聖靈在我們讀經時扮演什麼角色？What is the Spirit’s Role inOur Reading of Scripture?
作者：Aimee Byrd 譯者：駱鴻銘
根據我們在這週的廣播節目（Mortification of Spin podcast）裡有關「傳統教義的重要討論」，我想要談談我在許多流行的基督教書籍裡所看到的。在福音派人士當中有一個錯誤的概念，就是我們可以在下面兩條路裡任選一條：要麼是信賴尋常的恩典管道（ordinary means of
grace），和教會的信條和要理問答的傳統，要麼是對聖靈的帶領保持一種敏銳度。意思是說，我們可以跟隨舊的習俗，或我們可以直接跟隨泉源自己。（譯按：這正是今日福音派和靈恩派的兩條「跟從聖靈」的路徑的寫照）
Building
off of our important discussion about traditional doctrine on this week’s
Mortification of Spin podcast, I want to address something I see in a lot of
popular level Christian books. There is a false notion among evangelicals that
we can either trust in the ordinary means of grace and the church’s creedal
catechetical tradition, or we can be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading.
The notion is that we can follow an old custom or we can follow the Source
himself.
而這種跟隨聖靈的教導聽起來就很像是在玩電話遊戲。在電話遊戲裡，一個人對著另一個人的耳朵，小聲地說出一個信息。那個人接著把他自以為聽到的話傳給下一個人，然後一個傳一個，目標是最後一個人可以正確地說出原始的信息。如果你玩過這個遊戲，你就知道最後的信息會有多好笑。同樣，對一些基督徒來說，跟隨聖靈就有點像是：耶穌打電話來，祂的聖靈會把關於我們個人的重要信息傳給我們，然後你就必須順服這個內在的聲音，並琢磨哪一節聖經支持這個聲音。我們甚至可以玩這個遊戲：隨便翻開聖經，然後看我們的手指頭會幸運地落在哪一節經文，希望聖靈會藉著上帝的「照管」（providence），帶領我們今天的靈修，然後這節經文或許會忽然對我們開啟，讓我們豁然開朗。
And
so much of this teaching on following the Spirit sounds a lot like the game of
telephone. In the game of telephone, one person passes along a message by
whispering in another person’s ear. That person
then whispers what they think they’ve heard to another ear, and this continues
with the goal for the final receiver of the message to try and speak the
original message. If you’ve ever played telephone, you know how silly the
message can end up. Likewise, to some Christians the idea of following the
Spirit goes something like this: Jesus
is calling, his Holy Spirit will deliver the important personal message, and
now you need to obey this inner voice and then figure out which Scripture
supports it. We may even do some lucky dipping, hoping the Spirit will lead us
to our devotion for the day by the “providence” of where our Bible randomly
opens and to where our finger falls.
Then maybe we’ll have that light bulb moment of clarity.
我們都知道聖靈運行的重要性，但是許多人不明白究竟應該如何跟隨聖靈。我們是否必須邊走邊禱告，然後等候祂的帶領？這是我們領受祂教導的途徑嗎？還是我們必須清空我們的腦袋，靜候祂對我們的感動？我們內心是否夠安靜，可以聽見上帝對我們的喃喃私語？其他人是否可以透過聖靈把關於我們個人的信息傳遞給我們？We all know the
Spirit’s work is
important, but many are unclear how to follow the Spirit. Do we take prayerful
walks and wait on his leading? Is that how we receive his teaching? Do we clear
our minds and wait for his prompting? Can we quiet ourselves enough to hear
God’s whisper? Can others authoritatively deliver a personal message to us
through the Spirit?
你們許多人會同意，這正是聖靈運行的方式。但是然後呢？一個更細緻的說法是聖靈會在我們私下讀經、解讀聖經時光照我們。但是這種的「聖經字面主義」（Biblicism）也可能是誤導。我在後面的帖子裡會更詳細說明，但是這裡值得一提的是，在我們領受神的話的時候，聖靈的工作還不只是這樣，聖靈不只是在我們個人靈修和研讀聖經時與我們相會而已。
Many
of you will agree that this is not exactly how the Spirit works. But how does he then? A more sophisticated
approach may be to point to the Spirit’s illumination in our private reading
and interpretation of Scripture. But this sort of Biblicism can also be
misleading. I will get into that with more detail in a later post, but it's
worth mentioning now that there is more to the Spirit’s work in our receiving
God’s word than meeting us during our personal devotion and biblical studies.
無論是靈恩派，還是對聖靈和神的話有更細緻教導的保守派（譯按：指一般福音派），都把我們排除在三一上帝將祂的聖言傳遞給整個聖徒相通的群體所作的工作之外（譯按：指靈恩派和一般福音派都不重視聖靈在歷代聖徒身上的解經工作，因而無法接觸到歷代教會的解經成果）。而基於某種原因，這種令人興奮的教導卻經常表現為屬靈的掃興鬼（spiritual buzz kill），對我們的靈命澆冷水。「這種令人興奮的教導」，我指的是教會傳統和一般的恩典管道（譯按：即講道和聖餐）。
Both
the charismatic and the conservative, more subtle teaching on the Holy Spirit
and God’s word cuts us off from the Trinitarian work in communicating God’s
word to the whole communion of the saints.
And for some reason this exciting teaching often comes off as as a
spiritual buzz kill. I am referring to church tradition and ordinary means of
grace.
艾倫（Michael Allen）和 史旺（Scot Swain）在他們2015的新書《改革宗大公信仰》（Reformed
Catholicity；暫譯）探討了聖靈和教會傳統之間的關係，書中強調明白聖靈工作的重要性：聖靈作為教會教師的身份，是源自祂「永恆的身份，祂是從聖父和聖子發出的真理的聖靈」（26頁）。在約翰福音十六章13-15節，我們看到真理的聖靈對基督教會的使命，表現出神性向外發散的本質。祂不只是把真理分享給我們的聖靈而已，祂就是真理本身。祂與聖父和聖子同本質的本體，就是真理本身。艾倫和史旺提醒我們，「上帝的真理……不是聖靈的產業，彷彿信差和他所送的信是可以分開的一樣。真理就是聖靈本身：『聖靈就是真理』（約壹五5；參：約十四6」（30頁）。
Michael
Allen and Scot Swain address the relationship between the Holy Spirit and
church traditioning in their book Reformed Catholicity, emphasizing the
importance of understanding that the Spirit’s identity as teacher to the church
flows from his “eternal identity as the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
Father and the Son” (26). In John 16:13-15 we see that the Spirit of truth’s
mission to his church expresses the outgoing nature in the Godhead. He isn’t
just a Spirit with truths to share with us; he is the truth. His being, which
is the same substance with the Father and the Son, is truth. Allen and Swain
remind us, “This divine truth…is not something that the Spirit possesses, as a
message that is distinguishable from its messenger. Truth is what the Sprit is:
‘The Spirit is the truth’ (1 John 5:6; cf. John 14:6)” (30).
在三一真神的內在生命裡，有一個區分祂們的、對外發散的秩序（distinguishing,
outgoing order）——即聖子是從聖父而出，聖靈是從聖父和聖子發出的。Derek Rishmawey稱之為「永恆的發出」（eternal procession），而沒有稱它為「很久以前發生的事件， 而是……上帝在當下所滿溢出來的完美生命力。（你時不時會在推特上發現這種『把稻草紡成黃金』的現象。）按照這個次序，聖靈會聆聽並『領受從聖子而來的、屬於祂自己本質的真理。」（30頁）聖靈是不斷向外的，是滿溢而出的。當祂反映這個發出時，祂就在救恩的經綸中向祂的教會說出、並宣告祂對自己的知識。聖靈是神；因此，祂明白神的思想。也把真理傳達給祂的子民。
In
the inner life of the Trinity there is a distinguishing, outgoing order---one
where the Son proceeds from the Father and the Sprit proceeds from both the
Father and the Son. Derek Rishmawey refers to this eternal procession, not as
“some event long past, but…God’s presently perfect overflowing liveliness.
(Every now and then you find a tweet that spins gold.) In this order, the
Spirit hears and “receives from the Son that which belongs to his own nature”
(30). He is outgoing, overflowing. As a reflection of this procession, he then
speaks and proclaims his self-knowledge to his church in the economy of
salvation. The Spirit is God; therefore he comprehends the thoughts of God. And
he communicates truth to his people.
但是這和電話遊戲不同。聖靈不只是單單對我們說一個信息，然後盼望我們可以破解這個信息而已。當我們閱讀聖經、解讀這個信息時，祂不是留給我們自己私下去作判斷。祂是賜生命的靈，把我們造成一個新造的人，住在我們裡面。祂用祂的話創造了我們的信心——這是聆聽祂的聲音所必須有的。祂不是單單抽離地住在個別的信徒身上，而是與祂整個的恩約聖徒群體同住。
But
unlike the game of telephone, the Holy Spirit doesn’t merely speak a message to us, hoping we can decipher
it. And he doesn’t leave us to our own private judgment in interpretation when
we read Scripture. He is life giving, making us new creations as he dwells with
us. He creates the very faith we need to hear his voice in his Word. He doesn’t
merely dwell detached with individual believers, but with his entire covenant
community of saints.
祂是如何辦到的呢？「聖靈首先讓先知和使徒『明白』上帝從前隱藏的、奧秘的智慧，然後用『不是用人智慧所指教的言語，乃是用聖靈所指教的言語，將屬靈的話解釋屬靈的事。」（林前二7，12-13）其結果是，當我們聽到先知和使徒的著作時，我們就聽到「聖靈向眾教會所說的話」（啟三6）。透過聖靈的默示，我們得到了聖經，然後「透過祂的光照，聖靈完成了上帝自我顯現的動向——藉著將上帝的智慧發表在先知和使徒的著作裡，好叫教會可以領受並認信。」（32頁）
How
does he do this? “The Spirit causes the
prophets and apostles first to ‘understand’ and then to ‘impart’ the ‘secret
hidden wisdom of God’ in ‘words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the
Spirit’ (1 Cor. 2:7, 12-13) with the result that, in hearing the prophetic and
apostolic writings, we hear ‘what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Rev. 3:6)”
(32). By his work of inspiration, we are
given the Holy Scriptures, and “by his work of illumination, the Spirit
completes the movement of divine self-manifestation by causing the divine
wisdom published in the prophetic and apostolic writings to be received and
confessed by the church” (32).
上帝既然一直是如此向我們溝通的，基督也就應許祂的聖靈會永遠與教會同住（約十六14），史旺和艾倫就滿有自信地將教會視為是「基督的學校」，「握有豐盛神學資源的應許」（33頁）。上帝已經將聖靈的工作和祂尋常的恩典管道聯結在一起。
Since
God has communicated this way and Christ promised that his Spirit would abide
with his church forever (John 16:14), Swain and Allen confidently identify the
church as the “school of Christ” which “holds the promise of theological
flourishing” (33). God has connected the work of his Spirit to his ordinary
means of grace.
聖靈的工作遠比我們賦予祂的低俗看法要豐富得多。「在上帝三一生命中聽見並說出真理的聖靈，祂創造、維持、指導著一個團契，這個團契會在歷史當中聽見並說出真理。」（34頁）注意這不是一種可以供單一個體（或甚至是單一教會）私有化的真理，而是給在歷史上的整體教會的。這就是傳統發揮作用的地方。
The
Spirit’s work is so much
richer than the low view we often give him. “The Spirit, who hears and speaks the truth within
God’s Triune life, creates, sustains, and directs a fellowship that hears and
speaks truth within history” (34). Notice that it isn’t a privatized truth for
a single individual, or even a single church, but to the whole church within
history. This is where traditioning comes in.
我們所說的不是一個老掉牙的習俗，是一種已經變得過時的多餘教導。我們所說的是「靠著聖靈能力的」、代代相傳的，「對聖經的接納」
We
aren’t talking about an
old custom of extra teaching that becomes outdated. We are talking about the “Spirit-enabled”, passing down from one generation to another, “reception of Scripture” (36).
讓我和史旺和艾倫一同，引用巴文克的優美的話來結束這篇：
I’ll close with Allen and Swain’s quoting Herman Bavinck’s beautiful description of this:
在耶穌完成了祂的工作後，祂就差派聖靈——祂沒有添加新的啟示，而是繼續引導教會進入真理（約十六12-15），直到教會穿越過各種歧異，並在真道上同歸於一（弗三18-19，四13），在這個意義上，有一種好的、真實的、榮耀的傳統。聖靈就是藉此方法，將聖經的真理傳送到教會的意識和生命裡。畢竟，聖經只是一個手段，不是目的。真正的目標是教會受聖經的教導，可以自由而獨立地，去宣揚「那召你們出黑暗入奇妙光明者的美德」（彼前二9）。外在的道（指聖經）是工具，內在的道（指聖靈的內在見證）是目的。當眾人都受到聖經的教導、都被聖靈充滿時，聖經就必定會達到其最終的目的地（36頁）。
After
Jesus completed his work, he sent forth the Holy Spirit who, while adding
nothing new to the revelation, still guides the church into the truth (John
16:12-15) until it passes through all diversity and arrives at the unity of
faith and the knowledge of the Son of God (Eph. 3:18, 19: 4:13). In this sense,
there is a good, true, and glorious tradition. It is the method by which the
Holy Spirit causes the truth of Scripture to pass into the consciousness and
the life of the church. Scripture, after all, is only a means, not the goal.
The goal is that, instructed by Scripture, the church will freely and
independently make known “the wonderful deeds of him who called it out of
darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The external word is the
instrument, the internal word the aim. Scripture will have reached its
destination when all have been taught by the Lord and are filled with the Holy
Spirit. (36)
