出人意外的恩典

在我14岁时，和很多青少年一样，我开始对父亲的摩托车等机械物件着迷。我每天都央求他教我骑。后来他终于同意了。就带我去城外的草地教我骑车，并且让我骑。但他总要我保证不独自骑车。

一天，父亲正在工作，我不停地打量着车库里的摩托车。我先把它带到外面坐了上去，然后又把它推到门口。我想我可能只骑一个街区。但骑着它的感觉甚是美好，使我不由得想要玩得尽兴，再骑快些。转弯的瞬间，由于速度太快来不及刹车，我撞墙了。摩托车撞坏了，我也伤得很重。

我把摩托车推回家，然后把它藏在车库后面盖上油布。我立时决定扛下所有的家务。爸爸回家后，妈妈对他说道:“帕维尔今天真是个好孩子；他从来没有这样帮助过我。”

爸爸转身看着我。“你做了什么？”他问道，“你把摩托车骑出去了吗？”

我沉默了。爸爸去车库找到了摩托车。他瞬间明白了一切——然后他走了回来。我不知道等待我的是什么。爸爸看着我——走过来——抱住了我。我简直不敢相信。“太好了你还活着！”他说，“你是做错了——但我会原谅你。并且送你一件礼物——这辆摩托车是你的了。它坏了，但你可以和我一起工作赚钱。我会付你应得的报酬，和你一起修摩托车。”

“我不配。”我惊讶地说。

“这是恩典，儿子，”他回答说，“这都是出于恩典。”

“你为什么给我恩典？”我问。

他回答道：“因为我爱你。”

来自上帝，本不配得的礼物

上帝给了我们许多我们本不配得的礼物——天赋、属灵的恩赐、救赎、饶恕和改变——一切的福分都源于他无尽的垂爱、怜恤和恩慈。我们无法靠自己赚取——我们无法为此偿付代价，也不配得到；所有的一切都是基于那无尽的、惊人的、出乎意外的恩典。”然而，上帝既有丰富的怜悯，因他爱我们的大爱，当我们死在过犯中的时候，便叫我们与基督一同活过来。你们得救是本乎恩。 祂又叫我们与基督耶稣一同复活（就是你们被救赎的恩典），一同坐在天上， 要将他极丰富的恩典，就是他在基督耶稣里向我们所施的恩慈，显明给后来的世代看。 你们得救是本乎恩，也因着信；这并不是出于自己，乃是上帝所赐的； 也不是出于行为，免得有人自夸。 “(弗2:4-9)

然而，我们都与上帝的样式相去甚远，那么我们如何才能向人（即使有人不配得时）显出恩典，恩典又是从何而来的呢？“在一颗得因上帝的恩典而更新的心里，爱乃是行动的主要原则。它陶冶品格，管辖冲动，控制欲念，并提高感情。这种爱若怀存在心中，就使人生舒适，并在四周的众人身上发挥高尚的感化力。”¹

恩典与爱的关系

以弗所书第2章中所列出的上帝的本质之一就是“爱”。上帝就是爱。因为祂爱我们，所以祂给我们恩典。我们要爱上帝和我们的邻舍。基督徒若说我爱上帝，却恨他的弟兄就是说谎话的，上帝的爱就不在他里面了(约一4:20)。你可能是一位牧师，明白许多神学知识，你甚至可能也认为你爱上帝，但你若不爱你的邻舍，你可能就不认识上帝。当你缺乏与上帝更新变化的关系时，也就无法与他人分享恩典了。

我们越是经历神的同在，就越发明白祂的恩典，越能效学祂的爱，也更能活出祂的形象。祂的恩典是有感染力的。若是没有改变，没有爱，没有恩典示人，基督教就不再是经验，而只是一种理论了。你爱你最不喜欢的人，并将上帝给你的恩典向他显明到什么程度，这就是你爱上帝的程度了。改变你生命的真正力量是上帝多方向你显现的恩典。你得到的越多，感恩的越多，能分享的也就越多了。

作为牧师，我们一周又一周地站在讲台上，讲论以饶恕、悔改和救赎呈现出来的恩典，高举上帝奇妙的应许。为基督救灵是我们的目标，然而只有上帝的爱和恩典住在我们内心时，我们的会众才能迎来真正的转变。

沐浴在上帝的爱中理应成为我们生命的热望与焦点，也应是我们每日不住地寻求切望的。”凡欲在自己的努力上获得成功的基督徒工作人员必须认识基督；欲求认识祂，就必须先认识祂的爱。在天国，他们的适宜作为工作人员与否，乃是根据他们像基督一样爱人并像祂一样作工的能力而衡量的。”² 你无法给人你原本没有的东西。上帝的同在使他的恩典之国与荣耀之国无论是现今还是在他复临时，都在我们里面显得真实。

如何传递恩典？

“唯有基督在我们还作罪人的时候为我们死，上帝的爱就在此向我们显明了。”(罗5:8) 祂向我们显出了饶恕和怜恤，也给了我们救恩、改变和永生。他每日以我们所不配得的恩典赐福我们。作为“上帝百般恩赐的好管家”(彼前4:10)，我们也要在生活的方方面面效法基督。“你们白白地得来，也要白白地舍去。”(太10:8)

我们如何将恩典分享或传递给他人？你越是花时间充分研究祂的恩典，并试着去了解那宏大、完全、无条件之恩典中的一滴，就越能被它充满。当你自然地分享时，恩典就从你身上流露、散发出来了。它是改变你和周遭之人的唯一力量。唯有常怀和蔼、仁爱和怜悯之心经历恩典的人才能传递恩典。

偿还恩典？

为了更好地解释上帝的恩典，让我们将目光转向太18:21-34中的比喻。一个仆人欠了一万他连得黄金的债。我们实测过一他连得黄金约重30公斤（66磅）。而一他连得黄金大约是6000个工作日的薪水——如果债务人每日工作，并以所有的劳动所得偿还债务，大约需要16.4年。所以10000他连得大约是6000万个工作日（约164000年）的薪水，具体地说，如果他一周工作7天还债，也至少需要工作164383年。

让我们把故事放在今天的背景下，将通货膨胀也考虑在内。如果我们说今天的平均日薪是100美元，当时一他连得是6000个工作日的薪水，放在今天就是60万美元左右，是1644年左右的薪水。所以，10000他连得就相当于今天的60亿美元(600000000英镑)左右，或者1600多万年的薪金，更具体地说，是16438356年。如果一个人一生可以连续工作80年，那么，按照今天的通胀率，全部还清大约需要205,479辈子。

有趣的是，仆人请求原谅，并承诺偿清债务。他似乎不明白这笔债务的分量，也不清楚自己根本无法偿还。免了他的债是一种恩典。显然，一旦债务被免除，他就无需偿还。但他若是偿还了，他也就不再需要饶恕了。他将饶恕和功劳混淆了。饶恕是藉着恩典白白得来的；功劳无需藉着恩典，是劳碌得来的，因此是配得的。

他还幻想着自己能够偿还。在那个时代，他必须活超过164,000年，每天工作，不吃不喝，也不考虑利息，才能还清。他根本无法靠着自己偿清债务。

因为他不清楚自己的处境，就无法为自己所领受的那无尽、宏大的恩典感到感恩。因为他未能感恩如此浩大的恩典，他也就无法将恩典施予他人。

他的邻舍只欠他10两银子（100第纳尔），大约相当于100天的劳动报酬，按一周工作七天算，就是三个月略多一点。他被免除了劳作16万年的债务，却不能赦免他人100天。

领受恩典，施予恩典

我们各人如何理解、领受和感恩上帝多方赐予的无尽恩典，我们也当如何向那些看似不配领受也无力偿还的人施予恩典。只有这样，被饶恕的人才能够饶恕，被爱的人才能去爱，蒙拯救的人才能拯救他人。只有这样，我们才能真正在讲台上传扬上帝的恩典。人们常说“常在花丛过，花香自满身。”我们越是在上帝的恩典中徜徉、经历，就越能无条件地将这恩典分享给人。我们承受越多、领略越多，爱上帝和邻舍的心也就越多。（久而久之，）我们会就被自然而然地改变和教化，从而跟随、顺服、侍奉上帝，并且爱我们的邻舍。

查尔斯·斯温多尔说:“恩典并不否认罪恶的丑陋，而是选择胜过罪恶。恩典以美善接纳罪人和那些顽梗不化、与世隔绝的人。优雅是一种温柔仁慈的礼物，哪怕是在最不合理的时候。” ³真基督徒的品性是被上帝的爱大大充满，并将这种爱从自己的生活中反映出来。到那时，你会能向那些本不配得的人施予恩典了。

将所领受的恩典施予他人，乃是基督住在心内的凭据。这个利己、混乱的世界，需要上帝的儿女反照出上帝的品格，以恩典、怜悯和关爱对待邻舍。当我们传递恩典时，便是将他们引到上帝的爱和恩典之中了。上帝正在呼召我们每日经历、分享他的恩典，没有比这更好的布道了。

1. 怀爱伦，《使徒行述》，(加利福尼亚州 山景城：太平洋出版社 1911)，551页。

2.同上。^

3.查尔斯·斯温多尔，《耶稣：最伟大的生命》(田纳西州 纳什维尔：托马斯·纳尔逊，2008)，90页。^

Incredible grace

At age 14, like many other teenagers, I was fascinated by my father’s motorcycle and everything related to it. I asked him daily to teach me how to ride it. He finally agreed. He would take me to a grass field outside the city and show me how to ride it, then have me do it. He always made me promise never to take the bike out alone.

One day, while my father was at work, I kept looking at the motorcycle in the garage. Then I took it outside to just sit on it, and then I took it to the gate. Maybe I will ride it for only one block, I thought. But when it felt so good to ride it, I decided to have fun and go as fast as possible. Right after a curve, I was going so fast that I had no time to brake and crashed right into a concrete wall. I ruined the bike and hurt myself pretty badly.

I pushed the motorcycle all the way back home, and then I hid it in the back of the garage under a tarp. Instantly, I decided to do all types of chores. When Dad came home, Mom said to him, “Pavel was a really good kid today; he helped me as never before.”

Dad turned and looked at me. “What have you done?” he asked. “Did you take the bike out?”

I was quiet. My dad went to the garage and found the bike. It took a few seconds for him to take it all in—then he came back. I did not know what to expect. My Dad looked at me—came over—and gave me a hug. I couldn’t believe it. “I’m so glad you are alive!“ he said. “What you did was wrong—but I forgive you. And I’m also giving you a gift—this bike is yours. It’s broken now, but you will work with me and make some money. I’ll match the money you earn and together we’ll fix the bike.”

“I don’t deserve it,” I said in amazement.

“It is grace, Son,” he replied. “It’s all out of grace.”

“Why would you show me grace?” I asked.

Back came the reply. “Because I love you.”

GOD’S UNDESERVED GIFTS 

God has given us many undeserved gifts—natural talents, spiritual gifts, salvation, forgiveness, and transformation—all favors based on His infinite love, compassion, and mercy. We cannot earn these on our own—we cannot pay for them, neither do we deserve them; all are based on infinite, amazing, incredible grace. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:4–9, NKJV).

Yet, we are all far from being like God, so how do we show grace, especially when someone does not deserve it? Where does grace start? “In the heart renewed by divine grace, love is the ruling principle of action. It modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, and ennobles the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the life and sheds a refining influence on all around.”¹

HOW IS LOVE INVOLVED?

An attribute of God listed in Ephesians 2 is “love.” God is love. And because He loves us, He shows us grace. And we are called to love God and to love our neighbor. If you are a Christian and you say you love God but do not love your neighbor, then you lie and the love of God is not in you (1 John 4:20). You may be a pastor, you may know a lot of theology, you may even think you love God, but if you do not love your neighbor, you may not actually know God. You, then, lack the transforming relationship with Him and, therefore, cannot share grace with others.

The more we experience God’s presence, understand His grace, and partake of His love, the more we are transformed into His image. His grace is contagious. If there is no transformation, no love, and no grace shown to others, then Christianity is not an experience, just a theory. To the degree that you love the person you like least and show them the grace God shows you, to that same degree, you love God. The real power that transforms your life is God’s grace manifested in so many ways toward you. The more you receive and appreciate it, the more you will share it.

As pastors, we stand on the podium week after week, talking about grace manifested in forgive- ness, transformation, and salvation, and lifting up God’s wonderful promises. Our goal is to save souls for Christ, yet only God’s presence in us, with His love and grace, can bring true transformation that shines out to our parishioners.

Submersion in the presence of God should be the desire and focus of our lives, what we seek daily and thirst for continually. “Christian workers who succeed in their efforts must know Christ; and in order to know Him, they must know His love. In heaven their fitness as workers is measured by their ability to love as Christ loved and to work as He worked.”² You cannot give what you do not have. God’s presence makes God’s kingdom of grace real inside of us now and His kingdom of glory real at His second coming.

HOW DO YOU EXTEND GRACE?

God “demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, NIV). He has shown us forgiveness, compassion, He has offered us salvation, transformation, eternity. He is blessing us daily. All undeserved grace. As “faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet. 4:10, NIV), we are called to do the same in all areas of life. “Freely you have received; freely give” (Matt. 10:8, NIV).

How do we share or extend grace to others? The more you take time to fully investigate His grace and try to understand a drop of that magnificent, complete, unconditional grace, the more you are filled with it. When you naturally share it, it flows through you; it radiates from you. That is the single power that transforms you and others around you. You cannot be any other way but gracious, kind, and compassionate. Only the one who experiences grace can extend grace.

PAYING BACK GRACE?

To explain a little of how God’s grace works in different situations, let’s look to the parable in Matthew 18:21–34. A servant owes 10,000 talents of gold. One talent in our actual measurements would be about 30 kilograms—or about 66 pounds of gold. One talent was wages for about 6,000 workdays—roughly 16.4 years’ wages if the debtor worked every day and put all of the earnings toward the debt. So 10,000 talents was about 60 million (60,000,000) workdays’ wages, over 164,000 years’ wages or, to be more specific, over 164,383 years’ wages if he worked seven days a week.

Let’s put this in today’s context, which includes inflation over the years. If we say that an average wage today is US$100 a day, considering that one talent at that time was 6,000 workdays’ wages, then one talent in our day would be about US $600,000 or about 1,644 years wages. So, 10,000 talents would be equivalent today to about six billion US dollars (6,000,000,000)—or more than 16 million years’ wages, more specifically, 16,438,356 years’ wages. If a person worked 80 years straight in a lifetime, then, with today’s inflation, it would take about 205,479 lifetimes to pay back that debt.

Very interestingly, the servant asks for forgiveness and promises to pay the debt back. He does not seem to understand the enormity of his debt and the fact that he cannot pay it back. Forgiving his debt is an act of grace. Clearly, if his debt is forgiven, he does not need to pay it back. If he pays it back, he does not need forgiveness. He confuses forgiveness, received freely by grace, with merits. This means you don’t need grace; you work for it and therefore deserve it.

He also imagines that he can pay it back. In his day, he would have had to live over 164,000 years, work every single day, and never use any of the earnings for food or bills to pay it back—without considering interest. He would never have been able to make a dent in paying his debt back.

Because he is not cognizant of his situation, he does not appreciate the infinite, extended grace. Because he does not fully appreciate the grace he receives, he cannot extend grace to others.

His neighbor owes him 100 denarii, which would be, more or less, about 100 days of work, a little over three months of working seven days a week. The first servant is pardoned for more than 160,000 years of debt, yet he cannot forgive 100 days.

GRACE RECEIVED, GRACE IMPARTED

To the degree that each one of us understands, receives, and appreciates God’s infinite grace expressed in a variety of ways, to that same degree, we need to extend grace to others who may not deserve it and cannot pay it back. Only then can the forgiven forgive, the loved love, and the saved save. Only then can we genuinely preach God’s grace in the pulpit. It is said, “The more you walk among flowers, the more you smell like flowers.” So, the more you walk in God’s grace and experience it, the more you share that grace with others—and without strings. The more you receive and understand it, the more you love God and love your neighbor. Effortlessly and naturally, you are transformed and discipled. You follow God, obey Him, serve Him, and care for your neighbor.

Charles Swindoll says, “Grace acknowledges the ugliness of sin by choosing to see beyond it. Grace accepts a person as someone worthy of kindness despite whatever grime or hard-shell casing keeps him or her separated from the rest of the world. Grace is a gift of tender mercy when it makes the least sense.”³ Real Christianity is to be filled with God’s love so much that your life will reflect that love. You will then show grace in a variety of forms to those who do not deserve it.

Grace received becomes grace imparted, the real proof of Christ living in the heart. In a self-centered world, a world that is in confusion and need, God’s children must reflect God’s character in showing grace and compassion, care and love to others around them. As we extend grace, we guide them to God’s love and grace. God is calling us to experience and share His grace daily. That is the best sermon we can deliver.

1. 1. Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), 551. ^
2. 2. White, 551. ^
3. 3. Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 90. ^

原文链接：https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2022/01/Incredible-grace