罗十一17~18 若有几根枝子被折下来，你这野橄榄得在其中接上去，一同有分于橄榄根的肥汁，你就不可向那些枝子夸口；纵然夸口，也不是你托着根，乃是根托着你。

　　神的经纶是要将神圣的生命分赐到我们这人里面。这分赐的结果，乃是叫我们这些神的选民，不仅有人的生命，也有神圣的生命。……神……创造人的生命来作盛装神圣生命的器皿。……神圣的生命进到人的生命里面时，神圣的生命就成为内容，人的生命成为容器和彰显。……有些基督教的教师认为，基督徒的生命是替换的生命。根据这种观念，我们的生命是卑下的，而基督的生命是优越的。因此，主要我们弃绝自己的生命，换成祂的生命。我们将我们的生命让给祂，祂以祂自己的生命来取代之。然而，我们基督徒的生命并非替换的生命；我们的生命完全是神圣的生命分赐、注入到我们属人的生命里面。这是圣经中的一个基本观念（罗马书生命读经，七七四、七七八至七七九页）。

　　Rom. 11:17-18 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a fellow partaker of the root of fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches; but if you boast, remember that it is not you who bear the root, but the root you.

　　God’s economy is a matter of the dispensing of the divine life into our being. As a result of this dispensation, we, the chosen people of God, have both the human life and the divine life… God…created the human life to be the vessel for the divine life. When the divine life enters into the human life, the divine life becomes the content and the human life becomes the container and the expression… Some Christian teachers regard the Christian life as an exchanged life. According to this concept, our life is poor and Christ’s life is superior. Therefore, the Lord asks us to give up our life in exchange for His. We yield our life to Him, and He replaces it with His own life. However, our Christian life is not an exchanged life. It is altogether a matter of the divine life dispensed, infused, into our human life. This is a basic concept in the Scriptures. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 655, 658-659)

　　保罗在罗马书里用了器皿、婚姻生活和接枝三个例子。器皿的例子说出我们是神的容器，有神作我们的内容。婚姻的例子说出一个男子和一个女子，他们的心思、情感、意志、性情、性格和个性都不尽相同，却联合形成一个单位。接枝的例子说明两种生命联合在一起，然后生机地长在一起。

　　因着器皿和婚姻生活这两个例子都没有将神的分赐生机的一面描绘出来，所以保罗又举了第三个例子—一棵树接枝到另一棵树上。在十一章十七至二十四节，保罗举了野橄榄树的枝子接枝到栽种的橄榄树上的例子。因着接枝，野橄榄树的枝子就与栽种的橄榄树生机地长在一起。两棵树各有其生命，但如今这两个生命生机地长在一起，结出一种果子。

　　一种生命若要接枝到另一种生命上，这两种生命就必须非常相似。例如，香蕉树的枝子不能接枝到桃树上。但劣级桃树上的枝子就可以接枝到健康、多产的桃树上，因为这两棵树的生命非常相近。我们也可将这原则应用在神圣的生命分赐到人里面的事上。神圣的生命不能接到狗的生命上，因为这两种生命毫无相似之处。但因着我们人的生命是按着神的形像、照着神的样式造的，所以人的生命能与神圣的生命联结。虽然我们人的生命不是神圣的生命，却与神圣的生命相似。因此，这两种生命能够很容易地接在一起，然后生机地长在一起。

　　宣信写的……诗歌〔三百六十五首〕，其中有一句说，“贱木接在珍树上面，小则变大，苦变甜。”贱木的生命并没有消失，而是与又大又甜之珍树的生命联合生长，成为一个单位。我们又再次看见，这不是替换的生命，乃是接枝的生命。

　　不仅如此，照着神所命定的自然律，不是贫贱的生命影响丰富的生命，乃是丰富的生命影响贫贱的生命。事实上，丰富的生命会吞灭贫贱生命的一切缺点，因而变化贫贱的生命。同样的原则，我们接枝到基督里面的时候，基督就吞灭我们的缺点，但并没有消除我们自己的生命。相反的，祂吞灭我们的缺点时，就将我们的人性拔高。祂将我们的心思、意志、情感和一切的美德全拔高了（罗马书生命读经，七八○至七八三页）。

　　参读：罗马书生命读经，第六十三篇；罗马书中神完整的救恩结晶读经，第四篇。

　　In Romans Paul uses the illustrations of vessels, married life, and grafting. The illustration of the vessels shows that we are God’s containers with God as our content. The illustration of marriage shows that a man and a woman with different minds, emotions, wills, personalities, characters, and dispositions are joined to form one unit. The illustration of grafting shows that two lives are joined and then grow together organically.

　　Because neither the illustration of the vessel nor that of married life picture anything organic related to God’s dispensation, Paul goes on to use a third illustration—the grafting of one tree to another. In Romans 11:17-24 Paul uses the illustration of branches from a wild olive tree being grafted into a cultivated olive tree. As a result of grafting, the branches from the wild olive tree and the cultivated olive tree grow together organically. Each tree has its own life, but now these lives grow organically together and have one issue.

　　In order for one kind of life to be grafted to another, the two lives must be very similar. For example, it is not possible to graft a branch from a banana tree to a peach tree. However, it is possible to graft some branches from a poorer peach tree to a healthy, productive peach tree, for the lives of these two trees are very close to each other. We may apply this principle to the dispensation of the divine life into man. The divine life cannot be grafted with the life of a dog because there is no resemblance whatever between these lives. But because our human life was made in the image of God and according to the likeness of God, it can be joined to the divine life. Although our human life is not the divine life, it resembles the divine life. Therefore, these lives can easily be grafted together and then grow together organically.

　　In the line of Hymns, #482 by A. B. Simpson, the poor tree is grafted to a better tree to gain a richer, sweeter life. The life of the poor tree does not disappear. Rather, it grows together as one unit along with the life of the rich, sweet tree. Once again we see that this is not an exchanged life, but a grafted life.

　　Furthermore, according to the natural law ordained by God, it is not the poor life that affects the richer life, but the richer life that affects the poor life. In fact, the rich life will swallow up all the defects of the poor life and thus transform the poor life. In the same principle, when we are grafted into Christ, Christ swallows up our defects, but He does not eliminate our own life. On the contrary, as He swallows our defects, He uplifts our humanity. He uplifts our mind, will, emotion, and all our virtues. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 660-662)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msg. 63; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” ch. 4