His Gift - Part 1

Ministry In Word

HIS GIFT – Part 1

他的礼物 – 第一部

For the Lord’s portion is His people. (Dt 32:9)

The Lord is my portion, says my soul.” (Lam 3:24)

耶和华的分本是他的百姓〔申32:9〕

我心里说：耶和华是我的分〔哀3:24〕



Christmas is almost here. We can hear the Christmas songs playing non-stopped on the radio. We can see people packing into the shopping malls buying Christmas presents. Yes, Christmas is a joyful time of giving and receiving gifts. Christmas is also a time to remember the greatest gift we receive of all: God’s Son Jesus Christ. Today we are going to look at two verses that describe God’s wonderful gift to us.

圣诞节快到了。我们可以听到收音机不断播放圣诞歌曲，我们可以看到人群挤进商埸去购买圣诞礼物。是的，圣诞节是一个互赠礼物的愉快时间，圣诞节也是一个时间纪念我们得到的最大礼物：神的儿子耶稣基督。今天我们要看两节描述神给我们的美妙礼物的经文。



The precious Word of God, the Bible, reveals to us precious truths, among them are these two verses: The first one is Deuteronomy 32:9, “For the Lord’s portion is His people” and the second one is Lamentation 3:24, “The Lord is my portion, says my soul.” The first one tells us that God has ownership of us; we are His people. The second one tells us that we also have ownership of God; He is our God. These two verses spell out the relationship between God and His people: it is a mutual love relationship. It also tells us that God’s gift to us is His ownership of us and our ownership of Him.

圣经是神宝贵的话语，对我们启示宝贵的真理，其中包括这两节经文：第一节是申命记32:9，「耶和华的分本是他的百姓」和第二节是耶利米哀歌3:24，「我心里说：耶和华是我的分」。第一节告诉我们神拥有我们，我们是他的百姓。第二节告诉我们我们也拥有神，他是我们的神。这两节经文清楚地指出神与他的子民之间的关系：它是一个相互的爱的关系。它也告诉我们他对我们的拥有和我们对他的拥有就是神赐给我们的礼物。



I. We are owned by God

一、 我们为神所拥有



By virtue of the fact that God is our Creator, He owns us. But it does not mean that we are His portion. To me being God’s portion means more than simply His ownership, but rather a very special, intimate relationship He has with a particular group of people which the Bible called the “elect”. The elect are those who are convicted by the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. In three ways God claims a particular ownership on these people. It is by His choice, by His purchase, and by His conquest that we are owned by God.

基于神是我们的创造者这事实，他就拥有我们。但这并不表示我们就是他的分。对我来说作为神的分不只是他的拥有，而是他与一群圣经称为「被拣选」的人之间特殊亲近的关系。被拣选的人就是那些圣灵使之知罪并且接受耶稣基督作为他们的救主和主宰的那些人。神以三种方法来获取对这些人的拥有权，我们属于他是因为他的选择、他的买赎和他的征服。



a. Owned by His choice (His grace) – First of all, we, the elect, are owned by His choice. It is God’s own decision to take us as His portion. It is not due to our excellence that He chooses us. In fact we are no better than anybody else. He chooses us apart from any of our current or anticipated goodness. It is God’s sovereign will that He chooses us as the objects of His grace. Just as He told the Israelites that it was not due to their number or strength that they were chosen, we are chosen not due to any of our perceived or real advantages over others. He chooses according to His sovereign will alone. He said, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Ex 33:19). We are ordained by Him for eternal life, and we are His by no merit of our own.

甲、 因他的选择〔他的恩惠〕我们属于他 – 首先我们属于他是因他的选择。要得到我们作为他的分是神自己的决定。他选择我们并非因为我们优秀。事实上我们并不比别人优越。他选择我们时并不考虑我们任何现有的或预期的美德。那是在他主权里的旨意他选择我们作为他恩惠的对象。正如他告诉以色列人他们被拣选并非因为他们人多势众或强大有力，我们被拣选不是由于我们任何看来的或真实的犹良条件。他单单照他主权里的旨意去选择。他说：「我要恩待谁就恩待谁；要怜悯谁就怜悯谁」〔出33:19〕。我们被他制定来承受永生，我们属于他不是凭着我们的功劳。



It is by His choice alone that we are His. He chose us and we did not choose Him. In fact, it was the Holy Spirit working on us that we were able to respond to His offer of salvation. It is His choice for the Holy Spirit to shine His light on us for us to realize we are sinners. It is His choice to give us the grace to respond to such conviction in repentance and to open our heart to Jesus.

我们属于他是单凭他的抉择，他选择了我们，并非我们选择了他。事实上是圣灵在我们身上工作让我们可以回应他提供的救恩。是他的选择让圣灵光照我们使我们明白我们是罪人。是他的选择来赐我们恩惠来以悔改回应这样的感动及对耶稣打开我们的心。



We are owned by God not by any merit or power of our own. It is all by His choice and His grace.

我们并非靠我们自己任何功劳或力量让我们属于神，完全是凭着他的抉择和他的恩典。





To be continued next week. We have talked about God’s ownership of us by His choice. Next week we will discuss the other 2 ways that God owns us: by purchase and by conquest.

下周待续。我们已谈过神按他的选择来拥有我们。下周我们会论到神拥有我们的其他两个方法：买赎和征服。



May our Lord bless us with His love and grace, so that we may respond to His choice to own us through our faith in Christ.

愿我们的主赐他的爱和他的恩给我们，让我们可以藉着信基督去回应神拥有我们的选择。





Tom and Tehwan Tso

Ministry in Word

仲谋与德菀

真理之言



“The outcome of your faith is the salvation of your souls.” 1Peter 1:9

”信心的果效， 就是灵魂的救恩” 彼得前书1：9