Jesus told us the Father would send the Holy Spirit after He left. This daily devotional looks at the Spirit’s mission and the first step in the process of convicting us.
Nuggets
The Holy Spirit has a three-part mission when it comes to His convicting us.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of our unbelief as well as other sins.
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 proceeds to tell them they will not be alone. More than that, Jesus gave them the process by which they are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
Let’s take a look. We are going to look at the Holy Spirit’s mission and the first step in the process in this devotion. We’ll look at the other two steps in the next devotion.
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
Conviction has several elements.
- We have to examine ourselves under the Holy Spirit’s authority.
- We have unquestionable proof that we are sinners.
- Judgment is made.
- We are punished accordingly.
Proof also has an element of reproving. Spurgeon wrote that this is “… meant, not so much to save them as to silence them.”
Resource
We aren’t in a position to argue back. There is no arguing with the Sovereign God.
I can see that. We also have to be silent so we can hear everything that the Spirit is teaching us.
But I also see that the Holy Spirit is convincing us that we are sinners. What the Holy Spirit is doing is convicting us with regard to our sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Now, the sin convicting may be obvious to us. The righteousness and judgment convicting, maybe not so much.
Convicting Us of Our Sins
“concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; ” (Jn. 16: 9 ESV)
The Holy Spirit convicts us of our unbelief as well as other sins.
When the worldview people focus on sin, it is more on our world’s laws. If our world has deemed something wrong, they think that is how and on which we should be judged.
If they do focus on what God says is a sin, it seems they focus on the do’s and don’ts of God. Love others. Do unto others. Be unified.
What they don’t focus on is what the Holy Spirit’s main focus is on — convicting us if our unbelief in Jesus.
Think about it. All sin stems from unbelief. We don’t believe Jesus is Who He says He is — God’s Son and Messiah.
Belief in Jesus is critical. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3: 18 ESV).
Many times, worldview people — and sometimes disciples — don’t think something is a sin. They say just because God calls it a sin, doesn’t make it so.
They don’t believe God has the authority to determine what is and isn’t.
Wrong.
Because they don’t sin, they don’t think they need a Savior.
Wrong.
Think about what that is really saying. The law can’t bring us salvation because it doesn’t convince us that sin is a sin. Because of that, we can’t rely on a checklist to save us.
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.
Because of that, we needed another Witness as we have to believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
I love 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 do need to be concerned about following God’s laws and commandments but only after salvation. Salvation is given to us when we believe we have a need for a Savior and that Jesus is the only Savior to whom we can turn.
The Holy Spirit does not allow us to be comfortable in our sin. We are to want God to cut out sin in our lives.
How we view the law is going to determine how we view sin. What is under the microscope the most is what our motive is.
God isn’t interested in us keeping the law to keep it. He doesn’t want it to turn into a checklist.
God wants us to keep His laws and commandments because we love Him. That is what the greatest commandment is all about.
Glossary
Associated with sin is a guilt that we are living outside of God’s Will. Everyone has it because everyone is convicted of being sinful.
Unfortunately, too many people try to stifle that guilt. That leads to quenching the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin.
When the Holy Spirit convicts us, He gets it to the heart level.
Making the Connections
We know the Holy Spirit isn’t just our conscience. It is through our conscience that the Holy Spirit convicts us.
But the Holy Spirit is more than that. He instructs us.
Glossary
Clark made an interesting observation. He wrote, “Even the teaching of Christ Himself was insufficient to produce this conviction.”
Resource
We have to remember that the Holy Spirit only teaches what He has been given by the Father. God is going to feed the Spirit the true information about Jesus because He is the One sent by God to be our Savior.
I interpret this to mean that Jesus could only teach so much about His death because it hadn’t happened yet. Only when it had happened and He ascended to take His place by the Father’s throne could the whole Plan of Salvation be taught.
That means it was left to the Holy Spirit, Who was given after the ascension, to be the chief teacher.
How Do We Apply This?
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
- Live by spiritual graces rather than worldly morality.
- Forget about there being degrees of sin because all sin stems from our unbelief in Jesus as our Savior.
- A major component of repentance is turning away from our sins and not doing them.
- We must witness to others to let them know Jesus is their Savior, too.
Resource
Father God. Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit when Jesus returned to Heaven. Thank You that He — and You — never leave us. Help us to hear the soft promptings of the Holy Spirit when He convicts us of our sins. We believe Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. Amen.
What do you think?
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