聖靈與重生THE NEW BIRTH
（摘自《活在聖靈中》，巴刻着，宣道出版社出版。
Keep in Step with the Spirit by J. I. Packer）

林慈信 部分重譯
（*原翻譯有部分錯誤，已在文中作更正）

* 基督徒生命開始時的重大改變，就是耶穌所喻說的 “新生”或 “重生”（約3：3-8；另參彼前1：23，雅1：18）；聖經說，人的重生，是“從靈生的”（約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節提及的“水” ，並非指任何可以補充聖靈內在工作的外在東西。祂不是指約翰的施洗，或基督徒的洗禮，或如一些人所假定的自然生產時的羊水。而是指內在更新的潔淨，正如以西結書36：25-27的意象一樣。
“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節沒有提及水，並不會產生問題，因為水只不過說明聖靈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.

我們也很熟悉這真理：（不是：在類似的基礎下）保羅稱這個過程為“重生”（regeneration, 多3：5）和“新造”（ new creation, 林後 5：17；加 6：17）。
It is also familiar ground that: Paul calls this process “regeneration” and “new creation.”

保羅並把它解釋為與基督同死同復活的生命改變。
Paul explains it in terms of life-changing union with Christ in his death and resurrection.

*保羅肯定，成為基督徒的過程是藉着信心完成的（中譯：保羅確定基督徒借着信心能逐漸達致完全）；信心的意思是仰望基督，信靠祂所流的寶血，並寶血所印證赦罪的應許（羅4：16-25，10：8-13；西2：12；約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.

同時，保羅也告訴我們，聖靈吸引我們倚靠和追隨基督（林前12：3），使我們與基督聯合，成為祂教會的肢體，同屬一個身體（v. 13）。因此我們借着信心，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，我們對於新生通常過於“主觀”；“主觀”的意思並不是“個人化”，而是說太內向，把注意力全集中到個別信徒身上，忽略了那位拯救人的基督。這是錯誤的想法，會產生兩個不良的後果。
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，我們腦海中充塞着一種規格式的期望，認為悔改信主必定有某種情感經驗（為罪憂傷，在尋索真理過程中的痛苦掙扎，信主後的極度喜樂等等）。我們從別人的悔改經歷中推論出這種期望。這些經歷可能自保羅開始，到後來的奧古斯丁，路德，本仁，衛斯理，以至我們自己的悔改經驗；然後，我們用這些經歷作為判斷我們同代的弟兄姐妹是否真正悔改的準繩。這真是愚昧又可悲！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.

*罪人回歸信主的經歷因人而異，萬不可用任何標準期望來衡量。
[中譯本：許多悔改的經歷，甚至一些很突然而又可追溯日期的經驗（這些經驗可能只屬少數人），可以跟一般標準的期望有極大差異。]
Conversion experiences vary too much to fit any standard expectations.

*我們若用任何標準經驗的尺度來衡量人的歸主，很容易將一些滿有歸主（指：悔改，信心）的生命特徵的人，當作是未信者；又把一些有標準經歷的人當作已信主者，雖然他們現時的生命，已經完全沒有那種標準經歷（就是他們見證所講述的經歷）的特徵了。
[中譯本：我們硬要用這種尺度去量度別人，很容易把一些現時滿有悔改特徵的人指為未信者，同時，對於那些曾經一度見證自己有合乎標準悔改經驗的人，雖然現在已不再有那些經驗，我們還是把他們當作是已經悔改信主的。]
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.

其實，正如清教徒和愛德華茲所熟知的，根本沒有一種情感狀況或什麼必然後果，也沒有任何單獨的經驗，可以作為明確的新生指標。
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.

我們若憑任何一個指標去思想，判斷，必會產生無數錯誤。
* 惟獨在現時活出歸主（悔改，信心）的生命 （a life of present converted-ness）的人，才讓別人有信心確定，他是一個曾經歸主的人（he was converted at some point in the past） 。
[惟獨現時就出現出悔改的新生命，才足以讓人有信心去確定一個人以往曾在某一個時候悔改信主。]
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. 第二個不良後果，就是在我們的福音信息中，基督不是我們所注意的中心，也不是開啟我們生命意義的鑰匙，祂只不過是一個形象──有時只是一個模糊不清的形象，我們把他引進來，只不過為了解答我們一些先存以自我位中心的問題（如：我如何找到內心的平安？如何在壓力下找到心靈和思想上的平安？歡欣？喜樂？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?）.

我們並不強調盡忠跟隨耶穌的必要及其中的要求（有些人甚至認為原則上是不應該強調的），因此跟隨耶穌的代價也沒有人去計算了。
The necessity of faithful discipleship to Jesus, and the demands of it, are not stressed. The cost of following Jesus is not counted.

* 結果，我們撒下的福音種子，只收割了一大批還未迴轉（註：即還未悔改信耶穌）的人，他們以為可以隨意呼喚耶穌，利用祂作為救主和助手，但不承認祂為生命的主。同時，亦吸引了一大堆人，他們被一面倒的信息中所謂的亮光所誤導（中譯：他們被信息中片面的光芒所誤導），以為基督可以保護屬祂的人免遇上生命中一切煩惱。
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.

第一類人若然沒有完全流失，便成為教會中的枯木。第二類人大受打擊，極度困擾──這是因為他們所期望的，剛好與實際經驗相反。
The first group become dead wood in our churches. The second group experience traumatic upsets, because they expected the opposite.

我隨意抄下一份基督教刊物中的見證：“我的丈夫……和我以前是教會裡的青年導師；……我們兩歲半的兒子忽然在意外中溺斃了；我們一直為主而活，從沒有喪失任何親人；我們滿以為可以倖免這類事情。四年來，我過着麻木的生活，不明所以，不接納自己的憤怒，不斷努力表現自己的堅強。我從不向任何人傾訴我的痛苦，終於變得極度沮喪……”
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…”

使信徒產生這種虛假期望的牧養方式是殘缺的（中譯：有問題的），甚至到殘忍的地步。當困難臨到時，信徒除了咬緊牙關，頑強不屈，就再無其他應付方法了。
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.

這些期望到底從哪裡來的呢？
Where do these expectations come from?

似乎很明顯，我們那種推銷員式以人為中心的福音信息，一方面大力吹棒基督徒生命的好處，另一方面只避重就輕地談論基督徒的擔子，因而給信主的人固定了一條思想路線。這正是我們需要追溯的問題根源。
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.

那麼，我們該怎樣清理現時福音信息里過多及有害的主觀成分？
How could we purge our evangelism of its excessive and damaging subjectivity?

最簡潔的答案是：
The short answer is:
學習緊隨聖靈的引導，直接注目在耶穌基督身上──祂是救世的上帝，是世人的典範，未來的審判者，也是軟弱，貧窮和不可愛者的愛侶；祂曾親自背負了十字架，現在要帶領我們走十架的道路。
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.

*然後，我們要改正那所謂標準歸主經驗的錯誤框框，強調歸主的內涵主要完全不是感情，而是個人對基督的委身。
（中譯：然後，我們就可以打破那所謂標準悔改經驗的舊框框，強調悔改的內涵主要不是某種情感流露，而是個人對基督全然委身。）
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.

* 同時我們必需改變以往的惡習，不再將歸主經驗抽離，作為判斷信仰真偽的特徵；我們應該轉而強調，唯一證明一個人過去曾信主的標誌，就是他現今的生命流露着悔改信主的真實。
（中譯：同時，我們可以改變我們一貫的習慣，不再將悔改經驗抽離，作為判別信仰真偽的特徵，轉而以目前悔改生命的流露作為曾否悔改的唯一明證。）
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，我們可以修正那不虔不敬的觀念，不再以耶穌為可供我們利用的一位救主，改為強調耶穌是道成肉身的上帝，我們必須以讚美和事奉來敬拜祂。
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.

還有：我們可以矯正從前以為基督徒生命是一帆風順，鳥語花香的錯誤觀念。
我們應該強調：基督的道路是經過死亡再經歷復活的路。我們必須知道，祂經常引領我們走上這一條相同的道路，即使它的形式或許千變萬化。
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.

最後，我們可以矯正一般關於基督徒委身的含糊觀念。在我們的讀經生活里，強調經常默想四福音書，甚至其他經文，因為研讀福音書可以幫助我們對主有清晰的觀念，並在思想里掌握到作為祂門徒的意義。
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.

其實，有關門徒實踐的教義，在書信里寫得最清楚；但門徒實踐的性質，卻在福音書裡有最傳神的描繪。.
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.

有些基督徒重視新約書信過於福音書，他們說從福音書的研習中畢業後，就可進入新約書信的研習，仿佛這就是屬靈成長的標誌；但事實上這種態度是十分惡劣的，它意味着我們着重神學觀念多於與主耶穌個人的相交。
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.

其實，我們應該把新約書信的神學思想視為一種裝備，好叫我們更了解福音書中基督與門徒的關係。
* 讓我們記得，好像有些人正確地說：四福音書是世界上最奇妙的書。
（中文翻譯：讓我們不要忘記一般人慣常的說法，也是真確的說法：四福音書是世界上最奇妙的書。）
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.