1006 重生的本质
…既然乐意将他儿子启示在我心里 …《加拉太书 1:15-16》
如果耶稣基督要重生我，祂面临的问题是什么？很简单——我有一种遗传，但我对此没有发言权或决定权；我不是圣洁的，也不可能是圣洁的；如果耶稣基督所做的就是告诉我必须圣洁，那么祂的教导只会让我感到绝望。但如果耶稣基督确实是一位重生者，祂能够把祂自己的圣洁遗传给我，那么我就能开始明白当祂说我必须圣洁是什么意思了。救赎意味着耶稣基督可以将祂里面遗传的本性放在任何人里面，而祂给我们的所有标准都是基于这种本性——祂的教导是要应用在祂放在我们里面的生命。我这里合适的行动就是同意神在基督的十字架上对罪的审判。
新约关于重生的教导是，当一个人被自己的需要感击中时，神会将圣灵放在他的灵里，他个人的灵就会受到神儿子的灵的激励——「…直等到基督成形在你们心里。」（加拉太书 4:19）。救赎的道德神迹就是神能够我新的本性放在我里面，通过它我能够活出全新的生命。当我最终来到我需求的边缘，并了解自己的有限时，耶稣会说：「你有福了…」（马太福音 5:11）。但我必须达到这境地。除非我意识到自己需要它，否则神无法将耶稣基督的本性注入我这个负有道德责任的人里面。
正如罪的本性通过一个人进入这个世界，圣灵也通过另一个人进入人类（见罗马书5:12-19）。救赎就意味着我可以从罪的遗传中被释放出来，并且通过耶稣基督我可以得到纯洁无瑕的遗传，即圣灵。
来自章伯斯的智慧
神设计环境要看我们如何行事。我们会成为天父的孩子？或会再次回到卑鄙、常识的态度？我们会冒一切风险并忠于祂吗？「你要至死忠心，我就赐给你生命的冠冕。」生命的冠冕意味着我将看到我的主最终获得了胜利，甚至在我身上也是。《至善—朝圣者歌集》
1006 The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L