问题31：真信心是相信什么？
答：福音中教导我们的一切。《使徒信经》对我们信仰的告白如下：我信上帝，全能的父，创造天地的主；我信我主耶稣基督，上帝独生的儿子；因圣灵感孕，由童贞女马利亚所生；在本丢彼拉多手下受难；被钉于十字架，受死，埋葬；降在阴间，第三天从死人中复活；升天，坐在全能父上帝的右边；将来必从那里降临，审判活人死人；我信圣灵；我信圣而公的教会；我信圣徒相通；我信罪得赦免；我信身体复活；我信永生。
儿童版：我信上帝，全能的父，创造天地的主；我信我主耶稣基督，上帝独生的儿子；因圣灵感孕，由童贞女马利亚所生；在本丢彼拉多手下受难；被钉于十字架，受死，埋葬；降在阴间，第三天从死人中复活；升天，坐在全能父上帝的右边；将来必从那里降临，审判活人死人；我信圣灵；我信圣而公的教会；我信圣徒相通；我信罪得赦免；我信身体复活；我信永生。

Question 31: What Do We Believe by True Faith?
Answer: Everything taught to us in the gospel. The Apostles’ Creed expresses what we believe in these words: We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
For Kids: We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.


歌谱 Lead Sheet

经文

《犹大书》1 章3 节：

　　亲爱的弟兄啊，我想尽心写信给你们，论我们同得救恩的时候，就不得不写信劝你们，要为从前一次交付圣徒的真道竭力的争辩。

注解

约翰·卫斯理

　　什么是信仰？信仰不是一个观点，也不是一种表述形式；信仰不是若干观点的集合，无论它们多么的正确。一连串的观点并不是基督教信仰，就像一串珠子也不能代表基督徒的圣洁。信仰不是认同某个或某些观点。一个人可以认同三个，或二十三个信条：他可以认同全部新旧约（至少照他所理解的），却根本没有基督教信仰。

　　「基督教信仰」是存在于心里的有关神的确据或信念，即相信神已经借着祂的儿子与我和好；与此密不可分的是对神的信心：在一切事上，尤其在那些无形、永恒的美好事物上相信这位满有恩典，已经与我们和好的父。因此，从基督徒的角度来说，相信就是在永恒的光中行走，就是对至高者已经借着祂的爱子与我和好有清楚的看见和信心。

默想

唐·卡森

　　「我信上帝，全能的父，创造天地的主」，这就是公认的《使徒信经》的开头。严格来讲，这并不是使徒们写的，这是在二世纪才出现的。「使徒信经」的意思，不是使徒亲口陈述，但总结了使徒的教义，以归纳的方式反映新约的教义，是早期的基督教信仰告白。因为它在很早就被广泛地使用，并且跨越了全世界基督教各宗各派，成了少有的、联合基督徒的共同信念。

　　你若细心看、慢慢读，你会发现其中提到了圣父、圣子、圣灵、创造、童贞女的感孕、基督降临、死里复活、基督徒是什么样的人、什么是圣灵在我们心中运行，等等。语言非常精简，成千上万的基督徒都会背诵，或在主日背诵，或在个人灵修时使用。

　　我们必须记住一件重要的事，信条，从某种程度上来讲，是在那个时代中所形成的。不是因为圣经改变了，而是随着时间的推移，我们对圣经所问的问题会改变。比如在十六世纪宗教改革时期，也形成了其他的信经，所问所答也略有不同，但全世界基督徒都接受《使徒信经》，这是因为它在很多重要教义产生分歧之前就已经形成了。在这个框架下，它用很精简的几句话浓缩了福音。这是在二世纪的一种尝试，试图总结我们所读到的内容，比如在《哥林多前书》15 章开头的经文，那也是极其简洁的信条。保罗问福音是什么？第一，就是基督照圣经所说，为我们的罪死了，再加上其他部分不断地增补，就成了好消息，就是福音的内容。在这个框架中，神在日期满足之时，差遣爱子，死在十架上，并从死里复活，使一些人成为属祂的人。保罗称这些人是新造的人。

　　当你在主日参加公共崇拜，背诵《使徒信经》时，你要记得在这背后，是两千年的基督教历史。这信经跨文化、空间、时间，将基督徒连结在一起，所以基督徒能够在一起宣告：「我信上帝，全能的父，创造天地的主。」

祷告

　　造天地的主，求祢让这惊人的信仰告白成为我们鲜活的生命。不要让我们将神学真理与祢在时间、空间上的救赎历史割裂开来。不要让我们选择放弃，而是让我们的生命安息在祢使死人复活的真理之上。阿们。

Scripture

JUDE 3

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Commentary

JOHN WESLEY

But what is faith? Not an opinion, no more than it is a form of words; not any number of opinions put together, be they ever so true. A string of opinions is no more Christian faith, than a string of beads is Christian holiness. It is not an assent to any opinion, or any number of opinions. A man may assent to three, or three-and-twenty creeds: he may assent to all the Old and New Testament (at least, as far as he understands them) and yet have no Christian faith at all.

. . . Christian faith . . . is a divine evidence or conviction wrought in the heart, that God is reconciled to me through his Son; inseparably joined with a confidence in him, as a gracious reconciled Father, as for all things, so especially for all those good things which are invisible and eternal. To believe (in the Christian sense) is, then, to walk in the light of eternity; and to have a clear sight of, and confidence in, the Most High, reconciled to me through the Son of his love.

Devotional

D. A. CARSON

“We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” So begins what is universally called the Apostles’ Creed. Strictly speaking, it was not formulated by the apostles. It emerged in the second century. But it is called the Apostles’ Creed because the summary of what is given in the creed reflects the doctrine of the apostles, the doctrine of the New Testament in summary form. It’s an early Christian confession. But it is so early, and has been used so widely across Christian denominations all around the world, that it is one of the rare things that unites all Christians in common belief.

If you read it through carefully and slowly, you’ll see there’s explicit mention of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, of creation, the virgin birth, the coming of Christ, his rising from the dead, who Christians are, what it means to have the Holy Spirit working within us, and so forth, all in very brief compass in words that millions and millions of Christians have either memorized or recite every Sunday or sometimes use as part of their private devotions.

It’s important to remember that creeds are shaped, at least in part, by the era in which they are formulated, not because the Bible changes, but because the questions that we ask of the Bible change just a wee bit from time to time. Other creedal statements, for example, that were made at the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century ask and answer slightly different questions. But the Apostles’ Creed is regularly said by Christians all around the world because it was written so early that it was used before a lot of the later important doctrinal divisions set in. And within this framework, it very ably summarizes the gospel in just a few sentences. In some ways it is a kind of second-century attempt to recapitulate what we read, for example, in the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 15, which itself is a very simple creed. What is the gospel? Paul asks. Well, first, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and then various things are added and added and added until we have a summary of the great good news and its content—that God in the fullness of time sent forth his Son to die on the cross, rise from the dead, and bring to himself a vast number of the people that Paul calls the new humanity.

So when you gather for public worship on the Lord’s Day and recite the creed, remember that behind the mere words on the page are two thousand years of Christian history. The creed serves to link Christians across cultures and languages and space and time as together we say we believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

Prayer

Maker of Heaven and Earth, make the startling claims of our faith come alive to us. Let us not divorce theological truth from the history of your salvation, which occurred in time and space. Let us not waiver in unbelief, but rest our lives upon the truth that you raise the dead. Amen.