第01章 上帝爱人
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第01章 上帝爱人
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Chapter 1—God’s Love for Man
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大自然和圣经都彰显上帝的爱。我们的天父是生命、智慧、喜乐的泉源。请你观察奇妙美丽的自然万物，思考它们是如何神奇地适应人类和一切生物的需要和幸福。给大地、群山、海洋、平原带来生机和滋润的阳光和雨露，向我们述说创造主的慈爱。供应一切受造之物日常需要的乃是上帝。诗人在他优美的诗句中写道：“万民都举目仰望祢：祢随时给他们食物，祢张手，使有生气的都随愿饱足”（诗145:15,16）。{SC 9.1}[1]
§4
Nature and revelation alike testify of God’s love. Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator’s love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. In the beautiful words of the psalmist—“The eyes of all wait upon Thee;?And Thou givest them their meat in due season.?Thou openest Thine hand,?And satisfiest the desire of every living thing.”Psalm 145:15, 16.?{SC 9.1}[1]
§5
上帝所创造的人类本来是完全圣洁幸福的。当美丽的大地从创造主手中出来的时候，毫无衰败的痕迹和咒诅的阴影。灾难和死亡是因违背上帝爱的律法而临到的。但即使在罪所带来的苦难中，上帝的爱仍然显明。圣经说，上帝因人的缘故就咒诅大地（创3:17）。荆棘和蒺藜——使今生烦恼劳苦的种种艰难试炼——是为人的益处而安排的。这在上帝的计划中是一门必修课，为要使人摆脱由罪而生的败坏和堕落。这个世界虽然已经沉沦，但并不都是忧郁凄惨的。在大自然中仍然有希望和安慰的信息。刺草之上开着野花，荆棘之上长着玫瑰。{SC 9.2}[2]
§6
God made man perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came from the Creator’s hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is transgression of God’s law—the law of love—that has brought woe and death. Yet even amid the suffering that results from sin, God’s love is revealed. It is written that God cursed the ground for man’s sake.?Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle—the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care—were appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God’s plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought. The?world, though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with roses.?{SC 9.2}[2]
§7
“上帝就是爱”写在每一朵蓓蕾和每一株芳草上。莺歌鸟语，婉转空间；姹紫嫣红，馥郁芬芳；树高林密，绿荫如盖。凡此美景，无不证明我们上帝的温慈和父亲般的照顾，证明祂希望祂的儿女幸福的愿望。{SC 10.1}[3]
§8
“God is love” is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green—all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy.?{SC 10.1}[3]
§9
圣经也显明上帝的品格。上帝曾亲自宣布自己无穷的慈爱和怜悯。当摩西祈求“显出祢的荣耀给我看”时，耶和华回答说：“我要显我一切的恩慈，在你面前经过”（出33:18,19）。这是祂的荣耀所在。耶和华从摩西面前经过，宣告说：“耶和华是有怜悯、有恩典的上帝，不轻易发怒，并有丰盛的慈爱和诚实，为千万人存留慈爱，赦免罪孽、过犯和罪恶”（出34:6,7）。祂“不轻易发怒，有丰盛的慈爱和诚实，”因祂“喜爱施恩”（拿4:2；弥7:18）。{SC 10.2}[4]
§10
The word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, “Show me Thy glory,” the Lord answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee.”?Exodus 33:18, 19. This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”?Exodus 34:6, 7. He is “slow to anger, and of great kindness,” “because He delighteth in mercy.”?Jonah 4:2;?Micah 7:18.?{SC 10.2}[4]
§11
上帝用天地间无数的证据把我们的心与祂相联系。祂藉着自然万物和我们所能理解的人间最深切、最温慈的关系，向我们显示祂自己。然而这一切仍未尽显祂的慈爱。尽管这些证据已经赐下，但“众善之敌”蒙蔽了人的心目，使人害怕上帝，觉得祂是铁面无情的。撒但引人视上帝为秉性严酷的法官和刻薄的债主。他描绘创造主以嫉妒的眼光窥察人类的过犯和罪错，以便降罚于他。为了驱散这层乌云，向世人展现上帝无穷的慈爱，耶稣来到了人间生活。{SC 10.3}[5]
§12
God has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven and in earth. Through the things of nature, and the deepest and tenderest earthly ties that human hearts can know, He has sought to reveal Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly represent His love. Though all these evidences have been given, the enemy of good blinded the minds of men, so that they looked upon God with fear; they thought of?Him as severe and unforgiving. Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice,—one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit judgments upon them. It was to remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God, that Jesus came to live among men.?{SC 10.3}[5]
§13
上帝的儿子从天降临，为了显明天父。“从来没有人看见上帝，只有在父怀里的独生子将祂表明出来。”“除了子和子所愿意指示的，没有人知道父”（约1:18；太11:27）。当一位门徒要求“将父显给我们看”时，耶稣回答说：“腓力，我与你们同在这样长久，你还不认识我吗？人看见了我，就是看见了父；你怎么说‘将父显给我们看’呢”（约14:8,9）？{SC 11.1}[6]
§14
The Son of God came from heaven to make manifest the Father. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”?John 1:18. “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.”?Matthew 11:27. When one of the disciples made the request, “Show us the Father,” Jesus answered, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”?John 14:8, 9.?{SC 11.1}[6]
§15
耶稣论到自己在地上的使命说：“主用膏膏我，叫我传福音给贫穷的人；差遣我报告：被掳的得释放，瞎眼的得看见，叫那受压制的得自由”（路4:18）。这就是祂的工作。祂周流四方行善事，医好凡被撒但压制的人。祂所经过的村庄，不再有一家发出疾病的呻吟，因为祂把他们的病全治好了。祂的工作证明了祂是受上帝所膏的。祂的一举一动都显出慈爱、怜悯和同情。祂心中充满了对人类的柔情的爱怜。祂取了人性，是为了满足人类的需要。最贫穷、最卑微的人也不怕接近祂。连小孩子也被祂所吸引。他们喜欢坐在祂的膝盖上，凝视祂那因爱而仁慈和蔼的忧郁的容颜。{SC 11.2}[7]
§16
In describing His earthly mission, Jesus said, The Lord “hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”?Luke 4:18. This was His work. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by Satan. There were whole villages where there was not a moan of sickness in any house, for He had passed through them and healed all their sick. His work gave evidence of His divine anointing. Love, mercy, and compassion were revealed in every act of?His life; His heart went out in tender sympathy to the children of men. He took man’s nature, that He might reach man’s wants. The poorest and humblest were not afraid to approach Him. Even little children were attracted to Him. They loved to climb upon His knees and gaze into the pensive face, benignant with love.?{SC 11.2}[7]
§17
耶稣并不隐瞒一句真实的话语。但祂说话的时候，总是凭着爱心。祂与人交往既机智周到，又和蔼可亲。祂绝不粗鲁从事，从不无缘无故地说严厉的话，也不给敏感的人带来无谓的痛苦。祂不指责人性的软弱。祂述说真理，总是凭着爱心。祂痛斥伪善、不信和罪恶。但祂在发出严厉责备的时候总是声泪俱下的。祂为祂所爱的耶路撒冷城哀哭，因为她不肯接受祂为道路、真理和生命。他们拒绝救主，救主仍对他们慈悲为怀。祂的人生是舍已利人的人生。每一个人在祂眼中都视为宝贵。祂虽有神格之尊，仍屈身俯就上帝家里的每一个人。祂看全人类都是祂有责任要拯救的失丧者。{SC 12.1}[8]
§18
Jesus did not suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always in love. He exercised the greatest tact and thoughtful, kind attention in His relationships with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He spoke the truth, but always in love. He denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity; but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the way, the truth, and the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with pitying tenderness. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful care for others. Every soul was precious in His eyes. While He ever bore Himself with divine dignity, He bowed with the tenderest regard to every member of the family of God. In all men He saw fallen souls whom it was His mission to save.?{SC 12.1}[8]
§19
基督的生活所显示的品格就是这样。这是上帝的品德。上帝怜爱的川流是从天父心中发源，在基督身上彰显出来，并涌向普世人类。慈悲怜悯的救主耶稣乃是“上帝在肉身显现”（提前3:16）。{SC 12.2}[9]
§20
Such is the character of Christ as revealed in His life. This is the character of God. It is from the Father’s heart that the streams of divine compassion, manifest in Christ, flow out to the children of men. Jesus, the tender, pitying Saviour, was God “manifest in the flesh.”?1 Timothy 3:16.?{SC 12.2}[9]
§21
耶稣的生活、受苦和舍命是为了救赎我们。祂成了“多受痛苦”的人，为使我们分享永远的喜乐。上帝让祂的儿子离开莫可言喻的荣耀天庭，充充满满地有恩典、有真理，来到被罪恶所败坏和毁损、被死亡和咒诅的阴影所遮暗的大地。天父让祂离开自己慈爱的怀抱和众天使的崇拜，来忍受羞辱、讥笑、藐视、厌弃和死亡。“因祂受的刑罚，我们得平安；因祂受的鞭伤，我们得医治”（赛53:5）。请看祂在旷野里，在客西马尼园中，在十字架上！上帝无瑕疵的儿子，负起了罪的担子。与上帝原为一的主，心里感受到罪所造成上帝与人之间的可怕分离，口中发出了痛苦的呼喊：“我的上帝！我的上帝！为什么离弃我”（太27:46）？使上帝的儿子心碎肠断的，是罪的重担、罪恶穷凶极恶的可怕感觉，以及罪所造成心灵与上帝之间的隔绝。{SC 13.1}[10]
§22
It was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He became “a Man of Sorrows,” that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”?Isaiah 53:5. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”?Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God—it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.?{SC 13.1}[10]
§23
但这种伟大的牺牲不是为了引发天父爱人的心，促使祂乐意施行拯救。“上帝爱世人，甚至将祂的独生子赐给他们”（约3:16）。天父不是因为赎价重大才爱我们，而是因爱我们才预备了赎价。祂藉着基督向沉沦的世界倾下祂无穷的慈爱。“上帝在基督里叫世人与自己和好”（林后5:19）。上帝和祂的儿子是同受苦难的。当基督在客西马尼园中受苦，在髑髅地受死时，无穷慈爱的天父为我们付出了赎价。{SC 13.2}[11]
§24
But this great sacrifice was not made in order to create in the Father’s heart a love for man, not to make Him willing to save. No, no! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.”?John 3:16. The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the medium through which He could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”?2 Corinthians 5:19. God suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane, the death of?Calvary, the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption.?{SC 13.2}[11]
§25
耶稣说：“我父爱我，因我将命舍去，好再取回来”（约10:17）。这就是说：“我父爱你们。因我舍命来救赎你们，祂就更加爱我了。我因舍身作了你们的替身和中保，承担你们的罪债和过犯，就更蒙父爱了。因着我的牺牲，上帝便显为义，信耶稣的人也得以称义。”{SC 14.1}[12]
§26
Jesus said, “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again.”?John 10:17. That is, “My Father has so loved you that He even loves Me more for giving My life to redeem you. In becoming your Substitute and Surety, by surrendering My life, by taking your liabilities, your transgressions, I am endeared to My Father; for by My sacrifice, God can be just, and yet the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.”?{SC 14.1}[12]
§27
只有上帝的儿子才能救赎我们。只有在父怀里的圣子才能显示天父。只有明白上帝之爱是何等长阔高深的主，才能将这爱彰显出来。要不是基督为堕落的人类作出无穷的牺牲，没有其它方法能向丧亡的人类表显天父的慈爱。{SC 14.2}[13]
§28
None but the Son of God could accomplish our redemption; for only He who was in the bosom of the Father could declare Him. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it manifest. Nothing less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf of fallen man could express the Father’s love to lost humanity.?{SC 14.2}[13]
§29
“上帝爱世人，甚至将祂的独生子赐给他们。”上帝不但使祂住在人间担当他们的罪孽，作他们的牺牲，更将祂赐给了堕落的人类。基督把自己与人的利益和需要连在一起。这位与上帝原为一的主，用牢不可破的纽带把自己同人类连接起来。“祂称他们为弟兄也不以为耻”（来2:11）。祂是我们的牺牲，我们的中保，我们的弟兄。作为“人子”，祂在天父的宝座前保留着人的形状，永远与祂所救赎的子民合而为—。这一切都是为要使人类脱离罪的败坏和堕落，反映上帝的爱，分享圣洁的喜乐。{SC 14.3}[14]
§30
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” He gave Him not only to live among men, to bear their sins, and die their sacrifice. He gave Him to the fallen race. Christ was to identify Himself with the interests and needs of humanity. He who was one with God has linked Himself with the children of men by ties that are never to be broken. Jesus is “not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11); He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our Brother, bearing our human form before the Father’s throne, and through eternal ages one with the race He has redeemed—the Son of man. And all this that man might be uplifted from the ruin and degradation of sin that he might reflect the love of God and share the joy of holiness.?{SC 14.3}[14]
§31
我们得救的赎价，和天父赐下祂儿子为我们舍命的无穷牺牲，应当使我们更深地认识到自己藉着基督所能成就的一切。当蒙启示的使徒约翰看到天父对于丧亡之人的爱是何等长阔高深时，就充满了恭敬之心。他无法用言语表达这爱的伟大和深广，只能恳劝世人瞻仰这爱。“你看父赐给我们是何等的慈爱，使我们得称为上帝的儿女”（约壹3:1）。这个地位对于人类是何等地宝贵！人因犯罪而成了撒但的奴仆。但藉着信赖基督的赎罪牺牲，亚当的子孙就能成为上帝的儿子。基督披上人性来拯救人类，堕落的人就能因与基督联合而得到“上帝的儿子”的名分。{SC 15.1}[15]
§32
The price paid for our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of what we may become through Christ. As the inspired apostle John beheld the height, the depth, the breadth of the Father’s love toward the perishing race, he was filled with adoration and reverence; and, failing to find suitable language in which to express the greatness and tenderness of this love, he called upon the world to behold it. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”?1 John 3:1. What a value this places upon man! Through transgression the sons of man become subjects of Satan. Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ the sons of Adam may become the sons of God. By assuming human nature, Christ elevates humanity. Fallen men are placed where, through connection with Christ, they may indeed become worthy of the name “sons of God.”?{SC 15.1}[15]
§33
如此大爱实在无与伦比！作天上君王的儿女，这是何等宝贵的应许！何等值得深思的题目！上帝竟无限爱怜这个不爱祂的世界！想到这一点，人就不得不屈身下俯，使自己的心顺服上帝的旨意。在十字架的光照之下，我们越研究上帝的品德，就越能看出慈爱、怜悯和赦免是与公理和正义深相结合的，我们就更清楚地看到无穷之爱的无数凭据，以及上帝那远胜过慈母惦念浪子的慈怜。{SC 15.2}[16]
§34
Such love is without a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme for the most profound meditation! The matchless love of God for a world that did not love Him! The thought has a subduing power upon the soul and brings the mind into captivity to the will of God. The more we study the divine character in the light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite and a tender pity surpassing a mother’s yearning sympathy for her wayward child.?{SC 15.2}[16]