Book :
English : Pg. 61 － 96 / 中⽂ ： Pg. 123-176
(Audio Part 3 : 26.36 Min to Part 4 : 50.32 Min)
第三单元，是作者预备读者进入耶稣的“登山宝训”的最后一课。 这也是我最后才读懂的单元。 开始时我认为这些文字特别难消化，读了好多遍后却认为这一单元探讨的内容特别宝贵。
作者在这单元里要带我们进入一个丰富的天父世界以及去认识属灵的真实（Spiritual reality)。 帮助我们从耶稣基督的角度，具体的去认识我们所存活的属灵世界，天父，空间，灵与心，死亡等的议题。所以这单元的题目是： “耶稣所知道的：沐浴在上帝里的世界”
我个人认为，以下三点表明了作者在本单元想要读者学习的功课：
a. 耶稣基督的教导和事工，是建基于一个天父所充满的属灵世界里。 活在“天国”里，就必须接受和活在这个天父的属灵世界里。
In any case, we can say with even greater certainty that, if we go with the currents of modernity, we shall never make sense of Jesus’ gospel for life and discipleship. Quite simply, -> his work and teaching, as well as the main path of historical Christianity that sprang from him, is essentially based upon the substantial reality of the spirit and of the spiritual world. <- They cannot be separated from it. At this point in our history we have had enough experience at attempting that separation for any candid and informed person to know it cannot be done. （Pg 93, Para. 6 to Pg. 94, Para. 1)
b. 我们必须学习超越和摆脱影响我们的“人文世俗主义“思维。我们要有超越这物质世界的透视，具体和认真的与耶稣学习活在这属灵的真实世界里。
We are all products of this modern thought system. (Pg 65, para 4)
c. 拥有耶稣基督的属灵眼光，我们能真正体会到神的美丽和美好。（beautiful and good)。得享内在的平安、不在惧怕。
Jesus, by contrast, brings us into a world without fear. (Pg. 84, Para. 1)
1. 神国度的基础：
i. 拥有耶稣基督的眼光来看这个世界和现今的生活
Jesus’ good news about the kingdom can be an effective guide for our lives only if we share his view of the world in which we live. To his eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God’s direct knowledge and control—though he obviously permits some of it, for good reasons, to be for a while otherwise than as he wishes. It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us. (Pg. 61, Para. 1)
ii. 耶稣基督眼里的天父，美丽和美好（beautiful & good) 的上帝
It is a great and important task to come to terms with what we really think when we think of God. Most hindrances to the faith of Christ actually lie, I believe, in this part of our minds and souls. If he cannot help us with understanding God’s life, he cannot help us at all to that salvation/life that is by faith. But of course he can and he does. We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that He is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. (Pg. 62, Para. 4-5)
a. 喜乐的耶稣
One cannot think of God in such ways while confronting Jesus’ declaration “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” One of the most outstanding features of Jesus’ personality was precisely an abundance of joy. This he left as an inheritance to his students, “that their joy might be full” (John 15:11). (Pg. 64, Para. 4)
b. 寻找文字来表达和思考这位伟大的上帝 （这些语文和文字，对于活在现代的我们是多么的陌生和罕见） ：
It is, frankly, hard today to think adequately of God—or perhaps to think of him at all. Our intellectual history works against it, and we certainly do not get much training for it. Frankly, our daily experience, under pressure from many quarters, constantly keeps us from thoughtful living and “dumbs us down,” in many ways—especially theologically. (Pg 64, Para 6)
To trust in God, we need a rich and accurate way of thinking and speaking about him to guide and support our life vision and our will. Such is present in the biblical language, of course, and it continued to be carefully crafted in the works of Christian writers well into the twentieth century. (Pg. 65, Para. 1)
iii. 耶稣基督眼里的世界和人类所居住的环境／空间 （一个安全的世界）
With this magnificent God positioned among us, Jesus brings the assurance that our universe is a perfectly safe place for us to be (Pg 66, Para 4)
This bold and slyly humorous assurance about all the basic elements of our existence—food and drink and clothing and other needs of life—can only be supported on a clear-eyed vision that a totally good and competent God is right here with us to look after us. And his presence is precisely what the word heaven or, more accurately, the heavens in plural, conveys in the biblical record as well as through much of Christian history. (Pg 67 Para 5)
a. 神如何介入我们间中和环绕我们身体的空气里。
作者从旧约：亚伯拉罕、雅各、摩西，和新约：耶稣，彼得的经历为例子，强调神临在的真实性。
All of these gave the early church the strongest possible impression of the reality and immediate presence of the kingdom of Christ. It is necessary to emphasize that the events in question were real events and that they provide the basis for a biblical and practical understanding of how God is really in our world. But we may have seen too
many “special effects” from television and Hollywood, where appearances with no corresponding reality are produced. Many of our day no longer have the ability to read the Bible or historic Christian events realistically, as if they really happened as described. (Pg. 70, Para. 2)
b. “天” (Heaven) 是什么意思。
接着，作者谈论“天”的定义，并指出New American Standard 的使徒行传 11:5-9 里把“天上”错误的翻译成“Sky” 天空， “Air”空气和“Heaven”天上／天堂。 其实，它们都是同一个字，却被翻译成三个不同的意思。 作者认为这里的“天”是指神临在我们中间，包含了所有的空间；天空＋空气＋天上。 神是确确实实的临在我们中间。
对“天”有这样的认识后，我们才能区别“天国” Kingdom of the heavens” 和“神的国” Kingdom of God 的不同。 许多学者认为这两个词汇是没有分别的，作者认为分别就在于“天”heaven 字的丰富含义。 马太特别选用“天国”这个词，是有其用意；表明了神真实的临在在这个物质的世界／空间里。
Matthew, the quintessentially Judaic Gospel, as a matter of course utilizes the phrase the kingdom of the heavens to describe God’s rule, or “kingdom.” It captures that rich heritage of the Jewish experience of the nearness of God that is so largely lost to the contemporary mind. (Pg 73, para 3)
c. 天国和神的国，相同和不同之处 Kingdom of heavens Vs Kingdom of God :-
The two phrases in question refer to the same reality in some contexts, but they always refer to it in different ways and communicate importantly different things about it. The very fact that heaven could be used loosely to refer to God at all is deeply instructive of how God relates to us, once you realize what “the heavens” are. It tells us exactly where God is in relation to the human world. On the other hand, omission of these meanings by speaking only of the kingdom of God creates a vacuum that makes it easy to misunderstand Jesus and his teachings. The problem is made much worse by how we are taught to think of space today (Pg. 73, Para 6 to Pg. 74, Para 1)
d. 神与空间的关系 Space inhabited by God (Pg. 74, Para. 2 to Pg. 76, Para. 5)
神与空间的关系 ： He occupies and overflows it but cannot be localised in it.
人的意识和灵，与身体的关系也是如此：I（My spirit & consciousness）occupy my body and its proximate space, but I am not localisable in it. (这一点已经有科学上的证实，我们的意识是独立于我们的脑，可参考《irreducible mind ：toward a psychology for the 21st century》）
- I am a spiritual being who currently has a physical body. I occupy my body and its environs by my consciousness of it and by my capacity to will and to act with and through it. I occupy my body and its proximate space, but I am not localizable in it or around it (Pg 75, Para 3)
- Now, roughly speaking, God relates to space as we do to our body. He occupies and overflows it but cannot be localized in it. Every point in it is accessible to his consciousness and will, and his manifest presence can be focused in any location as he sees fit (Pg 76, Para 4)
e. 临在的神要我们寻见祂 God Wants to be seen, he wants us to seek him
－No doubt God wants us to see him. That is a part of his nature as outpouring love. Love always wants to be known. Thus he seeks for those who could safely and rightly worship him. (Pg 76, Para 6)
－ The heavens progressively open to us as our character and understanding are increasingly attuned to the realities of God’s rule from the heavens. (Pg 77, Para 6)
iv. 认识灵－属灵事实，所有东西是看的见和看不见的
All things visible and invisible - Spiritual Reality ..
We pull all these thoughts together by saying that “spirit is unbodily personal power”. It is primarily a substance, and it is above all God, who is both spirit and substance. (Pg 81, Para 6) 灵是有位格的能力，却是没有身体（不是物质）的。
To understand spirit as “substance” is of the utmost importance in our current world, which is so largely devoted to the ultimacy of matter. It means that spirit is something that exists in its own right—to some degree in the human case, and absolutely so with God. Thoughts, feelings, willings, and their developments are so many dimensions of this spiritual substance, which exercises a power that is outside the physical. Space is occupied by it, and it may manifest itself there as it chooses. This is how Jesus sees our world. It is part of his gospel. (Pg。 82, Para 1)
This is how the call to spirituality comes to us. We ought to be spiritual in every aspect of our lives because our world is the spiritual one. It is what we are suited to. Thus Paul, from his profound grasp of human existence, counsels us, “To fill your mind with the visible, the ‘flesh,’ is death, but to fill your mind with the spirit is life and peace” (Rom.
8:6). As we increasingly integrate our life into the spiritual world of God, our life increasingly takes on the substance of the eternal. We are destined for a time when our life will be entirely sustained from spiritual realities and no longer dependent in any way upon the physical (Pg. 82, Para. 3-4)
v. 有关死亡的课题（认知这个天父世界是安全、平安的，就必须探讨死亡）
After death, we retained our consciousness 死了后，我们的意识还是继续存有的:
Consciousness continues while we are asleep, and likewise when we “sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:14; Acts 7:60). The difference is simply a matter of what we are conscious of. In fact, at “physical” death we become conscious and enjoy a richness of experience we have never known before (Pg. 87, Para. 2)
对于死亡和进入死亡的过程拥有正确观念，帮助我们不在惧怕死亡。
How then are we to think about the transition? Failure to have a way of thinking about it is one of the things that continues to make it dreadful even to those who have every confidence in Jesus. The unimaginable is naturally frightening to us. (Pg. 87, Para. 4)
Death = It will be our birthday into God’s full world.
这种死亡观念, 我个人认为比较符合圣经的教导。魏德乐在临死前与他的学生一同构思了这本书，探讨死亡和死后去天堂的概念《Preparing for Heaven》2015出版 － Dallas willard and Gary Black Jr.
这是他学生Dr. Gary 在讲解本书的内容，很值得听一听 ：
vi. 耶稣基督的世界观与世俗世界观的冲突。 The conflict of Jesus worldview with secular worldview ：
According to the wisdom of Jesus, then, every event takes on a different reality and meaning, depending on whether it is seen only in the context of the visible or also in the context of God’s full world, where we all as a matter of fact live. Everything he taught presupposes this, and to be his students we must understand and accept it (Pg 88, Para 2)
a. 只有在耶稣基督里我们找到得救和盼望。
This structure indicates that humanity is routinely flying upside down, and at the same time it provides a message of hope for everyone who counts on God’s order, no matter his or her circumstance. There are none in the humanly “down” position so low that they cannot be lifted up by entering God’s order, and none in the humanly “up” position so high that they can disregard God’s point of view on their lives. (Pg 89, Para 2)
b. 人文世俗主义和观念，今天如何的泛滥地渗透在我们的生活和各行各业里。
It is not hard to see the concrete and oppressive form that the flight from God takes today. There is, for example, no field of expertise in human affairs where interaction with God is a part of the subject matter or practice that must be mastered in order to be judged competent. This is true of chemistry and public administration, but it is also true of education, nursing, police work, and often, astonishingly, Christian ministry itself. It is true of marriage and parenting. Just observe how people are taught and certified or judged competent in any of these fields, and you will be staring the flight from God straight in the face. All of us live in such a world, for we live by our competencies. Our souls are, accordingly, soaked with secularity. In any context in which people are supposed to be smart and informed, even the most thoughtful and devout Christian will find it hard to make a convincing presentation of the relevance of God and his spiritual world to “real
life. (Pg 90 Para. 6 to Pg 91 Para. 1)
vii. 基督徒对“人文世俗世界观”的回应： 基督徒如何看待耶稣基督，重新对耶稣基督拥有十足的信心。 Back to how you view Jesus, How conference are you with Jesus ：
Our commitment to Jesus can stand on no other foundation than a recognition that he is the one who knows the truth about our lives and our universe. It is not possible to trust Jesus, or anyone else, in matters where we do not believe him to be competent. We cannot pray for his help and rely on his collaboration in dealing with real-life matters we
suspect might defeat his knowledge or abilities. And can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart? ( Pg. 94, Para. 2)
a. 对于耶稣的教导和智慧的信心，就是基督徒的激进性
This confidence in his intellectual greatness is the basis of the radicalism of Christ-following in relation to the human order (Pg. 94, Para. 6)
He is not just nice, he is brilliant. He is the smartest man who ever lived. He is now supervising the entire course of world history (Rev. 1:5) while simultaneously preparing the rest of the universe for our future role in it (John 14:2). He always has the best information on everything and certainly also on the things that matter most in human life. Let us now hear his teachings on who has the good life, on who is among the truly blessed. (Pg 95, Para. 7)
