0108 我献的是活祭吗?
….亚伯拉罕在那里筑坛,把柴摆好,捆绑他的儿子以撒,放在坛的柴上。《创世记22:9》
这个事件给我们错误的一幅图画,认为神最终要我们奉献的是死祭。神所要的,是透过死的奉献,使我们能够做耶稣所做的,也就是牺牲/奉献我们的生命。不是:「主啊,我预备好跟祢一起…同祢受死。」(路加福音22:33)。而是说:「我愿意与祢的死认同,使我可以把我的生命奉献给神。」
我们似乎认为神要我们舍弃很多事物!神炼净亚伯拉罕的这种错误,而同样的过程也在我们的生活中工作着;神从未告诉我们仅仅为了舍弃而舍弃,但祂告诉我们要为了唯一值得拥有的事而舍弃,那就是与祂一起的生命。那是为解开我们生活束缚的问题,借着认同耶稣的的死,这些束缚立刻就松绑了。然后,我们进入了与神的关系中,借此我们就可以为祂牺牲自己的生命。
为了死亡而将你死的生命献给神,那对神是毫无价值的。祂要你成为一个「活祭」——让祂有你一切因耶稣而得救并成圣的力量(罗马书12:1),这才是神所悦纳的祭。
我们永远不能通过头脑中的问题得到解答而进入神的国,只能通过献身。《至善—你伟大的救赎》
0108 Is My Sacrifice Living?
Abraham built an altar…; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar… —Genesis 22:9
This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You…to death” (Luke 22:33). But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.”
We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.
It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions
answered, but only by commitment. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 R