圣灵与重生THE NEW BIRTH
（摘自《活在圣灵中》，巴刻着，宣道出版社出版。
Keep in Step with the Spirit by J. I. Packer）

林慈信 部分重译
（*原翻译有部分错误，已在文中作更正）

* 基督徒生命开始时的重大改变，就是耶稣所喻说的 “新生”或 “重生”（约3：3-8；另参彼前1：23，雅1：18）；圣经说，人的重生，是“从灵生的”（约3：6）。
It is truly said that the great change that starts our Christian lives, which Jesus pictures as “new birth” or being “born again” （John 3:3-8; cf. also I Peter 1:23, James 1:18）, is “of the Spirit” （verse 6）.

第5节提及的“水” ，并非指任何可以补充圣灵内在工作的外在东西。祂不是指约翰的施洗，或基督徒的洗礼，或如一些人所假定的自然生产时的羊水。而是指内在更新的洁净，正如以西结书36：25-27的意象一样。
“Water” of verse 5 does not refer to anything external, that is complementary to the inward work of the Spirit, not to John’s baptism or to Christian baptism, or to the waters of natural birth, but rather to the cleansing aspect of inward renewal, as pictured in Ezekiel 36:25-27.

所以，在第6节没有提及水，并不会产生问题，因为水只不过说明圣灵更新工作的其中一方面而已。
No problem arises from the non-mention of water in verse 6, because: the water was never more than an illustration of one aspect of the Spirit’s renewing action.

我们也很熟悉这真理：（不是：在类似的基础下）保罗称这个过程为“重生”（regeneration, 多3：5）和“新造”（ new creation, 林后 5：17；加 6：17）。
It is also familiar ground that: Paul calls this process “regeneration” and “new creation.”

保罗并把它解释为与基督同死同复活的生命改变。
Paul explains it in terms of life-changing union with Christ in his death and resurrection.

*保罗肯定，成为基督徒的过程是藉着信心完成的（中译：保罗确定基督徒借着信心能逐渐达致完全）；信心的意思是仰望基督，信靠祂所流的宝血，并宝血所印证赦罪的应许（罗4：16-25，10：8-13；西2：12；约3：15-21，5：24，6：47，53-58）。
Paul affirms, as does Christ himself, that the process of becoming a Christian reaches completion through faith, which means looking to Christ and trusting his shed blood and the promise of pardon that it sealed.

同时，保罗也告诉我们，圣灵吸引我们倚靠和追随基督（林前12：3），使我们与基督联合，成为祂教会的肢体，同属一个身体（v. 13）。因此我们借着信心，可在祂的大能之下活出超自然的生命。
The Spirit draws us into a personal expression of dependence on and discipleship under Jesus, and by this means, unites us to him as members of the one body that is his church, so that henceforth by faith we live a supernatural life in his power.

可是，我们对于新生通常过于“主观”；“主观”的意思并不是“个人化”，而是说太内向，把注意力全集中到个别信徒身上，忽略了那位拯救人的基督。这是错误的想法，会产生两个不良的后果。
Yet: often our thoughts about the new birth are too subjective – not too personal（that could hardly be）, but too turned in, with all our interest focused on the individual who believers, rather than on the Christ who saves.
This is bad thinking – it produces two bad results.

1. 首先，我们脑海中充塞着一种规格式的期望，认为悔改信主必定有某种情感经验（为罪忧伤，在寻索真理过程中的痛苦挣扎，信主后的极度喜乐等等）。我们从别人的悔改经历中推论出这种期望。这些经历可能自保罗开始，到后来的奥古斯丁，路德，本仁，卫斯理，以至我们自己的悔改经验；然后，我们用这些经历作为判断我们同代的弟兄姐妹是否真正悔改的准绳。这真是愚昧又可悲！Our minds get possessed by a standard expectation of emotional experience in conversion （so much sorrow for sin, so much agony of search, so much excess of joy）. We deduce this expectation from conversion stories known to us – Paul, Augustine, Luther, Bunyan, Wesley… We use it as a yardstick for judging whether or not our contemporaries are converted. This is sad and silly.

*罪人回归信主的经历因人而异，万不可用任何标准期望来衡量。
[中译本：许多悔改的经历，甚至一些很突然而又可追溯日期的经验（这些经验可能只属少数人），可以跟一般标准的期望有极大差异。]
Conversion experiences vary too much to fit any standard expectations.

*我们若用任何标准经验的尺度来衡量人的归主，很容易将一些满有归主（指：悔改，信心）的生命特征的人，当作是未信者；又把一些有标准经历的人当作已信主者，虽然他们现时的生命，已经完全没有那种标准经历（就是他们见证所讲述的经历）的特征了。
[中译本：我们硬要用这种尺度去量度别人，很容易把一些现时满有悔改特征的人指为未信者，同时，对于那些曾经一度见证自己有合乎标准悔改经验的人，虽然现在已不再有那些经验，我们还是把他们当作是已经悔改信主的。]
The effect of using this yardstick is: we are often found dismiss as unconverted many who show abundant signs of present convertedness, while continuing to treat as converted folk who look as if the standard experience to which they once testified has now completely worn off.

其实，正如清教徒和爱德华兹所熟知的，根本没有一种情感状况或什么必然后果，也没有任何单独的经验，可以作为明确的新生指标。
The truth is: no emotional state or sequence as such, no isolated experience considered on its own, can be an unambiguous index of new birth.

我们若凭任何一个指标去思想，判断，必会产生无数错误。
* 惟独在现时活出归主（悔改，信心）的生命 （a life of present converted-ness）的人，才让别人有信心确定，他是一个曾经归主的人（he was converted at some point in the past） 。
[惟独现时就出现出悔改的新生命，才足以让人有信心去确定一个人以往曾在某一个时候悔改信主。]
We shall make endless errors if we think and judge otherwise. Only a life of present convertedness can justify confidence that a person was converted at some point in his or her past.

2. 第二个不良后果，就是在我们的福音信息中，基督不是我们所注意的中心，也不是开启我们生命意义的钥匙，祂只不过是一个形象──有时只是一个模糊不清的形象，我们把他引进来，只不过为了解答我们一些先存以自我位中心的问题（如：我如何找到内心的平安？如何在压力下找到心灵和思想上的平安？欢欣？喜乐？生活的力量？）。

In our evangelistic presentations, Christ appears not as the center of attention and himself the key to life’s meaning, but as a figure – sometimes a very smudgy figure – brought in as the answer to some preset egocentric questions of our own （How may I find peace of conscience? Peace of heart and mind when under pressure? Happiness? Joy? Power for living?）.

我们并不强调尽忠跟随耶稣的必要及其中的要求（有些人甚至认为原则上是不应该强调的），因此跟随耶稣的代价也没有人去计算了。
The necessity of faithful discipleship to Jesus, and the demands of it, are not stressed. The cost of following Jesus is not counted.

* 结果，我们撒下的福音种子，只收割了一大批还未回转（注：即还未悔改信耶稣）的人，他们以为可以随意呼唤耶稣，利用祂作为救主和助手，但不承认祂为生命的主。同时，亦吸引了一大堆人，他们被一面倒的信息中所谓的亮光所误导（中译：他们被信息中片面的光芒所误导），以为基督可以保护属祂的人免遇上生命中一切烦恼。
In consequence, our evangelism reaps large crops of still unconverted folk who think they can cast Jesus for the role of P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves, calling him in and making use of him as Saviour and Helper, while declining to have him as Lord. It brings in great numbers who, misled by the glowing one-sidedness of our message, have assumed that Christ can be relied on to shield those who are his from all major trouble.

第一类人若然没有完全流失，便成为教会中的枯木。第二类人大受打击，极度困扰──这是因为他们所期望的，刚好与实际经验相反。
The first group become dead wood in our churches. The second group experience traumatic upsets, because they expected the opposite.

我随意抄下一份基督教刊物中的见证：“我的丈夫……和我以前是教会里的青年导师；……我们两岁半的儿子忽然在意外中溺毙了；我们一直为主而活，从没有丧失任何亲人；我们满以为可以幸免这类事情。四年来，我过着麻木的生活，不明所以，不接纳自己的愤怒，不断努力表现自己的坚强。我从不向任何人倾诉我的痛苦，终于变得极度沮丧……”
I quote this testimony at random from the Christian press: “My husband …and I were youth directors in our church…when our two-and-half-year-old son accidentally drowned. We had lived for the Lord and never lost anyone. We thought we would be spared such things. I went through four years numb, not understanding, not accepting my anger, continuing to try to be strong. I really was not talking to anyone about the pain and finally went into deep depression…”

使信徒产生这种虚假期望的牧养方式是残缺的（中译：有问题的），甚至到残忍的地步。当困难临到时，信徒除了咬紧牙关，顽强不屈，就再无其他应付方法了。
The nurture that leaves Christians with false expectations and no resources except the stiff upper lip for coping when trouble strikes, is defective to the point of cruelty.

这些期望到底从哪里来的呢？
Where do these expectations come from?

似乎很明显，我们那种推销员式以人为中心的福音信息，一方面大力吹棒基督徒生命的好处，另一方面只避重就轻地谈论基督徒的担子，因而给信主的人固定了一条思想路线。这正是我们需要追溯的问题根源。
The salesman-like man-centeredness of so much of our evangelism, cracking up the benefits and minimizing the burdens of the Christian life, thereby fixing the lines on which converts will subsequently think, is one root cause.

那么，我们该怎样清理现时福音信息里过多及有害的主观成分？
How could we purge our evangelism of its excessive and damaging subjectivity?

最简洁的答案是：
The short answer is:
学习紧随圣灵的引导，直接注目在耶稣基督身上──祂是救世的上帝，是世人的典范，未来的审判者，也是软弱，贫穷和不可爱者的爱侣；祂曾亲自背负了十字架，现在要带领我们走十架的道路。
By learning to keep in step with the Spirit’s new covenant ministry and to focus more directly on Jesus Christ himself as Saviour God, as model human being, as coming Judge, as Lover of the weak, poor, and unlovely, and as Leader along the path of cross-bearing that he himself trod.

*然后，我们要改正那所谓标准归主经验的错误框框，强调归主的内涵主要完全不是感情，而是个人对基督的委身。
（中译：然后，我们就可以打破那所谓标准悔改经验的旧框框，强调悔改的内涵主要不是某种情感流露，而是个人对基督全然委身。）
Then, we could correct the standard-experience stereotype of conversion, stressing that conversion is essentially not feelings at all, but personal commitment to this Christ.

* 同时我们必需改变以往的恶习，不再将归主经验抽离，作为判断信仰真伪的特征；我们应该转而强调，唯一证明一个人过去曾信主的标志，就是他现今的生命流露着悔改信主的真实。
（中译：同时，我们可以改变我们一贯的习惯，不再将悔改经验抽离，作为判别信仰真伪的特征，转而以目前悔改生命的流露作为曾否悔改的唯一明证。）
Then, too, we could correct the habit of treating conversion experiences in isolation as signs of Christian authenticity, by stressing that the only proof of past conversion is present convertedness.

再者，我们可以修正那不虔不敬的观念，不再以耶稣为可供我们利用的一位救主，改为强调耶稣是道成肉身的上帝，我们必须以赞美和事奉来敬拜祂。
Also we could then correct the irreverent idea that Jesus the Saviour is there to be used, by stressing that as God incarnate he must be worshiped both by words of praise and by works of service.

还有：我们可以矫正从前以为基督徒生命是一帆风顺，鸟语花香的错误观念。
我们应该强调：基督的道路是经过死亡再经历复活的路。我们必须知道，祂经常引领我们走上这一条相同的道路，即使它的形式或许千变万化。
In addition, we could then correct the bed-of-roses idea of the Christian life, by stressing that, while Christ’s way was the way of a resurrection experience following a death experience, and we must expect to find that he is constantly taking us along that same road in one or other of its thousand different forms.

最后，我们可以矫正一般关于基督徒委身的含糊观念。在我们的读经生活里，强调经常默想四福音书，甚至其他经文，因为研读福音书可以帮助我们对主有清晰的观念，并在思想里掌握到作为祂门徒的意义。
Finally, we could then correct woolliness of view as to what Christian commitment involves, by stressing the need for constant meditation on the four gospels, over and above the rest of our Bible reading; for gospel study enables us both to keep our Lord in clear view and to hold before our minds the relational frame of discipleship to him.

其实，有关门徒实践的教义，在书信里写得最清楚；但门徒实践的性质，却在福音书里有最传神的描绘。.
The doctrines on which our discipleship rests are clearest in the epistles, but the nature of discipleship itself is most vividly portrayed in the gospels.

有些基督徒重视新约书信过于福音书，他们说从福音书的研习中毕业后，就可进入新约书信的研习，仿佛这就是属灵成长的标志；但事实上这种态度是十分恶劣的，它意味着我们着重神学观念多于与主耶稣个人的相交。
Some Christians seem to prefer the epistles to the gospels and talk of graduating from the gospels to the epistles as if this were a mark of growing up spiritually; but really this attitude is a very bad sign, suggesting that we are more interested in theological notions than in fellowship with the Lord Jesus in person.

其实，我们应该把新约书信的神学思想视为一种装备，好叫我们更了解福音书中基督与门徒的关系。
* 让我们记得，好像有些人正确地说：四福音书是世界上最奇妙的书。
（中文翻译：让我们不要忘记一般人惯常的说法，也是真确的说法：四福音书是世界上最奇妙的书。）
We should think, rather, of the disciple relationship with Christ that is set forth in the gospels, and we should never let ourselves forget that the four gospels are, as has often and rightly been said, the most wonderful books on earth.