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21st March 2024
ThursdayReflection
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'David Guzik' shares
"THE DEPARTING JESUS'
FINAL TEACHING"
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"And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."
John 16:8
Sin is the truth about man, righteousness is the truth about God, judgment is the inevitable combination of these two truths.
The ancient Greek word translated 'convict' has a broader range of meaning than simply our word convict, especially as it is understood in a legal sense.
It also carries the ideas to expose, to refute, and to convince.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the world and in individual hearts; to convince and convict of these truths.
It is a serious thing to resist and reject this work of the Holy Spirit, which is especially prominent and powerful in seasons of great spiritual advance (sometimes called revival or spiritual awakening).
Before the convicting work of the Holy Spirit one may say, I make a lot of mistakes. Nobody's perfect.
After the convicting work of the Holy Spirit one may say, I'm a lost rebel, fighting against God and His law - I must rely on Jesus to get right with God.
In the great awakening of 1860-61 in Great Britain, a high-ranking army officer described the conviction of sin in his Scottish town:
"Those of you who are at ease, have little conception of how terrifying a sight it is, when the Holy Spirit is pleased to open a man's eyes to see the real state of his heart.
Men who were thought to be, and who thought themselves to be good, religious people have been led to search into the foundation upon which they were resting, and have found it all to be rotten, that they were self-satisfied, resting on their own goodness, and not upon Jesus.
Many turned from open sin to lives of holiness, some weeping for joy for sins forgiven."
(J. Edwin Orr, The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain)
It is unbelief, the rejection of Jesus, which ultimately proves one to be guilty.
The Holy Spirit will tell the world of the importance of trusting in, relying on, and clinging to Jesus to avoid this sin.
The ascension of Jesus to heaven demonstrated that He had perfectly fulfilled the Father's will and had proven Himself righteous - and exposed the lack of righteousness in the world that rejected Him.
The Holy Spirit shows the world the righteousness of Jesus and its own unrighteousness.
Many people today - even secular people - take the righteousness of Jesus as a given.
Yet during His life Jesus was reviled as an imposter, as demon-possessed, as a wicked destroyer of the law, as a glutton, a drunk, and as illegitimate.
The Holy Spirit persuades the world of the righteousness of Jesus.
The judgment of Satan himself means that there will be a final reckoning between God and His rebellious creature.
The Holy Spirit warns the world of this coming judgment.
Normally conviction is followed by judgment.
When the Holy Spirit works, there is an in-between step:
the revelation of the righteousness of Jesus, which can satisfy the judgment for the convicted person.
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This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
Enduring Word
exists to promote the work of Christian discipleship and evangelism worldwide, mainly through the publication and dissemination of the Bible teaching work of David Guzik and likeminded people.
When David Guzik was a young pastor in Simi Valley, California, he (among many other pastors) was asked to send his teaching notes to the developers of a new internet Bible research site:
Blue Letter Bible.
In the late 1990's, David's material first appeared on the Blue Letter Bible, and was found to be a valuable resource.
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