The Gospel of John | The Spirit’s Conviction And Truth – John 16:1-15
Just as the world hates Jesus, we will be hated as we are in Christ. The Holy Spirit will empower our witness of the truth.
Jesus continues in the farewell discourse to exhort and encourage the disciples with some incredibly difficult truths. While not everything Jesus spoke to them had been positive, the words of Christ would impact the disciples and prepare them for what was coming. Not only would Jesus be walking into His death, the disciples would face a persecution from their involvement and association with Jesus Christ. Furthermore, those that would seek their destruction, the Pharisees of the day, would do so thinking the hand of God would be working through them. Through their blindness of the presence of the Messiah before them, the Pharisees would murder and crucify all the disciples in a misguided attempt to protect the message of God in the world. The persecution would easily be more than they could bear and endure. Thus as Jesus walked willingly to His death, the disciples knew that they would be asked to give up their own life for the sake of the Gospel, a cost that could only be paid by the work of God in the disciples.
Jesus states again that it is better that He go to the Father so that The Father and The Son would send the Holy Spirit. The power to endure the challenges and trials of the world while looking persecution in the face could only come through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the disciples. The work of the Spirit would be two-fold, to convict of judgement and sin and to speak truth and comfort to the disciples. Hence, Jesus explained that there was much more to teach them that they simply are unable to bear. As the Holy Spirit resides within a person, the Spirit acts as the receptor of the truth, able to receive and be transformed by the powerful work of the Gospel. The Spirit produces life in those within whom He dwells. This life endures the threat of death, convicts of sin, and works in the hearts of the believer for the glory of God to face the challenges of the world. Jesus’ going to the Father is for the betterment of the disciples because, without going to the Father, they could not send the Holy Spirit to indwell in people.
The Work of the Spirit in Conviction
One of the major tasks of the Holy Spirit in the believer and the world is the conviction of sin. For those of the world, there resides within us all a conflict of our lives being in contrast to what our intended creative design had been. While we all sin, it should come as no surprise to everyone that, when we do, we have gone beyond our created purposes. Our bodies were created through the Holy Spirit in a manner that cannot sustain sin. When the Spirit moves, there is conviction of sin that occurs where the flesh and the spirit contrast one another. As Jesus describes the work of the Spirit, he begins with where the Spirit will come and convict the world of the failure to be righteous and the constant falling short of the glory and grace of God. Furthermore, this conviction does not stop with simply pointing out the sin in the world but the coming judgment that comes from with it. The consequences of sin result in destruction for those who sin and rebel agains the Lord. Whether a person isa believer or not, the Spirit moves in all the world to convict and bring judgment from the Father and the Son.
This conviction of sin comes by an internal groaning of the soul, a deep longing for God, even if we do not yet know the one, true God. For those who do not know God, the heart remains unfulfilled and longing for the unknown piece that ties all creation together. The believer those, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, experiences the reforming work of the Spirit from the inside out. As the instrument of creation, the Spirit can identity and understand which things had been created from the origin of life and which things were mere knock offs and cheap imitations. The conviction of the Holy Spirit points out the death we keep in our hearts and, with the precision of a surgeon, cuts out the death in our hearts. God will refuse to share sovereignty with any sin within us. For us, we must determine how we will respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Our first instinct will be to cling to the desires of our flesh and push out the influence of the Spirit. Yet, we cannot lose sight of the fact that God is a good God who is not seeking our destruction but our advancement in the source of abundant and bountiful life. God wants us to thrive in His presence rather than decay in our desires. With the conviction of the Spirit, we bow and submit before the Lord and allow the work of purification to work within us.
- What things does Jesus say in this section that the Spirit does with relationship to sin and conviction?
The Work of the Spirit In Truth
The Holy Spirit, though, does not just simply work to point of the negative in a person’s life, even if the work is reformation and redemption in the process. The Holy Spirit does not just bring anti-death, but is pro-life in the indwelling. The Spirit also empowers the people and equips the church for the work of ministry that God has called us all to. The Spirit guides the people in truth, announcing what is coming from above. With the Spirit within us, we receive the word and message of truth from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. The fullness of God’s unity is on display as we die to ourselves and come alive through the Holy Spirit within us. The Spirit works to guide and direct the church through the constant presence. He speaks the word of God and we receive the word with the help of the Spirit.
While one of the primary works of the Spirit is to convict of sin, this is for the betterment of the Christian. When we remember sin has corrupted the fullness of creation and necessitated our need for a Savior, we see the work of the Holy Spirit as one that seeks our betterment. Furthermore, we know that the world will not look favorably on those that refuse to adhere to the standards of how the world thinks we should act. As we saw with the disciples, the world will even persecute those of the faith, thinking they are doing a morally good act. This only reveals their lack of Spirit guidance within them. For everything the Christian will face, we face not by our own strength, but by the strength of God within us who leads, guides, and protects. The message of the Gospel is not that we should try hard and strive to accomplish the work that is set before us. Instead, the message is one that we can only accomplish the work set before us by the intercession, guidance, and empowerment of the Holy Spirit who comes from above. When we allow the Spirit to move with us and have His way in us, we find a perfection of life that comes from our unity in the Holy Spirit.
- How does the Holy Spirit speaking what is given to Him from the Father reveal about the Trinitarian relationship between God and Man?
Discussion Questions
- What are the differences between a life transformed by the Spirit? How does the Spirit’s presence in the life of the believer change their expression of life?
- What are some of the persecutions that you have endured as a Christian and how has the Holy Spirit guided you through the process?
- In what ways do Christians grow in their faith through the work of the Spirit within them? What changes as we submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
- Why does Jesus tell us it is better for Him to go to the Father? Describe the impact of the Spirit’s indwelling on our life?
About The Author
Daniel Burton is the founder of The Gospel Outpost. He is passionate about discipleship and seeing people grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. To find out more about him, check out his Author Page.
