The word of God through the Spirit is creative, not persuasive. It hinders the work of the Spirit when we try and persuade people, it puts the basis not on Redemptive Reality but on our ingenious reasoning. The Spirit of God working, by God’s decree, through the historic Fact of the Life and Death of Jesus, does not convince a man’s mind: He creates something in him, makes him “a new creation in Christ Jesus” (rv mg). The preaching of Christ crucified is a stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness