This is a question that came to me some time ago after God revealed to me His awesome grace. If Jesus died to take away all sin and God does not see our sins anymore, he only sees us as He sees Christ, perfect forever, then how does the Holy Spirit see us. Is is his job to convict Christians of their sins? I wrestled with this because I had been taught that he does. The truth is the accuser, Satan accuses us night and day of our sin. So how can it be that the Holy Spirit would fill that same role. The truth is He doesn't. There is no specific Scripture in the Bible to tell me that the Holy Spirit convicts me of my sin. Why would He do that, why would that be true anyway? What then is the Holy Spirit's job if this is not the case? I don't know about you but I certainly don't need the Holy Spirit to point out my faults. I have a conscience, a family, that though they love me, they are not shy about telling me what I have done wrong and let's not forget our enemy, the prosecutor Satan. Even non-Christians who do not have the Holy Spirit in them are quite able to discern when they have failed. So what then does the Holy Spirit convict us of?
We need to be constantly reminded and reminded, like the word of God says "to renew our minds", that we are indeed already forever forgiven and in God's eyes perfectly righteous. When I fail, I need to be reminded of this truth so I do not fall into condemnation. If the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin constantly I would think about my failures a lot more than I already do. I would think that is how God sees me and wonder if He was happy with me or not. I may feel very stressed out and not realize I am under condemnation because I think it is obviously God's will to show me my sin, if it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict me of sin. But the truth is that is a lie, the enemy wants us to feel defeated. God wants us to reign in life, He wants us to triumph over sin. How can we ever feel able to triumph if we are constantly being told both by the enemy and the Holy Spirit we are in sin! Please tell me how this could possibly work! It can't work and it doesn't, because it simply isn't true!
Jesus has completed the work, he has erradicated our sin through his death on the cross. There is power available to us now through his shed blood, He was condemned in our place so that indeed there would never be one iota of condemnation for those who are in Christ. Isn't this amazing! I am washed completely by Jesus blood and his blood never stops cleansing me! Now that is what I need to hear over and over.
Okay so there is one Scripture in John 16:8-11 that is important to understand, "And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: of sin, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; judgement, because the ruler of this world is judged."
I am going to quote a portion from Joseph Prince's book, "Destined to Reign" because I think he does a fabulous job of explaining this,
"It is important to always read Bible verses in their context. Many people end up misinterpreting Bible verses because they fail to do this. One way to read Bible verses in their context (and this is a key Bible interpretation principle) is to identify who are the verses talking about. So who was Jesus talking about in John 16:8? Was He talking about believers or unbelievers?
When He said that the Holy Spirit would come to "convict the world of sin" because they do not believe in Him, it is clear that He was referring to unbelievers because they are of "the world." And notice that the Holy Spirit does not convict the world of "sins" (plural). It is only one "sin" (singular) that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of, and that is the sin of unbelief, the sin of rejecting Jesus and not believing in His finished work.
Jesus died for the whole world, but does that not mean that the whole world is automatically saved. Each individual must make a personal decision to receive Jesus as his Savior. So the Holy Spirit is present to convict unbelievers of that one sin of unbelief. But when people take John 16:8 out of its proper context, they start to believe erroneously that the Holy Spirit is here to convict believers of their sins. None of us need help in that department. We all know when we have failed.
If the Holy Spirit never convicts you, the believer, of your sins, then what does He convict you of? Jesus says that the Holy Spirit convicts you "of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more." Now, who was Jesus referring to here? Clearly, with the use of the second person pronoun "you," Jesus was referring to His believers, as represented by His disciples whom He was talking to. This tells us that the Holy Spirit was sent to convict believers of righteousness.
Now, are you made righteous by your works or by faith in Jesus? By now, you should know that you are made righteous by faith, for righteousness is not right doing, but right standing before God because of your right believing! So when you miss it, the Holy Spirit comes to convict and remind you that you are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. He is present to remind you of the main clause of the new covenant - that God will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins, and your lawless deeds He will remember no more. (Heb. 8:12) The Holy Spirit is your Helper. (John 14:16) He was sent to live in you to help you, not to nag at you and point out all your faults. Nobody can live with a nag. The Holy Spirit is not a nag. No, He was sent to help you by convicting you of your everlasting righteousness."
I also want to include verses 13 & 14 of John 6, Jesus said, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you." I believe that the Spirit leads us into the truth of Jesus. What does that mean.....as He is so are we in this world. He brings us the truth of who we are in Christ, that is fully forgiven and 100% perfectly righteous forever.
I am so grateful to have gained clarity and revelation on this truth. After all God really is FOR us! I think what happened in the past for me was obviously not the Holy Spirit convicting me of sin, but the accuser and in addition to that still I was still living under the law in an old covenant, fading glory mentality. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase and show us our need for a Savior. The law was not meant to be kept, it was meant to show us how we could never live up to it and we needed a Savior. Thank you Jesus - you did it all for us!
Now I like to think of the Holy Spirit as a comforter(John 14:26), like a warm blanket enveloping me, kind of like a reminder of His robes of righteousness that have been placed upon me!!
