The Law of the Spirit
‘For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”. - Romans 8:15
Romans 8 posits a problem for disciples to consider. Is the direction of our life governed by the law of the spirit? Or the law of the flesh? Which nature guides our everyday life? In how we speak about one another, how we build our career and how we treat our family?
One of the key mistakes I see in a disciple’s life (one which I am not immune to making) is that we form plans to combat the sin in our life which are predominantly driven by our human effort. We will try to be more patient by just trying, we will be less stressed by thinking more positively, we will try and be kinder by trying harder to control our words. The issue with these approaches is not the intention, but the presupposition that we can outrun the impact of sin through our human efforts.
For sin is a three-dimensional problem in the life of a person. It has breadth in how it causes our nature to be totally depraved, it has depth in how far we would go to hide or to justify our brokenness, shame and the kinds of dysfunction a human heart can take spans a length too far to measure. Sin draws all humanity to itself and away from the purpose and presence of God.
Paul in Romans calls disciples of Christ to not simply try to escape sin by their own efforts. For no matter how far you run we cannot escape sin by the effort of the flesh. For our flesh cannot run past the length of our brokenness, nor swim beyond the depth of our dysfunction and definitely not escape the breadth of our twistedness. Our only solution is to find a new life in the spirit of God. ‘For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death’ (Romans 8:2). If we live by the Spirit, then we reap the fruit of a spiritual life; but if we rely on the flesh of our life then the harvest of our life can only end in the death of the flesh.
By the Spirit we are patient because we know the Lord is with the meek (Matthew 5), by the Spirit we are kind because we know the Lord has loving kindness for His people (Psalm 145) and we resist anger for we know that human anger cannot produce righteousness (James 1).
If you have sin and dysfunction in your life, may I encourage you not to turn to your own efforts to resist it, but to turn to Christ and His word, His presence and His grace to bring you to repentance instead?
This year my hope is that our church would have great growth in holiness and love for one another. To be free of gossip and slander. To be rich in love and mercy. To be disciples who build each other up rather than take joy in tearing our brothers and sisters down. To do that, let’s turn to our Lord before we turn to ourselves.
聖靈的律
『你們所受的，不是奴僕的心，仍舊害怕；所受的，乃是兒子的心，因此我們呼叫：「阿爸！父啊！」』羅馬書 8:15
羅馬書第八章為門徒們提出了一個很值得我們深思的問題：我們的生命方向是由聖靈的律所主導，還是由肉體的律所控制呢？哪一種本性主導我們的日常生活？如何看待彼此、如何建立自己的事業和對待家人？
在門徒的生活中，我常見的一個錯誤（包括我自己也難以避免的）就是，我們常常依靠自己的力量去面對罪惡。我們往往會找方法令自己耐心一點，又或者令自己想得正面一點來減少壓力，又或者努力說一些比較動聽的話來表達我們的友善。問題並不在於動機，而是在於我們僅憑自己的努力去克服罪的影響。
然而罪在人的生命中是一個三維的問題。它的廣度顯示在我們的本性是何等的全然敗壞；它的深度顯示在我們可以掩飾或合理化自己的破碎到何等深的程度；而羞恥感和人心的各種扭曲則顯示罪的跨度往往遠遠超出能測量的範圍。罪將所有人吸引向它，遠離神的旨意與同在。
保羅在《羅馬書》中呼籲基督的門徒們不要僅僅靠自己的努力去對抗罪惡。無論我們跑多遠，也無法憑藉肉體的努力來逃脫罪惡的束縛。因為我們的肉體無法超越我們敗壞的廣度，無法越過我們人心詭詐的深度，更無法逃離我們人性扭曲的廣度。我們唯一的解決辦法就是在神的靈中找到新的生命。「因為賜生命聖靈的律，在基督耶穌裡釋放了我，使我脫離了罪和死的律。」（羅馬書 8:2）如果我們靠聖靈而活，就能收穫屬靈生命的果子；但若依靠肉體，最終只能收割肉體帶來的死亡。
藉著聖靈，我們能有耐心，因為我們知道主與溫柔的人同在（馬太福音 5）；藉著聖靈，我們能有愛心，因為我們知道主以慈愛待祂的百姓（詩篇 145）；我們抗拒怒氣，因為我們知道人的怒氣不能成就神的義（雅各書 1）。
如果你生命中有罪惡和混亂，可否讓我鼓勵你不要依靠自己的努力去抵抗它，而是要轉向基督，轉向祂的話語、祂的同在和祂的恩典，讓祂帶領你悔改？
今年，我希望我們的教會能在聖潔和彼此相愛上有很大的成長。遠離閒話和毀謗，滿有愛心與憐憫，成為能彼此建立的門徒，而非以拆毀弟兄姐妹為樂的人。為了做到這一點，讓我們轉向主，而不是依靠自己的能力。
