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CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
by ROBIN BOSCH John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: John 16:9 Of sin, because they believe not on me John 16:10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; I love it when the Holy Spirit beams light onto verses. Sometimes we tend to fuzz over them, believing we have the explanation battened down - that's not always the case. John 16:8, 9, 10 was a case in point. For years I thought I knew the full interpretation - Not so! One has to scrimmage and scrape, ponder and reflect to extricate the gem and behold its facets in the Light of The Son. Let's read: John 16:8. ("And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.......") Now He, is referring to the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity. When He is come, He will reprove (convict) "the world" of sin. (Notice, the world: unbelievers.) Now if you stop at this point you will indeed come to the conclusion as I did that the Holy Spirits sole mandate is to be a school master, convicting us of our sins (plural); the Guardian, wielding a big stick and saying, "don't do this, don't do that, don't touch this, don't touch that." No! No! No! The Holy Spirit is not in the business of iniquity control, directing sin traffic. He is not in the business of pointing out our sin moment by moment. He is not in the business of wrapping us over the knuckles every time we stumble and fall. Our own conscience does that. Rom.2:14, 15 The Holy Spirit, the Comforter is in the business of 'leading and guiding' us towards the truth of Righteousness. (Jn.16:13, 14) If we believe the Holy Spirit is a sin gauge, we miss the essence of His Office and Ministration. Now stay with me; don't be hasty; don't run away, let me explain. The first half of verse 9 clarifies my statement. Verse 9: ('He convicts the world: "Of sin, because they believe not in me."') Jesus is saying: The world is being reproved (convicted) of the sin of unbelief. Unbelief in Christ's all sufficient, all-encompassing sacrifice, which heralded the Righteousness of God. So here's the thing: There is only one sin that the Holy Spirit convicts us of and that is, the sin of unbelief. That is, unbelief in His Righteousness. The Holy Spirit is looking for righteousness; the Righteousness of Christ. Not an angel, not Cherubim or a Seraphim; not a holy human with moral qualifications. No! The Holy Spirit is convincing mankind of Christ's Righteousness. The world, without question, is walking around in a total haze and daze of unbelief; bemused and amused, befuddled and bewitched by the prince of darkness. The Holy Spirit on the other hand is constantly at work reproving (convicting) the world of unbelief, telling them to, "Awake to righteousness and sin not;".1Cor.15:34. (a) His heart is intensely focused on beaming Christ's Light through the fog of relentless deception. His passion and intent is to place floundering men and woman onto the immovable Rock - Jesus Christ their Righteousness.Rom.5:21 If we as believers in Christ, try and work our way into heaven and Gods good books, and shuffle and shake, jostle and jive to gain spiritual brownie points it is nothing less than obsessive religious disorder. The Holy Spirit will convict us of the delusion of unbelief and self-righteous intrusion. All sins (plural) stem from the one sin (singular):- That ONE sin being, the sin of UNBELIEF. If we, like the foolish Galatians, (Gal.3:1) display by actions, that Christ's sacrifice is insufficient; needing assistance; we will live in a confused mixture of Law and Grace, thus falling from Grace. This illusion is the same bewitching enchantment that was presented to Adam and Eve when they clothed themselves with the fig leaves of self-righteousness.Gen.3:7 Verse 8: (The Holy Spirit will reproved (convict) the world of Righteousness.) Someone aptly said and I quote, "When God went down to Sodom and Gomorra, He was not on a sin hunt, He was on a righteousness hunt." The Holy Spirit is seeking the lost; directing, convicting / reproving them of Righteousness, which is found solely in Christ. The Spirit of Grace is on a mission of provision; a campaign of conviction in the light of the above. Amen. I have been a believer in Christ for many years. It has only been in the last three or four years that I have received greater insight into the Grace of God. This has injected me with energy to tell others about the blessed "rest" we have in Christ. Grace is not a theology but is a Person-- Jesus. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |