1230 我們所擁有的每一種美德
歌唱的，跳舞的，都要說，我的泉源都在你裡面。《詩篇87:7》
我們的主從不「修補」我們天然的美德，即我們天生特質、品質或性格。祂完全從內心塑造一個人——「穿上新人…」（以弗所書 4:24）。換句話說，要確保你的天然生命穿上了與新生命相配的一切。神放在我們裡面的生命，會發展它自己的新美德，不是亞當後裔的美德，而是耶穌基督的美德。一旦神開始在你生命中開始了成聖的過程，要觀察並明白神如何使你對自己天然美德和力量的信心枯萎。祂會繼續這樣做，直到你學會從耶穌復活生命的水庫中汲取生命。如果你正在這枯竭的經歷中，要感謝神！
神在我們身上作工的標誌，是祂正在摧毀我們對天然美德的信心，因為它們不是我們所將是的應許，而只是神造人所是的一個無用的提醒。我們想要依賴我們的天然美德，而神卻一直試圖讓我們與耶穌基督的生命相接觸，那是一種永遠無法用天然美德來描述的生命。最可悲的，是看到人們試圖服事神，而倚靠的，卻是神從未賜給他們的恩典；他們僅僅依賴遺傳所擁有的在服事神。神不會拿走我們的天然美德並轉變它們，因為我們天然美德永遠無法達到耶穌基督所要的標準；沒有天然的愛、天然的耐心、天然的純潔能達到祂的要求。但是，當我們將我們天然身體生命的每一部分，與神賦予我們內在的新生命相符時，祂會在我們身上彰顯出主耶穌基督特有的美德。
我們所擁有的每一種美德，都是祂獨有的。
來自章伯斯的智慧
亞伯拉罕的一生是兩件事的例證：毫無保留地降服於神，以及神為了祂自己至高目的而完全擁有祂的孩子。《不知往何處去》
1230 “And Every Virtue We Possess”
…All my springs are in you. —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “…put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess Is His alone.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R