1006 重生的本質
…既然樂意將他兒子啟示在我心裡 …《加拉太書 1:15-16》
如果耶穌基督要重生我，祂面臨的問題是什麼？很簡單——我有一種遺傳，但我對此沒有發言權或決定權；我不是聖潔的，也不可能是聖潔的；如果耶穌基督所做的就是告訴我必須聖潔，那麼祂的教導只會讓我感到絕望。但如果耶穌基督確實是一位重生者，祂能夠把祂自己的聖潔遺傳給我，那麼我就能開始明白當祂說我必須聖潔是什麼意思了。救贖意味着耶穌基督可以將祂裡面遺傳的本性放在任何人裡面，而祂給我們的所有標準都是基於這種本性——祂的教導是要應用在祂放在我們裡面的生命。我這裡合適的行動就是同意神在基督的十字架上對罪的審判。
新約關於重生的教導是，當一個人被自己的需要感擊中時，神會將聖靈放在他的靈里，他個人的靈就會受到神兒子的靈的激勵——「…直等到基督成形在你們心裡。」（加拉太書 4:19）。救贖的道德神跡就是神能夠我新的本性放在我裡面，通過它我能夠活出全新的生命。當我最終來到我需求的邊緣，並了解自己的有限時，耶穌會說：「你有福了…」（馬太福音 5:11）。但我必須達到這境地。除非我意識到自己需要它，否則神無法將耶穌基督的本性注入我這個負有道德責任的人裡面。
正如罪的本性通過一個人進入這個世界，聖靈也通過另一個人進入人類（見羅馬書5:12-19）。救贖就意味着我可以從罪的遺傳中被釋放出來，並且通過耶穌基督我可以得到純潔無瑕的遺傳，即聖靈。
來自章伯斯的智慧
神設計環境要看我們如何行事。我們會成為天父的孩子？或會再次回到卑鄙、常識的態度？我們會冒一切風險並忠於祂嗎？「你要至死忠心，我就賜給你生命的冠冕。」生命的冠冕意味着我將看到我的主最終獲得了勝利，甚至在我身上也是。《至善—朝聖者歌集》
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