---

I. THE SPIRIT'S CONVICTION OF SIN. And first, the Spirit's conviction of sin — "Of sin, because they believe not on Me."

1. This is not society's definition of sin: according to society, sin means crime, vice, immorality. Neither is it the philosopher's definition of sin: according to the philosopher, sin means misdirection, abuse, disease. Neither is it the theologian's definition of sin: according to the theologian, sin means transgression of God's law, coming short of God's glory, hereditary guilt. But it is Christ's definition of sin: according to Christ, sin means unbelief on Himself, unbelief in Jesus as the Christ. and Son and Image and Revealer of the Father. To disbelieve on Jesus, then, is to disbelieve on Deity Himself. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father (1 John 2:23). Christlessness in a Christian land is atheism. Sin, therefore, became a new thing when Jesus came into the world (John 15:22).

2. Observe now that of this sin of sins the Spirit is the sole convicter. When He is come, He will convict the world in respect of sin, because they believe not on Jesus. And no other power can. The preacher cannot do it; conscience cannot do it; even holy scripture cannot do it. Remember the difference between sins and sin. A jury may convict me of crimes: conscience may convict me of sins. But no power less than the Holy Spirit can convict me of sin. No barb but His can pierce to the root of my nature; no flash but His can show me to myself as a ruined sinner. And the argument he wields in convicting me of sin is this very fact that I do not believe on Jesus. Calvary, not Sinai, is the Spirit's mightiest artillery. But what avails it to be convicted of sin, unless at the same time we are also convicted that there is somewhere righteousness, and that this righteousness can be made available to ourselves?

II. THE SPIRIT'S CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1. "Of righteousness." What is this righteousness of which our Lord here speaks? Whose righteousness is it?

(1) Certainly not the world's. For the world is quite swift enough to detect its own merits. No Holy Spirit does it need to convince it of its own virtues. A very Narcissus it is, seeing everywhere the reflection of its own beauties and worshipping itself. But let us look at this matter a little more deeply, noting what the world's conception of righteousness really is. True, we admire and value righteousness. But why do we admire it? Because it is righteousness? Or because, in a civilized, well-ordered community, righteousness is one of the conditions of success? Do we not, practically speaking, secretly feel that Thomas Carlyle has hit the truth when, in his "Heroes and Hero-worship," he virtually tells us, Success is virtue; might makes right? Let righteousness but stand in the way of success, and let the choice lie between the two; and then see which the world will choose. Yes, the world crucified, and, were He to return, would virtually crucify again, the only absolutely righteous One the world has ever seen.

(2) Whose then is the righteousness the conviction of which the Spirit is to bring to the world? Evidently Christ's righteousness, But what part or element of Christ's righteousness is the righteousness of Which He here speaks? Evidently, righteousness in the general, complete sense of the word; the sum total of all that God requires; the righteousness of a perfect character. In other words, the righteousness of which the Lord here speaks is the righteousness which was incarnated in His own blessed person and career and character and work. And of this righteousness Christ's departure and present invisibility are both the illustration and the proof: "Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no more."

2. "Because I go to the Father." This going to the Father involves several profound things. First, it involves Christ's own death. And why did Jesus Christ die, and so go home? Just because He was righteous, and lived in a world which did not believe on Him. His very righteousness crucified Him. Again: This going to the Father involves Christ's resurrection. And why was Jesus Christ raised from the dead? Just because He was righteous: He was declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4). Once more: This going to the Father involves Christ's ascension and heavenly enthronement. And why was Jesus Christ exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high? Just because He was righteous; His exaltation being the reward of His incarnate obedience. His going to the father was both a revelation and a demonstration of Christ's righteousness.

3. "And ye no longer behold Me." Why did not the risen Lord remain on earth? Why is He not here now, to be a terror to His foes, a comfort to His friends? We behold Him no more in order that we may the better understand what righteousness truly is. For righteousness is not a bulk — so many inches cubic; not a weight — so many pounds avoirdupois. Righteousness is a quality, a character.

4. And of this righteousness the Holy Spirit is the sole concictor: "When He is come, He will convict the world in respect of righteousness." It may also be admitted that the world does in a certain sense admire Christ's character. Few eulogies are more eloquent, so far as language goes, than the eulogies which eminent unbelievers have pronounced on the Nazarene. But admiration is one thing: loyalty is another thing. There is a tremendous difference between aesthetic admiration and practical devotion; between assent to Christ's teaching and consent with Christ's character. And what the world needs is to have such a profound conviction of Christ's personal, conspicuous, distinctive righteousness as to yearn for it, crying, O Jehovah, be Thou my righteousness (Jeremiah 22:6). And this conviction no power but the Paraclete can effect.

III. THE SPIRIT'S CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. But what avails it to be convicted of righteousness, unless at the same time we are convicted that righteousness will be victorious?

1. "The prince of this world." If you ask me why Satan was allowed to enter this world and usurp its throne, my only answer is this: I do not know. Here is one of those secret things which belong to Jehovah our God (Deuteronomy 29:29). Of one thing, however, I am only too sure. Satan is the prince of this world. A usurped principality though it is, the principality is nevertheless his. See how he lords it over man's moral nature, as disclosed in the various religions of the world. Look, for example, at the world's idolatries: at its Apis, its Baal, its Dagon, its Mithras, its Siva. Look at the Greek and Roman mythologies. Or, to keep within our own land, look at the idolatry of second causes, the worship of antecedent and consequent, the adoration of the powers of nature. What is materialism but a sort of sublimated fetichism? Again: See how Satan lords it over man's psychical nature — over the capacities and affections and desires of men, instigating to all passions of pride and selfishness and ambition and hate and lust. Once more: See how Satan lords it over man's bodily nature, driving his thorns in the flesh to buffet us; bringing disease and pain and death and grave. In fine, look at this world as it actually is; its crimes, frauds, robberies, hates, falsehoods, perfidies, oppressions, cruelties, sensualities, blasphemies; its griefs and woes and deaths: look at all these and similar instigations and works of the devil, and tell me, Is not Satan the prince of this world?

2. But is this to be so always? God be praised, no! for the prince of this world hath been judged. To us indeed Christ's judgment of Satan seems to be a process still going on. But this is only because we are finite: for this idea of process, or succession in time, is one of the tokens of human weakness. But to the eye of the Son of God the overthrow of Satan was a single act, and an act already accomplished (Luke 10:17). But how was this judgment on Satan affected?

(1) To answer, first, in a general way: it was effected by the Incarnation. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). The Incarnation itself was a judgment(2) But to give a more particular answer: Satan was judged by Christ's own death. Accordingly, a few days before, Jesus exclaimed: "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out: and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself. This He said, signifying by what manner of death He should die" (John 12:28-33).

3. And this judgment on Satan is a judgment of which the world needs to be convicted: and this, not merely in way of intellectual apprehension, but, especially and emphatically, in way of moral conviction.

(1) Thus each Christian needs this conviction for himself. For he is exposed to a thousand discouragements: for example, the sense of infirmity, the enigma of delays and disappointments and adversities, the prevalence of iniquity, the enmity of Satan himself. Verily he does not yet see all things subjected to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:8). Hence he needs the saving power of hope (Romans 8:24). He needs the conviction that Christ's grace within him is omnipotent; that the life in Jesus will not be a failure; that the Christian's victory, if he holds steadfast, is a matter of certainty. What he needs is to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:14).

(2) And as each Christian needs this conviction for himself in order to his own salvation and victory, so does the Church of the Lamb need it in order to her own going forth and battling under inspiration of assured triumph. What she needs is the certain conviction that the Church's triumph is a foregone conclusion in the Divine mind; that in virtue of her joint-heirship with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17), the appointed heir of all things (Hebrews 1:3): she will share His sovereignty, even already owning this world by a sort of reversionary right.

4. But how shall this conviction be wrought? By no power less than the Holy Spirit. When He is come, He will convict the world concerning judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged. Conscience cannot work this conviction: all that conscience can do is to make us aware that we are under Satan's power. Neither can philosophy work this conviction: all that philosophy does is to try to make us believe that there is not, and never has been, any Satan at all; that hell is only the obverse side of heaven, or "heaven seen in a side-light." The philosopher does, indeed, talk of a golden age. But what kind of a golden age is it? An age when all that is now anomalous and discordant and monstrous shall give way to universal law and order and beauty; in brief, when the world shall develop into a godless paradise, from which Satan and Jesus shall be alike aliens.

(G. D. Boardman, D. D.)

---

---

KJV: And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

WEB: When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;