THE CONVICTING BY THE SPIRIT
And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. (16:8–11)
The Holy Spirit does not minister only to believers, but also to the unbelieving world. Though the word convict judicially implies a negative connotation, theologically the Spirit’s convicting ministry is an exceedingly positive one. His goal is to bring sinners to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
No one can be saved apart from the Spirit’s convicting and regenerating work. The Bible teaches that all people are by nature rebels against God and hostile to Jesus Christ. They are “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1); “by nature children of wrath” (v. 3); “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart … callous [having] given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness” (Eph. 4:18–19); “and alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds” (Col. 1:21); blinded by Satan so that they cannot understand spiritual truth (2 Cor. 4:4; cf. Luke 8:5, 12). In that condition, they are helpless; they are unable to believe the truth and are even guilty of suppressing it (Rom. 1:18–32). In John 6:44 Jesus declared, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” In a graphic description of fallen man’s utter inability to seek God on his own, Paul wrote,
There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Rom. 3:10–18)
The world hates Jesus Christ because sinfulness hates righteousness, imperfection hates perfection, and the “domain of darkness” hates the “kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13; cf. John 3:19). It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to penetrate hearts steeped in sin, overcome sinners’ resistance to the gospel, and bring them through saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to fellowship with God.
To do that, the Spirit must break the power of sin that enslaves people (John 8:34), and the love of iniquity that keeps them in rebellion against God. Jesus had already told the disciples that the Spirit would testify about Him to the world (15:26). In addition to that outward testimony, the Spirit also convicts the hearts of sinners. When He comes on the day of Pentecost, Jesus said, the Spirit will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
The beginning of the Holy Spirit’s saving ministry to the lost is revealed in this word convict. The word can describe convicting in a judicial sense, like a criminal who is convicted of wrongdoing (cf. its use in James 2:9 and Jude 15). Ultimately, those convicted in this sense will be sentenced to eternal punishment in hell. But in this context the word more likely refers to being convinced of the reality of sin and the need for salvation in Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 14:24). It is the Spirit’s mission to present the truth about Jesus Christ to the world (15:26); those who reject the truth will be found guilty and judged by the Son and Father (5:22, 27, 30).
The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning three things: sin and righteousness and judgment. The singular form of hamartias (sin) refers not to sin in general but specifically to the ultimate sin of refusing to believe in Jesus Christ. It is that sin that finally damns people, since all others are forgiven when a person believes savingly in Him (cf. Matt. 12:31–32). In John 3:18 Jesus said, “He who believes in Him (Christ) is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” In 5:40 He rebuked those who were “unwilling to come to [Him] so that [they might] have life.” He solemnly warned the unbelieving Jews, “Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). The sole issue that determines people’s eternal destiny is how they react to the Spirit’s convicting ministry concerning their own sin and the provision of forgiveness by grace through Jesus Christ.
Second, Jesus told the disciples, “the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me.” The righteousness here is that which belongs to Jesus Christ by nature as the holy Son of God. This is the flip side of the previous point; not only does the Spirit convict unbelievers of their sin, but also of the necessity of having the perfect righteousness of Christ (cf. Matt. 5:20, 48). When their wickedness is compared to His sinless holiness, their sin is seen more truly for the detestable evil that it is. And the sinner is face-to-face with the impossibility of salvation by any effort, work, or achievement he may do.
The Lord’s statement, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me, provides the supreme evidence of His righteousness: His acceptance into the Father’s presence. Habakkuk 1:13 says of God, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor.” When the Father “highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9), He Himself testified to Christ’s righteousness. Those who heed the Spirit’s testimony about their utter sinfulness and Christ’s perfect righteousness and respond to the gospel in genuine faith, are instantly clothed with His righteousness. Their sins are placed fully on Him and, in His death at the hands of God’s holy justice, He paid the penalty in full (Phil. 3:9; cf. Rom. 3:21–22; 4:5, 13; 5:21; 10:10; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). God justifies sinners when He accounts their sins to have been paid for by Christ’s death and Christ’s righteousness is credited to them by His grace alone.
Finally, the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. The world’s judgments are erroneous and evil, as was supremely demonstrated by its rejection of the Son of God. But while the world is incapable of judging righteously (cf. 7:24), the Spirit always does so. He convicts people of their false assessment of Jesus Christ.
The ruler of this world is Satan (12:31; 14:30; 1 John 5:19). He has already been judged and cast from heaven along with the rest of the angels who rebelled with him (Rev. 12:7–9; cf. Luke 10:18). He was totally defeated at the cross (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8), when what appeared to be his hour of triumph was in reality the hour of his undoing. Though Satan has been defeated and judged, the final sentence against him will not be carried out until the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:10). In the meantime he goes about as the god of this age, seeking to capture and devour souls. The sobering warning to those who embrace the world system is that since its ruler will not escape judgment, neither will they, unless they repent. The Devil’s fate guarantees the judgment of every unrepentant sinner.
There are only two possible responses to the convicting work of the Spirit: repentance or rejection. From those who reject the Spirit’s conviction will come hostility to the followers of Christ. Their end is “eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:9). Those who repent when the Spirit convicts them will spend eternity in the inexpressible glory and joy of heaven. Yet they will, in this life, face fiery trials of persecution without a fatal defection because “greater is He who is in [them] than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
John F. MacArthur Jr., John 12–21, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2008), 195–199.
. I was one of those who cried at the time and I still sometimes have to hold back tears when I reflect and remember.