1120 神的赦免
我们借这爱子的血得蒙救赎，过犯得以赦免，乃是照他丰富的恩典。《以弗所书1:7》
要提防神的父性以下这种令人愉悦的观点：神如此仁慈和慈爱，当然就会赦免我们。那种完全基于情感的想法，在《新约》中是找不到的。神能赦免我们的唯一依据是基督十字架上的巨大悲剧；将我们的赦免置于其他根基，都是无意识的亵渎。神能够赦免我们的罪并重新恩宠我们，唯一依据是藉着基督的十字架，此外别无他法！赦免对我们来说如此容易接受，但却付上在加略山上痛苦的代价。我们永远不应该接受罪得赦免、圣灵的恩赐和我们单凭信心的成圣，然后忘记神为我们成就一切所付出的巨大代价。
赦免是神恩典的神迹，神付出的代价是基督的十字架；要赦免罪，同时仍旧是圣洁的神，必须付出这个代价。切勿接受神是父，如果它抹去赎罪的观点。神启示的真理是，没有赎罪，祂就不能赦罪——若祂赦罪，就违反祂的本性。我们能被赦免的唯一途径，是通过十字架的赎罪被带回到神那里。神的赦免只有在超自然的领域上才有可能。
与赦罪的神迹相比，成圣的经历显得很小。成圣只是人的生命中罪得赦免的奇妙表现或明证。但唤醒人最深层感激泉源的，是神赦免了他的罪。保罗从未逃避这一点。一旦你意识到神为赦免你付出了一切的代价，你就会被神的爱所抓住，就像被钳子夹住一样。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们的危险在于淡化神的话来迎合自己。神从不调整祂的话来迎合我；祂调整我来符合祂的话。 《不知往何处去》
1120 The Forgiveness of God
In Him we have…the forgiveness of sins… —Ephesians 1:7
Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive— He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm.
Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. —Not Knowing Whither, 901 R