Convicting of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment
Notes
Transcript
8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;
As we begin this morning, it might be helpful for us to know and understand the Greek word elencho
Lexham Theological Wordbook ἐλέγχω
ἐλέγχω (elenchō). vb. to convict, rebuke, expose.
to convict as a legal term is to make a judgement against someone - in our culture same as ancient east, a convict is someone who has been convicted of a crime
So, in this sense, the HS is making judgements to the world about sin - and we are all guilty or “convicts” of sin
Which, is a really good thing! Because of God’s desire for relationship with us, being convicted of sin leads us back into relationship with God!
So, some bibles will tanslate elencho as a conviction…
Some use softer words such as the NIV with “prove” KJV uses “reprove”
NLT, NASB, ESV all use convict
Part of the reason for the difference in translations is the difficulty to understand what is being conveyed..
There are a couple of different understandings of how the HS works in this passage. I think different leanings on this understand lead to a difference in translating the word.
The word could also be translated as “rebuke” which is a judgement taking a step further, so a bit harsher
It could also be translated as to simply expose..to bring it to the light…
So, “elencho” could be as simple as bringing something to the light, to bringing it to the light and rebuking it, and finally, convicting of wrong doing…
The question being how active is the HS when it comes to sin…
I don’t think this is the main idea of the passage…
There are at least two ways of leaning when it comes to the involvement of the HS in these 4 verses. And, I think it depends on what you believe about that, that formulates how you will view what the HS does…
Three “stages” of work of the HS in a believer’s life.
Continued work of the HS in a believer’s life.
I’m going to use the ESV to explain this as I think “convict” is the more widely used translation and probably more accurate
8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
So, the three stages argument says that the HS works at three different stages in a believer.
The first being conviction of sin
The second, conviction of righteousness
and Finally, conviction of judgement
So, the first stage is before you are a believer, the HS convicts you of sin, reveals your sin, exposes it, some would say condemns you because of it..
Because of this conviction and revelation of sin, it leads us back to God!
This conviction should help us to see our deep need for God, thus we turn to Him!
8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while—9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
So, Paul is saying that through His letter, which is inspired by the HS, led the church in corinth to sorrow which led them to repentance..
Let’s pause for just a second and define sin
I grew up with John Wesley’s definition which is “a willful transgression against a known law of God.”
Now, to be fair to my buddy Wesley, his definition and view of sin grew as he grew…
I like his definition in the simplicity of it, but I struggle a little with the wilful transgression idea.
I think that before we receive Christ, we are dead in out sin and therefore, might not know or even care what the laws of God are.
So, my simplest definition of sin is anything that we do or don’t do that goes against the heart of God.
Sin causes separation from God, where repentance means returning to God!
Back on track, the HS convicts us of sin and separation from God, which leads to sorrow, and then repentance, coming back to God!
Jesus elaborates here:
9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;
The gospel writer, John, tends to make a connection between sin and unbelief. Here we have Jesus possibly establishing this connection
Prior, we have read that Jesus is talking about the downfall of the world being that they refuse to accept Him!
Seems consistent with Jesus reiterates here…
I believe, I think John holds this view, and I think it’s from Jesus that all sin is rooted in unbelief…
Think about any sin and why you would commit it…
I think sin is rooted in one of these beliefs:
Doubt the Word of God - He doesn’t know what He’s talking about
God is not enough for me
God won’t provide for me
So, all of these reasons are unbelief
In this “stages” view of the working of the HS, the HS is convicting us of our sin and leading us back to God
The second stage is conviction of righteousness
So, after a person is convicted of their sin and they turn back to God, they are now righteous before God.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So, after we are convicted of sin, we are now convicted that we are righteous. In this view, the job of the enemy is now to convince us that we are not righteous before God - this bring doubt, guilt, fear…etc..
Jesus justifies our conviction of righteousness in verse 10
10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
Jesus came and showed us was righteousness is. He lived it out!
Righteousness in the Jewish eyes was keeping the law. What Jesus came to show was that true righteousness was believing and obey Christ.
We don’t earn our righteousness by keeping the law, we receive our righteousness by believing in what Christ did on the cross.
So, what the holy spirit it going to do is continue to remind us of what Christ did on the cross!
Jesus is no longer here in the flesh to walk around and remind us what righteousness is…so, the HS will do that for us!
So, before we are believers, we are convicted of sin which leads us to Jesus, we are saved, and then we are convicted that we are righteous, and finally we will be convicted of judgment
And, the final “stage” in the stages view is judgment
11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
As I said at the beginning, there are two views, to show my hand, I don’t lean towards the stages view. And here is one of the issues I have with this view.
Jesus says that the prince of this world is condemned.
If Jesus is truly laying out three stages, and we are in the first stage, and we are in the second stage, where are we in the third stage?
We know that we are not condemned, satan is condemned!
The stages view would make sense to me if Jesus were talking about our judgment. You would have pre-Christ, walking with Christ, and judgement.
However, we are no longer condemned in Christ.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
So, why would we be convicted of judgment?
So, here’s the second view and the one that I lean towards:
Jesus is not setting up a linear or “stages” process for unbelievers to believers to judgment.
What I think Jesus is saying here is that the HS is working in these three areas simultaneously…He is convicting the world of these three thing continually and consistently…
So, the HS is convicting the whole world, believers and unbelievers, of sin consistently…
I have friends that would push back on the idea of the HS convicting believers of sin…they would say we are the righteousness of Christ and we are not condemned, therefore the HS would not convict us of sin when we are in Christ…
The problem with this line of thinking, is we have lost the idea of relationship. It has become formulaic hence the name “stages view”
We have put a formula on how God works, and we have ignored the relationship aspect.
Remember from the beginning that the greek work can mean convict, rebuke, or expose
Does the HS still expose sin in the believer’s life? I sure hope so! And this is a good thing!
You see, in relationship, I want to know where I am off.
I am married man and I don’t want to hurt my wife. And I want her to tell me when I have hurt her. Because I love her!
I want God to expose sin in my life…because I do love Him, and He is Lord, and I don’t want to sin, I want to be near the heart of God!
So please, HS, expose the areas of my life that are not like you!
Now, I don’t think we are condemned anymore because we sin, but I think and I hope the HS didn’t stop revealing sin when I was saved!
Being married, when I hurt my wife, we are still married, but we need to deal with the problems in our marriage
Just because we sin doesn’t mean that we lose relationship with God, but we do need to deal with the problems
So, in my view, the HS convicts of sin before we know Christ to lead us to Him, and once we are believers so that we become more like Him!
He convicts believers and non believers of righteousness. Again, leading believers to true righteousness and then reminding believers that they are righteous in Christ.
And finally, that non believers will be judged and that judgment is coming. And that satan is judged.
The HS reminds believers of the victory that they have in Christ and that satan is defeated!
So, this morning, where are you at?
What work do you need the HS to do in your life?