第三週．週四
晨興餧養
羅十一２４ 『你是從那天然的野橄欖樹上砍下來的，尚且逆著性得接在栽種的橄欖樹上，何況這些天然的枝子，豈不更要接在自己的橄欖樹上麼？』
約十一２５ 『…我是復活，我是生命；信入我的人，雖然死了，也必復活。』
雖然受浸的重要性非常具有意義，今天卻少有受浸的人真正珍賞其重要性。我們接觸人、傳揚福音時，必須相信我們所傳的福音是活的話。活的靈與我們同去。…我們必須運用我們的信，相信我們在開口傳揚神的話時，基督的靈會隨著這話作工。然後，我們就跟隨主的指示，將初信者浸入三一神裏。（太二八19。）藉著受浸，這些信徒要在基督死的樣式裏，與祂聯合生長。（新約總論第十冊，五○頁。）
信息選讀
著名的新約解經家哥德（Frederic Louis Godet）在他所著之『羅馬書註釋』一書中說，羅馬六章五節所啟示的生長與接枝的思想有關。哥德將這一節譯為：『我們若藉著祂死的樣式〔與祂〕成為一，成為同一棵植物，也必要作祂復活的分享者。』照哥德所說，生長一辭指『因著生機的聯結，一者有分於屬乎另一者的生命、生長和生存狀態』。兩棵樹藉著接枝有了生機的聯結，一棵樹就有分於另一棵樹的生命和特徵。我們將這領會應用到屬靈的經歷上，就可以說，我們已接枝到神的兒子基督，就是經過過程之三一神的具體化身這『樹』裏。我們藉著接枝與祂成為一，現今就有分於祂這包羅萬有者的生命和特徵，這樣我們就在祂裏面生長。
在這接枝裏，就是在與基督生機的聯結裏，凡基督所經歷的，現今都成了我們的歷史。…這接枝能排除我們一切消極的元素，使我們身上神所造的功能得以復活，拔高我們的功能，充實我們的功能，並浸透我們全人，以變化我們。
一旦我們這樣被接枝到祂裏面，祂復活的生命就進到我們裏面，並除去裏面一切消極的元素。祂的生命在復活裏成為我們的。祂拔高我們原初受造所得的功能，並充實、加強、甚至浸透我們全人。這新生命是二命接成一命的生命。在這聯結裏有得勝、生命、亮光、能力、和一切其他神聖的屬性。…在這接枝裏，我們與祂聯合生長。然後在復活裏，祂的生命長在我們裏面。神聖的生命在我們裏面供應我們。這就是基督徒的生活。
表面上看，接枝是一種切割；實際上，這切割是一種生長。當一棵樹被砍下來接在另一棵樹上，我們在被接枝的樹上看見切割與生長，也就是這棵樹藉著切割的生長。這是我們藉著受浸被埋葬到基督的死裏，而在基督裏生長的一幅圖畫。…受浸就是接枝到基督裏；這個浸包含生長。
一個人悔改並相信主耶穌之後，首先在受浸裏，就是在基督死的樣式裏與祂聯合生長，然後在祂復活的樣式裏，就是在生命的新樣中與祂聯合生長。信徒經歷正確的受浸，神聖的靈在他裏面，就將他的舊人連同屬世、罪惡的元素都治死。然後他從受浸的水裏起來，就是一個新人，開始在生命的新樣中，在祂復活的新樣裏生活行動。因此，他就天天在祂復活的樣式裏生長，並在生命的新樣中行事為人。這的確是對死而復活之基督美妙的經歷和享受。（新約總論第十冊，五一至五四頁。）
參讀：羅馬書生命讀經，第十一篇。
WEEK 3 — DAY 4
Morning Nourishment
Rom. 11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature into the cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree!
John 11:25 …I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live.
Although the significance of baptism is quite meaningful, very few who are baptized today truly appreciate its significance. When we go to contact people to preach the gospel, we must have the faith that the gospel we are preaching is the living word. The living Spirit goes with us…We must exercise our faith to believe that when we open our mouth to preach the word of God, the Spirit of Christ will work along with this word. Then we follow the Lord’s instruction to baptize the new believers into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). Through baptism, these believers will grow together with Christ in the likeness of His death. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 3055)
Todays Reading
Frederic Louis Godet, a famous expositor of the New Testament, has suggested in his Commentary on Romans that the growth revealed in Romans 6:5 is related to the notion of grafting. He translated this verse: “For if we have become one and the same plant [with Him] through the likeness of His death, we shall be also partakers of His resurrection.” According to Godet, the word grown denotes “the organic union in virtue of which one being shares the life, growth, and phases of existence belonging to another.” Through the organic union of two trees, accomplished by grafting, the one tree partakes of the life and characteristics of the other tree. Applying this understanding to our spiritual experience, we may say that we have been grafted into the “tree” of Christ, the Son of God, as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Having become one with Him through grafting, we now partake of the life and characteristics of Him as the all-inclusive One, and in this way we grow in Him.
In this grafting, that is, in the organic union with Christ, whatever Christ passed through has become our history…Such a grafting discharges all our negative elements, resurrects our God-created faculties, uplifts our faculties, enriches our faculties, and saturates our entire being to transform us.
Once we are thus grafted into Him, His resurrection life comes into us and removes all the negative elements within. His life becomes ours in resurrection. He uplifts the original functions given to us at creation and enriches, strengthens, and even saturates our whole being. This new life is a life of two lives grafted into one. In this union are victory, life, light, power, and all the other divine attributes…In this grafting we grow together with Him. Then in resurrection His life grows in us. The divine life is in us, supplying us. This is the Christian life.
Apparently, grafting is a kind of cutting; actually, this cutting is a kind of growth. When a tree is cut off and grafted into another tree, in this tree that is grafted we see both the cutting and the growing, that is, its growth through being cut. This is a picture of our growth in Christ by being buried into the death of Christ through baptism…To be baptized is to be grafted into Christ. This baptism involves growth.
After a person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus, he grows with Christ first in baptism, in the likeness of His death, and then in the likeness of His resurrection, in the newness of life. As a believer experiences a proper baptism, the divine Spirit within him puts to death the old man with his worldly, sinful elements. After he comes out of the water of baptism a new person, he begins to live and walk in the newness of life, in the newness of His resurrection. Therefore, he grows daily in the likeness of His resurrection and walks in newness of life. This is certainly the wonderful experience and enjoyment of the Christ who died and resurrected. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3055-3058)
Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msg. 11
