”And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:8)
What is the testimony which the Spirit bears concerning sin, righteousness and judgment?
The Spirit sets this threefold consciousness in relation to Messiah Yeshua. The Spirit will convict the world:
“of sin, because they do not believe in me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you will see me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:9-11)
First, the Holy Spirit came to convict the world in respect of sin. What is sin essentially? Sin is rebellion against the government of God. This is not concerning the many varied sins in all our lives but the turning of the back of man upon God.
Yeshua lived a life which was directly opposed to that. He bound himself by bonds of perpetual dedication to the Throne of God. He did only the things that his Father willed. He lived in unceasing and undeviating loyalty to the Throne of God; perfect amid imperfections, sinless amid sinners, pure amid impurity, loyal amid treason; such was the life of the Son of God.
He accepted the responsibility and consequences of the sin of the human race and made them his own. He took the responsibility of sin, and because he did that he has provided an absolution which is justification, infinitely more than pardon, and he has provided a purity for man which cleanses his nature and energizes him for new life.
Yeshua stands confronting me and says to me: “All guilt of the past I have put away. All the weakness of the present I am waiting to energize.” If I refuse him, that is sin.
There is no sin in my past life that he has not dealt with in the mystery of his passion. There is no sin in my present life that he cannot deal with in the might of the Holy Spirit. Am I battling a weakness? He waits, and plenteous redemption is at my disposal.
The central sin, the one holding all these within its grasp, and binding them upon me is my sin of rejecting him: “of sin, because they do not believe in me.” Whatever sin you or I are in the grip of, that sin must loosen its hold in the moment when we believe on him and he commits to you and I the efficacy of his cross and the dynamic of his resurrection. If we have besetting sin, it is our persistent unbelief in Yeshua. Sin is unbelief. The Spirit comes to give sin its relation to Messiah Yeshua, to reveal to all the perfect Saviour in order that they may understand God’s one all-sufficient remedy for sin.
Second, the testimony of God’s Spirit is to righteousness. He will convict the world in respect “of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you will see me no more.” The Spirit’s testimony concerning righteousness reveals Yeshua in two ways: 1) As a perfect pattern; and 2) as an all-sufficient power. The Spirit reveals to us the true meaning of righteousness and delivers us from false conceptions. When Yeshua said: “I go to the Father”, he was not merely speaking personally. He meant more than that. He meant: “I go to the Father for you.”
And third, the Holy Spirit will convict the world in respect of judgment: “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” The master of worldliness is judged. That is now.
The Spirit’s testimony is the most solemn and searching declaration that men can ever receive concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
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