7:1 弟兄們,我現在對明白律法的人說,你們豈不曉得律法管人是在活著的時候嗎?
7:2 就如女人有了丈夫,丈夫還活著,就被律法約束;丈夫若死了,就脫離了丈夫的律法。
7:3 所以丈夫活著,她若歸於別人,便叫淫婦;丈夫若死了,她就脫離了丈夫的律法,雖然歸於別人,也不是淫婦。
7:4 我的弟兄們,這樣說來,你們藉著基督的身體,在律法上也是死了,叫你們歸於別人,就是歸於那從死裡復活的,叫我們結果子給上帝。
7:5 因為我們屬肉體的時候,那因律法而生的惡慾就在我們肢體中發動,以致結成死亡的果子。
7:6 但我們既然在捆我們的律法上死了,現今就脫離了律法,叫我們服事主,要按著心靈(心靈:或譯聖靈)的新樣,不按著儀文的舊樣。
Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
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保羅這一段話不是要我們反對上帝的律法,就是舊約中上帝所頒布的,而是要我們脫離形式上的做為,就是所謂的形式主義。因為形式主義者認為,我們要做到律法的要求的行為,才是真正的敬畏上帝;而不是內心被感動而歸向上帝。
這有什麼問題呢?用外表的行為好來覺得自己是敬畏上帝的,好壞的判斷是在自己的內心,而不是上帝。然而自以為是敬畏上帝,或是有遵守律法的要求,完全是自欺欺人!因為人要靠行為在律法上成為義是不可能的,這是保羅在前面已經討論過的:人是受到罪的綑綁,跟本不可能靠行為被稱做義人,只有被律法定罪分。所以,上帝才會透過耶穌基督來救贖我們,使我們從耶穌基督所完成的得著義人的資格!
既然義人的資格是從主耶穌來,人就不在能再自以為義了,更不能因為守律法而成為義人,反而要來信靠從死裡復活的主耶穌,才可以真正成為上帝所喜悅的義人!
既然是主耶穌所賜的義,使我們成為上帝的兒女,就不需要再靠禮儀上的律例稱義,因為這些主耶穌以替我們完成!但是,我們仍需要律法上道德的律例來引導,因為聖經已經清楚標示:「世人哪,耶和華已指示你何為善。他向你所要的是甚麼呢?只要你行公義,好憐憫,存謙卑的心,與你的上帝同行。」(彌迦書6:8)
因此,不是靠律法來稱義,而是要靠律法做生活的引導,是盡信徒的本分而非靠此得上帝拯救!其實舊約律法的頒布也是在以色列人被上帝拯救出埃及才設立的,用遵行律法做上帝選民的記號!拯救者是上帝,而非遵行律法!
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