力

Moreover, the desperate state of people apart from Christ is suggested by the fact that no one can recover this life except as a free gift from God. Jesus calls it a gift, for it is undeserved and unearned. If it were earned, it would be wages; if it were merited, it would be a reward. But eternal life is neither of these. It is a gift, which means that it originates solely in God’s good will toward men.

此外，除了上帝的免費禮物之外，沒有人能夠恢復這一生命，這一事實表明了離開基督的人們的絕望狀態。耶穌稱其為禮物，因為它是不配得的、不勞而獲的。如果是掙來的，那就是工價；如果這是配得的，那就是獎勵。但永生都不是這些。它是一份禮物，這意味着它完全源於上帝對人類的善意。

As a last thought on this subject, it is also true, is it not, that men and women will perish except for this gift. Jesus says of those to whom he gives life that “they shall never perish.” But since he makes this promise, it must be because we will perish if he does not intervene. We are sinners. Sin makes us heirs of God’s wrath. If God does not intervene, we stand under divine judgment, without hope, facing the punishment due us for our own sins. According to these verses, we cannot even come to Christ, for we are not of his sheep and so lack the ability to hear his voice and turn to him.

作為關於這個主題的最後一個想法，如果沒有這份禮物，男男女女都會滅亡，這也是事實，不是嗎？耶穌談到那些被他賜予生命的人時說：“他們永遠不會滅亡。”但既然他做出了這樣的承諾，那一定是因為如果他不干預的話我們就會滅亡。我們是罪人。罪使我們成為神的憤怒的繼承人。如果上帝不干預，我們就會站在神的審判之下，毫無希望，面臨因我們自己的罪而應得的懲罰。根據這些經文，我們甚至不能來到基督面前，因為我們不是祂的羊，因此缺乏聽到他的聲音並轉向他的能力。