3:15 弟兄們,我且照著人的常話說:雖然是人的文約,若已經立定了,就沒有能廢棄或加增的。
3:16 所應許的原是向亞伯拉罕和他子孫說的。上帝並不是說「眾子孫」,指著許多人,乃是說「你那一個子孫」,指著一個人,就是基督。
3:17 我是這麼說,上帝預先所立的約,不能被那四百三十年以後的律法廢掉,叫應許歸於虛空。
3:18 因為承受產業,若本乎律法,就不本乎應許;但上帝是憑著應許把產業賜給亞伯拉罕。
My friends, I will use an everyday example
to explain what I mean. Once someone agrees to something, no one else can
change or cancel the agreement. That is how it is with the promises God made to
Abraham and his descendant. The promises were not made to many descendants, but
only to one, and that one is Christ. What I am saying is that the Law cannot
change or cancel God’s promise that was made 430 years before the Law was
given. If we have to obey the Law in order to receive God’s blessings, those
blessings don’t really come to us because of God’s promise. But God was kind to
Abraham and made him a promise.
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這裡告訴我們一個重要的信仰基礎,就是「應許」。或許這個詞對我們很難明白,但是我們將「應許」解釋為「答應」,就明白上帝是一位賜福的上帝,而且是主動。
而上帝的主動賜福更說明信心的重要性,讓我們知道這是恩典,不是我們努力得來的,這就像我們從父親手中得著要送給我們的東西,我們要得的心安理得,更要為此作見證。
也因此基督教不是勸世的宗教,而是救世的信仰,透過這個信仰使人可以進入上帝的恩典與賜福中,也唯有如此人的生命才會被提升,才能有上帝兒女的豐盛生命。
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