0815 新生的证据
你们必须重生。 《约翰福音 3:7》
对尼哥底母的问题：「人老了，如何能重生呢？」答案是：只有当他愿意向生命中的一切死，包括他的权利、他的美德和他的宗教，并变得愿意接受他以前从未体验过的新生命时（约翰福音3:4）。这个新生命在我们有意识的悔改和通过无意识的圣洁而展现出来。
「凡接待他的…」（约翰福音 1:12）。我对耶稣的认识，是我自己内在灵性感知的结果，或只是我通过听别人讲才学习到的？我的生命中是否有什么使我与主耶稣作为我个人的救主相连？我的属灵历史必须以对耶稣基督的个人认识为基础。重生意味着我看见了耶稣。
「…人若不重生，就不能见神的国。」（约翰福音 3:3）。我是否只寻求神国的证据，还是我实际上认出祂绝对全权的掌管？重生给了我新的视力，让我开始分辨神的掌管。祂的全权一直存在，但因着神忠于祂的本性，我无法看见，直到我自己接受了祂的本性。
「凡从神生的，就不犯罪…」（约翰一书 3:9）。我是在追求停止犯罪？还是已经真正停止犯罪了？从神生的，意味着我拥有祂超自然的能力来停止犯罪。圣经从不问「基督徒会犯罪吗？」圣经强调基督徒不可犯罪。当我们不犯罪时，重生的工作在我们身上是有效的。我们不仅有能力不犯罪，而且我们实际上已经停止了犯罪。然而约翰一书 3:9 并不是说我们不能犯罪——它只是意味着如果我们顺从在我们里面的神的生命，我们就不会犯罪。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们对神的看法有可能像熔化的铅倒入专门设计的模具中一样危险，当它又冷又硬时，我们就把它扔到不同意我们观点的宗教人士的头上。《真的门徒》
0815 The Evidence of the New Birth
You must be born again. —John 3:7
The answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” is: Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life, including his rights, his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing to receive into himself a new life that he has never before experienced (John 3:4). This new life exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious holiness.
“But as many as received Him…” (John 1:12). Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means that I see Jesus.
“…unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth gives me a new power of vision by which I begin to discern God’s control. His sovereignty was there all the time, but with God being true to His nature, I could not see it until I received His very nature myself.
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin…” (1 John 3:9). Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, “Should a Christian sin?” The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin— it simply means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. —Disciples Indeed