Jesus told us the Father would send the Holy Spirit after He left. This daily devotional looks at the Spirit’s mission and the last two steps in the process of convicting us – righteousness and judgment.
Nuggets
- We can only gain righteousness when Jesus gives it to us.
- Because Jesus completed the Plan of Salvation, Satan was judged.
Devotions in the Never Alone: The Holy Spirit in Our Lives series
Jesus had been telling the disciples that He would equip them for the mission He had for them. He told them the process by which they are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
In the last devotion, we looked at the Holy Spirit’s mission and the first step in the process. Now, let’s look at the other two steps in the process – righteousness and judgment.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Let's Put It into Context #2
“And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (Jn. 16: 8 ESV)
The Holy Spirit has a three-part mission when it comes to His convicting us. By completing this mission, the world is regenerated. Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Glossary
The Holy Spirit is to convict us. Conviction is being made of our sins and realizing the need for repentance.
- Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
Glossary
Convicting Us of Righteousness
“concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer” (Jn. 16: 10 ESV)
We can only gain righteousness when Jesus gives it to us.
Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Comforter. That give us peace as He comforts us of our sorrow.
In actuality, judgment should have followed the realization of sin. God said no. He was going to find a way for salvation to step in so the penalty of the judgment could be paid.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Still, we are called to determine the cause of our sorrow. The Holy Spirit has been convicting us of our sins. We have realized that those sins are leading us to our death.
When we realize we need Jesus as our Savior and we repent of the sins we have committed, we become new creations. Becoming righteous is part of being a new creation.
Glossary
Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws. It means we are right with God and becoming like Him.
But it also means more than that. It means that we know we are nothing without Jesus.
The Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our hearts so that we can see both the curses and the blessings.
Remember in the last devotion, we talked about what the definitions Maclaren had for sin and faith. He wrote, “The definition of sin is, living to myself and making myself my own centre. The definition of faith is, making Christ my centre and living for Him.”
Resource
We can substitute righteous for faith. It is Jesus’ righteousness’s that we receive, not our own.
Jesus’ righteousness shows His divinity. Findlay addressed that. He wrote, “Every one knew that this was the capital charge against Him; and, indeed, if He was a righteous man He was Son of God; if He was not Son of God, He was not even a righteous Man. Therefore He was ‘declared Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead’ and His righteousness is not simply that of the righteous man, but a manifestation of that of the ‘righteous Father’ whom the world had not known, but of which it had to be convinced.”
Resource
Let’s think about this a second. Jesus is God.
When He came to earth, Jesus set up a new standard of morals. In the Old Testament, God sanctioned a lot of killing.
Jesus, on the other hand, preached love. Still today, we are to follow all of God’s laws and commandments through love.
At the end of the verse, Jesus talked about going to the Father. The only way that was going to happen was through His death. Jesus “… was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1: 4 ESV).
Only because Jesus ascended to Heaven and was declared the Son of God so that we would know what righteousness is.
Because we have salvation in Jesus, we gain His righteousness. We have access to God only when we are righteous.
Convicting Us of Judgment
“concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (Jn. 16: 11 ESV)
Because Jesus completed the Plan of Salvation, Satan was judged.
Satan is called the prince of this world. He tries to get us to serve him.
It was Satan that Jesus came to defeat. Jesus was victorious.
What? You think Jesus didn’t defeat Satan because of the same status of the world today?
Satan may think he has the upper hand, but the end has already been written. “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 14 ESV).
When we side with Satan and reject Jesus, we will be judged, too. “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 15 ESV).
Hull questioned if this was referring to the final judgment. He felt the time of judgment was when Jesus went to the cross.
“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (Jn. 12: 31-32 ESV).
Hull wrote, “For when we have been freed from sin, and made righteous in Christ, we find that we have entered on a life-long struggle with evil; and as the one thing to keep us true, we need the assurance of final victory.”
Resource
Until we know what sin is, we don’t know on what we are going to be judged. When we are forgiven of our sins, the judgment is waived because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
Satan, then, throws all he can at us to try to get us to deny Jesus. We have to remain true to Him.
I can see where both are right. How many times have we talked about salvation being a three-part process?
- Our day of salvation is in the past because we previously accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
- We are currently working out our salvation on the Sanctification Road.
- When we receive our new bodies in Heaven, we will truly have salvation because we will no longer be able to sin.
Why can’t judgment be a two-step process?
Making the Connections
What if we flipped the focus? Instead of right and wrong, we should focus on being righteous and unrighteous.
We not only have to follow God’s laws and commandments, but we also have to have God’s character. That is more than just following the laws and commandments to the letter.
How Do We Apply This?
Father God. We want to have Jesus’ righteousness. We want to have Your character. Help us to withstand Satan’s temptations. We want to live forever with You. Amen.
What do you think?
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