2008年7月11日 星期五

Who forgives whom first?

"As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." (Colossians 3:13)

When Jesus teaches us to pray that God forgive us "for we ourselves forgive," he is not saying that the first move in forgiveness was our move. Rather it goes like this: God forgave us when we believed in Christ (Acts 10:43). Then, from this broken, joyful, grateful, hopeful, experience of being forgiven, we offer forgiveness to others. This signifies that we have been savingly forgiven. That is, our forgiving others shows that we have faith; we are united to Christ; we are indwelt by the Spirit. ~from desiringGod, John Piper, Jul 9, 2008.

常禱告求主赦免我的罪, 如同我赦免人的罪; 嘗以為神要我學習先去原諒別人的過犯, 相對的神也會饒恕我的過犯; 但從上述文章中指出神在基督裡早已赦免了我們的罪犯. 我們的赦免並非在於自己的行為, 而是在於對神的信心. 的確, 一切犯罪都是由心發生的; 當我相信祂, 嘗試到神對我的寬容及饒恕, 又怎能還記得別人對自己的冒犯呢?

"眾先知也為他作見證、說、凡信他的人、必因他的名、得蒙赦罪。"(Act 10:43)