【双语灵修】“以马内利,恳求降临” O Come, O Come, Immanuel
腓立比书第2章描述了神如何以耶稣基督的身份亲自降临到我们中间。
“(耶稣)反倒虚己,取了奴仆的形像,成为人的样式。” - 腓 2:7
“以马内利,恳求降临”这首歌里有很多称呼耶稣的名。这些都是祂藉着披戴肉身并为我们成为以马内利(“神与我们同在”)所扮演的角色。
在耶稣诞生前几个月,主的一位使者在梦中告诉约瑟,他的未婚妻马利亚将要生下的孩子是由圣灵感孕的。这个孩子要起名叫耶稣,因为祂将“自己的百姓从罪恶里救出来”。这将应验以赛亚书中童女怀孕生子的预言;人要称祂的名为以马内利,意思是“神与我们同在”(见赛 7:14;太 1:20-23)。
腓立比书第2章描述了神如何以耶稣基督的身份亲自降临到我们中间。完全是身为神的耶稣谦卑自己,“成为人的样式”。祂带着一个目的和使命而来:替我们受死,为我们的罪付上代价。祂自己承担了我们所有罪的重担,并藉着死在十字架上偿付了全部的罪债,以此来释放我们。
每当我们唱到“以马内利”时,我们唱的是神自己变得像我们一样,把我们从罪恶中拯救出来。耶稣成为以马内利,“神与我们同在”,经历我们所经历的,像我们一样受苦。不仅如此,还将我们从这种痛苦中拯救出来。“欢欣!欢欣!”以马内利已经降临!
祷告
以马内利,感谢你谦卑地成为我们的样式,在十字架上受苦,把我们从罪恶中拯救出来。阿们。
腓立比书 2:5-11
5你们当以基督耶稣的心为心。
6他本有神的形象,不以自己与神同等为强夺的,
7反倒虚己,取了奴仆的形象,成为人的样式;
8既有人的样子,就自己卑微,存心顺服以至于死,且死在十字架上。
9所以神将他升为至高,又赐给他那超乎万名之上的名,
10叫一切在天上的、地上的和地底下的,因耶稣的名无不屈膝,
11无不口称耶稣基督为主,使荣耀归于父神。
O Come, O Come, Immanuel
"[Jesus] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." - Philippians 2:7
"O Come, O Come, Immanuel" is a song filled with various titles for Jesus. These were all roles that he would fulfill by taking on our human flesh and becoming Immanuel ("God with us").
Some months before Jesus was born, an angel of the Lord told Joseph in a dream that the child who would be born to Mary, his fiancée, was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The child was to be named Jesus because he would "save his people from their sins." And this would fulfill a prophecy of Isaiah about a child born to a virgin; the child would be called Immanuel, which means "God with us" (see Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:20-23).
Philippians 2 describes how God himself comes down to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is fully God, humbles himself, and is "made in human likeness." And he comes with a purpose and a mission: to pay the price for our sins by dying in our place. He took on himself the weight of all our sin and paid the full price to free us by dying on a cross.
Whenever we sing about "Immanuel," we sing about God himself becoming like us to save us from our sin. Jesus became Immanuel, "God with us," to experience what we experience, to suffer as we suffer. And even more—to rescue us from that suffering. "Rejoice! Rejoice!" Immanuel has come to us!
Prayer
Immanuel, thank you for humbling yourself by taking on our likeness and suffering on a cross to save us from our sin. Amen.
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