约翰·派博：陷入性犯罪会使我无法被拯救吗？

https://www.chinachristiantimes.com/news/20426/约翰·派博：陷入性犯罪会使我无法被拯救吗？

编者按：这篇文章无疑是给许多陷入性犯罪中的基督徒以警告和鼓励，当你陷入罪中，要知道不是你一个人被这样的罪捆绑，所以不要逃避寻求神的帮助，不要隐藏自己的罪，要做的就是快快来到神的面前祈求神的赦免和饶恕，并祈求属天力量的帮助。

一位来自香港的男士（经本人要求不提供真实姓名）写信问我：“派博牧师，就如希伯来书12章15-17提到的，当一个人变成以扫时他是不是已经走到了无法悔改的地步？我一生都是一个基督徒，可是却在好多年间深深地陷入到性的罪恶中。这其中包括观看各种色情作品，与有夫之妇通奸，还有进行性交易。我从来没有停止过与这些罪的争战，并且我厌恶它们。而且我很高兴可以分享到最近上帝在我身上做了一项伟大的工作，那就是祂借着牧师与弟兄姊妹的帮助把我从那段通奸关系中解救出来并使我得自由，这使我相信上帝依然愿意救赎我。然而，有些时候我仍会发现自己在面对这些罪时感到无能为力，而且很害怕自己会继续陷入到性的恶习中。就像希伯来书12章16节说到，像以扫贪那样贪恋世俗的人最终会走到无法悔改的地步并从恩典中堕落！我该如何克服这种惧怕陷入到罪中的无力感，并且如何避免有一颗刚硬不悔改的心？”

Tony，我想在此时先做一个简短的祷告。

是的，我们必须要这样做。

天父啊，在这里我不能做任何释放得自由的工作，但是你可以。是的，你可以！你自己本身以及你的话语是可以这样行的。因此我为这个人以及还有很多和这位男士有一样经历的人（我确定有很多这样的人）祈求上帝来显示这个神迹，透过圣灵的大能来彰显你话语的神迹。奉耶稣基督得胜的名求，阿们！

让我们再次回到这位男士说的最后一句话，“渐渐陷入到罪中的无力感”。现在我想我应该以一种最严厉的语气来警告这位香港男士，在面对撒旦的谎言时，他应该举起无力的双手，坚固他虚弱的膝盖，修直他面前的道路，并且紧握双拳咬紧牙关以最大肺活量喊出：我不会感到无能为力，上帝不会任凭我渐渐陷入罪中。

在面对当前强烈的性欲时我不是软弱无能的，这并不是上帝创造人类的本意，这并不是耶稣为我惨死在十架上的本意，这并不是圣灵内住在我里面的本意，这并不是在基督里我是新造之人的本意。我不是无能为力的，我不是无能为力的。我有基督在我里面，我有圣灵在我里面，我有上帝的爱子为我死在十架上的宝血。我有荣耀的盼望。我有全备的神之道，我有恩典的应许，我不是软弱无力的，我不是软弱无力的。上帝啊，求你将撒旦的谎言从我里面驱逐出去。

不论是男人还是女人只要在性欲面前扮演受害者的角色，那么性欲就会变成全能者而人类就会在它面前显得软弱无力。那时人类就会任凭它宰割。但值得我们注意的一点就是这位香港男士已经看到希伯来书上所提到的信息。尤其是他注意到了里面提到的一项警告，那就是如果我们将自己卖给性欲并成为它软弱无力的奴隶，这个时候上帝将不再赐给我们悔改的能力，而我们也无法再在基督里被饶恕。是的！对于这位香港男士来说看到这一点是好的，当我们在罪恶面前大打受害者牌并且假装我们没有任何资源来对抗它时，整本希伯来书都在帮助我们学习如何在信心中坚守到最后并且顺服神的心意。

因此让我们再次回到这位香港朋友所关注的经文上。希伯来书12:15-17说到“又要谨慎，恐怕有人失了神的恩，恐怕有毒根生出来扰乱你们，因此叫众人沾染污秽。恐怕有淫乱的，有贪恋世俗如以扫的，他因一点食物把自己长子的名分卖了。后来想要承受父所祝的福，竟被弃绝，虽然号哭切求，却得不着门路使他父亲的心意回转。这是你们知道的。”哇塞，对于一个将要再次把自己的灵魂出卖给性欲的人来说，这段经文是再好不过的提醒了。

经文中有一点说到神的恩离开了以扫。这里是说以扫是如此的心硬以至于他寻求悔改时的哀哭从根本上说是虚假的。他用哭嚎来祈求悔改饶恕，但是这些都是假的。这些眼泪不是悔过的眼泪。而且以扫再也没有机会流出真心悔改的眼泪，他所流出的眼泪不是真心的。他渴望的是来自父亲的祝福，他渴望的是得到父亲的礼物，他渴望的是得到继承权，他渴望的是进入天堂。但是他不渴望上帝本身。以扫所爱的是这个世界，他为了一份饭却甘愿拿自己极其宝贵的东西来交换。

所以这是场必须要打，而且也是能打且是能够打赢的最重要的争战，这场争战让我们不能像以扫那样以一种极其扭曲的方式来看待这个世界。他看上了全能神向他所应许的产业，同时他也看上了那碗红豆粥。我们可以说一个人他看中了一个潜在的色情网站又或者是潜在的性交易，然后在他脑子里开始衡量孰重孰轻却悬而未决。这时他会想：一方面我已经得着来自神永恒的喜乐，可是另一方面我又不断地去看色情作品，因此他心中的终极愤怒爆发了。经过比较之后发现观看色情作品会更加重要、更加宝贵、更令人着迷、更令人赏心悦目以及更令人感到满足。所以，上帝的可怜应许，此时却如尘埃般消失无踪。

无论男女都需要意识到不管在任何时候当我们将自己交付给败坏的恶习时，上帝就会离我们而去并且再也不会带着完全的担保与赦罪之恩回来。因为当我们每次陷入败坏的恶习时，就等于我们在对上帝说：你离开我吧。你离开我吧。我选择的是那碗红豆汤而不是你。希伯来书全然乐意地告诉我们，并且是一次又一次以最严厉的口吻告诫我们：别等到为时已晚再悔改！为时已晚是指当你意识到要真心悔改时却已经没有机会了。所以我这位来自香港的朋友，如果你现在能悔改，上帝会向你施恩慈的。

啊，我们的神是满有忍耐之心的神。已数不清有多少次我们的神一直都在心甘乐意地回转到你我身边。我们当中没有任何一个人配得这样的待遇——没有任何一个人。但是我们都不知道什么时候可能会将祂永久地送离吧。而且有一点是很清楚的：如果上帝永远都不再回来，因为是我们让祂离开的。是我们选择了“那碗装着性欲的饭”，是我们让祂离开的。“你离开吧，我和你断交。我不需要你，我需要这个东西，此时此刻我需要这个东西，而非需要你。”我们已经让神离开了。每一次抱怨或责备上帝的时候就是在替我们的欲望辩护，而这只是另一种大打受害者牌的旧方式罢了。

所以来回答这位香港朋友所提出的问题：我该如何克服这种渐渐陷入到罪恶中的无力感？那就是张开你的眼睛使之注视在上帝一清二楚的话语上，注视在上帝明明白白的福音上以及祂赐给我们十分清晰的应许上。关注在神的事上要比关注在性出轨行为上珍贵的数以万倍啊！睁开你的眼睛来看看现实是什么。不要再将眼目放在扭歪的事物上。不要再将眼目放在一时的性冲动所带出的短暂兴奋上，却还将这短暂的冲动看得比继承上帝的恩典更为有价值。好好看看并且仔细看看现实是什么。基本上圣经中再也找不到任何一卷书可以像希伯来书那样来教导你如何去做。这就是为什么希伯来书存在的原因了，这真是很神奇，希伯来书的存在就是为了帮助那些已公开承认自己是基督徒的人而不会变成现代的以扫。这就是希伯来书存在的意义了。这位弟兄已经抓住了此卷书的脉络信息，此卷书存在的目的就在于此。

我有一位朋友背诵了整本希伯来书并且在几个月前他还在他所在的教会里背诵来着。他之所以背诵了整本希伯来书就是为了警戒自己不要成为以扫。这位香港弟兄，我敢向你建议：在你生命的争战中可以记忆希伯来书，你的生命需要靠它来支撑！

主要的问题是你会时不时进入到有关这个世界的扭曲看法中。希伯来书是以绝对完美的观点来看待这个世界的一卷书，包括通奸行为，观看色情作品以及关于强烈性欲的任何一种表现形式。这卷书是起到了一副眼镜的作用，在每一次你开始以一种扭歪的方式来看待这个世界时就把他戴起来。把他“戴起来”。

看吧，你的问题是出自于希伯来书12章，那就把12章这副眼镜戴起来。已经有许许多多如同云彩般的见证人完成了他们的奔跑比赛。他们一排排的站在你生命的跑道旁，并且向你大喊着来自11章的经文：“你不是软弱无助的。依靠信心你可以胜过自己的软弱。你能够走出强烈性欲和色情作品的束缚。靠着信心你可以胜过！”并且那群已经得胜的见证人没有成为以扫，而他们正如12章2节说到的是倚靠仰望耶稣走到胜利的终点。

所以就让我在这里结束吧。 这位香港朋友，“仰望为我们信心创始成终的耶稣。他因那摆在前面的喜乐，就轻看羞辱，忍受了十字架的苦难，便坐在神宝座的右边（来12:2）”。祂为你的缘故被定死在十架上，并且祂很乐意在你里面帮助你拯救你。转眼仰望耶稣吧，也转眼看看你所处的现实是什么，倚靠神的恩典来坚定自己。要知道你不是无能为力，所以当谎言再次出现时就把它杀死吧。

本文由义工翻译 原文作者约翰·派博 阅读原文请点击此处

Has My Sexual Sin Made Me Unsavable?

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/has-my-sexual-sin-made-me-unsavable

A man from Hong Kong, who asked not to be named, writes in to ask, “Pastor John, when do we reach the stage of Esau described in Hebrews 12:15–17, when he moved beyond the possibility of repentance?

“I have been a Christian all my life but have fallen deeply into sexual sin over a period of many years. My past includes pornography, an adulterous relationship with another man’s wife, and prostitution. I have never stopped fighting these sins. I hate them, and I am glad to say that God recently did a great work to liberate me from the adulterous relationship with the help of my pastor and other fellow Christians. This makes me believe he still cares to save me.

“However, sometimes I still find myself powerless against these sexual sins. I fear continuing to drift into sexual vice, as described in Hebrew 12:16, and ending up in a place beyond repentance, fallen from grace. How do I overcome this helpless drifting into sin and avoid a hardened heart that can no longer repent?”

Tony, I think I want to say a very brief prayer before I go here.

Yes, we must.

Father, I am not able to do the liberation here, but you are. You are. You and your word are able, so I ask you to come now for this man and, I am sure, a significant number of others and to do the miracle the word was designed to accomplish by the Spirit. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Amen.

We Are Not Helpless

Let me pick up on that last phrase: “this helpless drifting into sin.” I think I should warn this man in Hong Kong in the strongest possible terms that he should pick up his drooping hands, strengthen his weak knees, and make his paths straight (Hebrews 12:12–13).

If necessary, he should shout at the top of his lungs with clenched fists and gritted teeth in the face of Satan’s lie: “I am not helpless! God did not make me to drift. I am not a jellyfish in the currents of lust. That is not what God created human beings to be. That is not why Christ died for me. That is not why I have the Holy Spirit. That is not why I am a new creature in Christ. I am not helpless.

“I have Christ. I have the Holy Spirit. I have the blood of the cross of the Son of God. I have the hope of glory. I have the entire word of God. I have the promises of grace. I am not helpless. God, get that lie out of my life.” As long as men and women play the victim (as if lust is an omnipotent enemy, and they are helpless), they are done for.

It is remarkable — wonderful! — that this man has focused on the book of Hebrews. In particular, he has focused on the warning against reaching the point of selling ourselves as helpless slaves of lust to whom God will no longer grant the ability to repent and find forgiveness in Christ.

That is right. That is a good place for him to focus. The book of Hebrews — the entire book — was written to help us persevere to the end in faith and obedience. Hebrews gets in our face when we play the victim card and pretend we have no resources against the powers of sin.

Esau’s Folly

Let’s put the text that concerns him in front of us.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. (Hebrews 12:15–17)

That is a good place for a man to go when he is about to sell his soul again to lust. There came a point when God withdrew from Esau. Esau’s heart was so hardened that even his weeping in search of repentance was phony at its root. He “sought [repentance] with tears,” but they were fake. They were not penitent tears. He could not cry real tears of repentance anymore.

His tears were not true. He wanted the blessing. He wanted the safety. He wanted the gifts. He wanted the inheritance. He wanted heaven. But he did not want God. He loved this world. He traded something infinitely valuable for a single meal.

So, the fundamental battle we must fight (and can fight and win) is the battle not to see the world in such a grossly distorted way as Esau saw it. He looked at the inheritance promised by the almighty God, and he looked at a bowl of oatmeal. Let’s say he looked at a possible pornographic click or a possible prostitute fling, and he weighed the two in the balances of his mind. On the one side was the enjoyment of God forever; on the other side was the rush of a pornographic glimpse.

In his mind, he committed the ultimate outrage of the universe. The pornographic glimpse was weightier in the balance: more precious, more desirable, more beautiful, more satisfying. As for God and his infinite promises, they went up like dust.

When Is Too Late?

Every man and woman must realize that at any moment while we are committing that outrage, God can walk away from us and never return. He would have perfect warrant, perfect justification, because every time we do that, we are saying to him, “Be gone. I prefer my single meal to you.”

The book of Hebrews is perfectly willing to tell us (and it does over and over again with the strongest possible warnings) that there is a “too late.” “Too late” arrives when you can no longer genuinely repent. If you can repent, my friend in Hong Kong, God will be merciful to you.

Oh, how patient he is. Oh, how many hundreds of times he has been willing to return to you and me. None of us deserved any one of those returns — not one. But we do not know when we may have sent him away for the last time.

Let us be clear: If he never returns, we are the ones who sent him away. We chose the single meal of lust. We sent him away. We said, “You go. I am done with you. I do not want you. I want this. Right now, I want this — not you.” We have sent him away. Any talk of blaming God is just another old victim card we play to justify our desires.

We Become Like What We Behold

The answer to our friend in Hong Kong’s question — “How do I overcome this helpless drifting into sin?” — is this: Open your eyes. Open your eyes as you look at God’s crystal-clear word, God’s crystal-clear gospel, and God’s crystal-clear warnings.

See that God’s crystal-clear promises are ten thousand times more precious than any sexual escapade. Open your eyes to see reality for what it is. Stop seeing distortion. Stop seeing the ephemeral euphoria of a moment’s sexual rush as more valuable than inheriting the glory of God. See reality.

There is perhaps no book in the Bible like Hebrews to help you do this. The book exists to help you see the reality of God’s worth. This is amazing. The book exists to keep professing Christians from becoming Esaus. Our friend has got his finger right on the pulse of the book. That is why the book exists.

A friend of mine memorized the whole book. A few months ago, he recited it to his church to guard against becoming an Esau. I dare suggest to you, friend in Hong Kong: memorize Hebrews in your warfare. Your life may depend on it.

Eyes Fixed on the Son

Your main problem is that you go in and out of distorted views of the world. Hebrews is an absolutely perfect view of the world, including adultery and pornography and every form of lust. The book was written to be glasses for you when you start seeing the world in a distorted way. Put them on.

Your question grew out of Hebrews 12. Put on your Hebrews 12 glasses. There is a whole cloud of witnesses who finished the race (Hebrews 12:1). They have lined up along the racecourse of your life, and they are shouting to you from chapter 11: “You are not helpless. By faith you can do this. You can walk out of lust and out of pornography. By faith you can do this!” That great cloud of witnesses did not become Esaus. That great cloud ends with Jesus in Hebrews 12:2.

Let me end there: “[Look] to Jesus,” friend in Hong Kong, “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated [not as an Esau] at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). He did it for you, and he will do it in you. Look to him. See reality for what it is. Be strengthened by grace. Know that you are not helpless, and put to death the lie when it comes.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God and The Pleasures of God. Read more about John.