| 以西結書的新約 | |
| 經文: 「我必用清水灑在你們身上，你們就潔淨了。我要潔淨你們，使你們脫離一切的污穢，棄掉一切的偶像。我也要賜給你們一個新心，將新靈放在你們裡面，使你們順從我的律例，遵行我的典章。」（以西結書卅六：25～29） | |
| 如同在耶利米書一般，在以西結書中也有類似的應許，就是上帝要潔淨我們的罪，使我們能順從祂的律例，遵行祂的典章。上帝曾對耶利米說：「我要將律法寫在你的心版上，使你敬畏我，不離開我。」再次祂向以西結說：「我要使你們能順從我的律例，遵行我的典章。」和舊約不同的是，在新約裡，上帝賜給人力量能遵行祂的律例典章，這就是新約的特色。
「那裡罪多，恩典就更顯多。」我們可以與上帝完全連結，而且全然順服祂，但為何有這麼多人不曾經歷這樣的生活？答案很簡單，因為這樣的真理，眾人不相信，也沒有被傳講，也就沒有人期望這應許能被實現。然而在羅馬書八章1～4節，我們看到保羅這樣抱怨：「我真是苦啊！誰能救我脫離這取死的身體呢？」後來他可以這樣感謝上帝，說：「如今那些在基督耶穌裡的就不定罪了，因為賜生命聖靈的律，使我脫離罪和死的律了。」所以那些順從聖靈行事者，就能行出律法所要求的行為準則。 話說回來，為什麼這麼少人能有這樣得勝的見證？要如何才能達到這地步？惟一的方法就是相信全能的上帝，藉著奇妙大能，成就祂的應許，因為祂說：「我怎麼說，就怎麼做到。」讓我們相信祂的話語永遠算數：「我要潔淨你的污穢，使你能順從我的律例，遵行我的典章。」 讓我們相信上帝給了這樣的應許，祂也要負責成就它；而且超乎我們理解的範疇，祂要按我們信心的大小予以成就！只要我們信就必得著，「只要我們完全信賴上帝的應許，祂的能力就保守我們到底。」讓我們今天就來經驗上帝話話的真實性吧！ | |
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| THE NEW COVENANT IN JEREMIAH 31 | |
| Scripture: "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I write it."— JER. xxxi. 31, 33. | |
| When God made the first covenant with Israel at Sinai, He said, "If
ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto Me from among all peoples" (Ex. xix. 5). But Israel, alas, had not
the power to obey. Their whole nature was carnal and sinful. In the covenant
there was no provision for the grace that should make them obedient. The law
only served to show them their sin. In our text God promises to make a new covenant in which provision would be made to enable men to live a life of obedience. In this new covenant, the law was to be put in their inward parts and written in their heart, "not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God," so that they could say to David: I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart." The law, and delight in it, would, through the Holy Spirit, take possession of the inner life with all its powers. Or, as we have it in Jer. xxxii. 40, after God had said: "Is there anything too hard for Me?": "I will make an everlasting covenant with them; and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me." In contrast with the Old Testament and its weakness, which made it impossible to continue faithful, this promise ensures a continual, whole-hearted obedience as the mark of the believer who takes God at His Word, and fully claims what the promise secures. Learn the lesson that in the new covenant God's mighty power will be shown in the heart of everyone who believes the promise: "They shall not depart from Me." "It shall be even so as it hath been spoken unto Me." Bow in deep stillness before God, and believe what He says. The measure of our experience of this power of God keeping us from departing from Him will ever be in harmony with the law: "According to your faith be it unto you." We need to be at great pains to keep the contrast between the Old and the New Testament very clear. The Old had a wonderful measure of grace, but not enough for the continual abiding in the faith of obedience. That is the definite promise of the New Testament, the fruit of heart renewal and the power of the Holy Spirit leading the soul and revealing the fulness of grace to keep us "unblameable in holiness." | |
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