writings, he taught the whole world. So also Christ our
Lord sent the Holy Ghost, which is of the Father and the Son, into the
apostles, by whose mouths, words, and writings he was known to all the world.
And all these servants of God, as it were the elect vessels of God, having with
sincere hearts received the revelation of God from God himself, first of all,
in a lively expressed voice delivered to the world the oracles and word of God
which they before had learned; and afterward, when the world drew more to an
end, some of them did put them in writing for a memorial to the posterity.”
Decades I. i, 38-39.
7
Thus, and most unfortunately, his very last sermon of 1546 included an appendix
which was simply a tirade against the evil of the Jews.
8
Luther, LW 51, 77.
9
“We must bring forth the voice of the law that men may be made to fear and come
to a knowledge of their sins and so be converted to repentance and a better
life. But we must not stop with that, for that would only amount to wounding
and not binding up, smiting and not healing, killing and not making alive,
leading down into hell and not bringing back again, humbling and not exalting.
Therefore we must also preach the word of grace and the promise of forgiveness
by which faith is taught and aroused. Without this word of grace the works of
the law, contrition, penitence, and all the rest are done and taught in vain.”
LW, 364.
10
As the Reformation progressed, Luther became increasingly concerned that some
Lutheran preachers declared only the Gospel without also declaring the Law.
This led to presumption and practical laxity in
The
Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 19.4 (2015) living the Christian life. On
this point, see Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and
Freedom (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 159-74.
11
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.6.2.
12
Decades I. iv, 84-85.
13
Luther, LW 33, 183.
14
Calvin, Institutes, 3.21.1.
15
Luther, LW 40, 147.
16
Calvin, Institutes, 1.9.1.
17
Ibid., 1.9.3.
18
Luther, LW 31, 357.
19
P. T. Forsyth, Postive Preaching and the Modern Mind (London: Independent
Press, 1907), 1.
