然而属血气的人不领会神圣灵的事，反倒以为愚拙。（林前二14）
神的福音能叫人产生对福音的需要。保罗说：“如果我们的福音被蒙蔽……”是对那些恶人蒙蔽了吗？不是的。“就是蒙蔽在灭亡的人身上，此等不信之人，被这世界的神弄瞎了心眼。” 大多数人都有自己持守的道德观念，觉得不需要福音。神于是造出这个需要来；他若不彰显自己，根本没有人觉得有此需要。耶稣说：“祈求，就给你们。”但人未祈求，神就不能给；不是他保留不给，但这是他根据救赎所定下的原则。正因我们求，神就做工，为我们创造那些未求之前不存在的东西。救赎的精义，就是它无时无刻不在创造。救赎既在我们里面创造了神的生命，也创造属于这生命的一切。惟有叫人产生这需要的，才能满足这需要。这就是救赎的意义－－它创造，它也满足。
“人子若从地上被举起来，就必吸引万人来归我。” 我们传讲自己的经历，别人虽感兴趣，可是却不能唤起他内在的需要。若耶稣基督被举起来，神的灵便叫人觉得需要基督。在传扬福音的背后，是神创造性的救赎大工在人心里动工。永远不是个人见证能拯救人。“我对你们说的话，就是灵，就是生命。”
祈祷◆主啊，我何其渴望看见你、听见你、默想你和愈来愈像你！你曾经说过：“又要以耶和华为乐，他就将你心里所求的赐给你。”
December 17: Redemption Creates The Need It Satisfies
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” 1 Corinthians 2:14
The Gospel of God creates a sense of need of the Gospel. Paul says – “If our gospel be hid, it is hid” – to those who are blackguards? No, “to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” The majority of people have their morality well within their own grasp, they have no sense of need of the Gospel. It is God Who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests Himself. Jesus said – “Ask, and it shall be given you,” but God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He withholds, but that that is the way He has constituted things on the basis of Redemption. By means of our asking, God gets processes into work whereby He creates the thing that is not in existence until we do ask. The inner reality of Redemption is that it creates all the time. As the Redemption creates the life of God in us, so it creates the things belonging to that life. Nothing can satisfy the need but that which created the need. This is the meaning of Redemption – it creates and it satisfies.
“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” We preach our own experiences and people are interested, but no sense of need is awakened by it. If once Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Spirit of God will create a conscious need of Him. Behind the preaching of the Gospel is the creative Redemption of God at work in the souls of men. It is never personal testimony that saves men. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”