By Roy E. Ciampa, Ph.D.
Armstrong Chair of Religion, Samford University
CONVICTED BY THE SPIRIT
John 15:26–27, 16:7–15
When we are dealing with some struggle or serious challenge in life, it is easy for believers to feel we are all alone. We forget Jesus promised not to leave us alone or as orphans (John 14:18), but that He would be with us “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to us. (15:26–27)
Jesus promised to send the “Counselor,” meaning the Holy Spirit, to serve as our mediator, intercessor or helper. Christ no longer physically walks among us to lead and teach us as He did with the 12 disciples.
However, believers have received “the Spirit of truth,” Who comes to us from the Father, tells us the truth about Christ and leads us to testify about Christ.
John 15:26 emphasizes the Father, the Son and the Spirit are focused together on promoting the truth about Jesus. Christ was sent by the Father to testify about Himself while He lived among and ministered to and with His disciples. Now He sends the Counselor to do the same through Christ’s followers.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. (16:7–11)
At some point in your life you’ve probably wished you had the opportunity to know Christ during His earthly life and ministry.
Jesus knew the Holy Spirit would only come to us in a new way once He Himself had returned to the Father. He promised the Holy Spirit’s work among us would compensate for His absence and in some ways be even more beneficial to us.
The Spirit empowers us to know and follow Christ. Everything the Spirit does is Christ centered.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world about sin because the world does not believe in Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts the world about righteousness because Christ’s righteousness has been vindicated by His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father (and because Christ is no longer walking among us to do it Himself). The Holy Spirit convicts the world about judgment because to its shame, the world falsely judged Christ Himself.
Only by the work of the Holy Spirit do we truly understand the reality of sin. Only by the work of the Holy Spirit do we clearly perceive what righteousness demands of us.
The Holy Spirit reveals the faulty nature of our own judgments. He helps us see we are no different from, and just as culpable as, all those who falsely judged Christ and supported His crucifixion.
In the Old Testament, the Spirit convicted the world about sin, righteousness and judgment through the prophets with the law of Moses as the reference point. Now the reference point is Christ Himself.
The Holy Spirit guides us in the truth. (16:12–15)
One might have expected Christ to communicate all the important things God had to reveal through Him during His years of ministry. But Jesus said there were things He would only be able to reveal to His disciples through the Spirit after He had returned to the Father. The truth the Son reveals is the Father’s truth, and the truth the Spirit reveals is the Son’s truth which glorifies Jesus as more of His truth is revealed.
The books of the New Testament represent the fulfillment of Christ’s promise that the Spirit would guide us into “all the truth.” Scripture guides us to the truth of salvation in Christ and continues to grow us in truth as we follow the Lord. Through the Spirit-inspired and Spirit-illuminated Scriptures we are led into and by the truth.
May that truth be lived out among us as the Spirit leads us by the grace of Christ to the glory of the Father!
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