12月17日
救贖創造需要，也滿足需要
然而屬血氣的人不領會 神聖靈的事，反倒以為愚拙。（林前二14）
神的福音能叫人產生對福音的需要。保羅說：“如果我們的福音蒙蔽……”是對那些惡人蒙蔽嗎？不是的。“就是蒙蔽在滅亡的人身上，此等不信之人，被這世界的神弄瞎了心眼。”大多數人都有自己持守的道德觀念，覺得不需要福音。神於是造出這個需要來；他若不彰顯自己，根本沒有人覺得有此需要。耶穌說：“祈求，就給你們。”但人未祈求，神就不能給；不是他保留不給，但這是他根據救贖所定下的原則。正因我們求，神就作工，為我們創造那些未求之前不存在的東西。救贖的精義，就是不斷的創造；救贖既在我們裡面創造了神的生命，也創造屬那生命的東西。惟有叫人產生這需要的，才能滿足這需要，這就是救贖的意思－－它創造，它也滿足。
“人子若從地上被舉起來，就必吸引萬人來歸我。”我們傳講自己的經歷，別人雖感興趣，可是卻不喚起他的需要。若耶穌基督被舉起來，神的靈便叫人覺得需要基督。在傳揚福音的背後，是神不斷創造的救贖大工在人心裡動工。個人見證絕對不能拯救人，“我對你們說的話，就是靈，就是生命。”
祈禱◆主啊，我何其渴望看見你、聽見你、默想你和愈來愈像你！你曾經說過：“又要以耶和華為樂，他就將你心裡所求的賜給你。”
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.”
