Day 30 - Conviction

The Holy Spirit convicts people of their sins.

After having watched much of the Winter Olympics recently, I am glad not to be an event judge. I’m not talking about the timed events; those are pretty much cut and dried. It was actually during an ice dancing event that the thought crossed my mind. Even as I heard the commentators talk about point deductions for this or that, I am glad I wasn’t the one to have to judge and decide. I feel that same way whenever I watch a baseball game. I’m glad that I am not the one calling balls, strikes, and outs.

Please read John 16:5-16.

Jesus gives His disciples the equivalent of some if-then statements. He basically said that if He didn’t die, then He couldn’t forgive their (or our) sins, then He couldn’t rise again, then He couldn’t defeat death. If He did not go back to the Father, then the Holy Spirit couldn’t come. As a human, Christ was limited to being in one place at a time. His going back to the Father gave Him the opportunity to be present to the whole world through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus then goes on to say in verses 8 and 9, “When He [The Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me...”

There are three important tasks of the Holy Spirit: 1) convicting the world of its sin and calling it to repentance, 2) revealing the standard of God’s righteousness to anyone who believes, and 3) demonstrating Christ’s judgment over Satan (Life Application Bible).

But what specifically does this mean? It‘s not like the world doesn’t know about sin. The Holy Spirit convicts men concerning sin because men do not believe in Christ. Consider this: to believe in Christ leads to salvation and obedience to His will. Rejecting Christ is to choose to remain under judgment before the righteous and Holy God. We can rationalize our sin in both “standard” and “solution.” We can choose to be our own standard and just decide whatever is right or wrong in our own eyes and with our own inward compass. We can also rationalize that we do not need Christ to solve our sin problem. In both instances we are cutting God off from the core of our lives. It makes little sense to desire life, but to cut ourselves off from the source.

Have you ever watched the TV show Deadliest Catch? Occasionally, whenever the captain of the boat decides to do something dangerous—weather-wise or seamanship-wise—there is a price to pay. Sometimes that price is death. When we remove the Holy Spirit as the captain of our life, there is a price to pay.

Have you allowed the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin?

Are you willing to believe and obey?

What, if anything, is holding you back?