And having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment
Jesus is speaking to His disciples about His departure. Here He tells them what it will mean for the world outside, not only for them. The Helper He sends will bring a case against the world on three counts: sin, righteousness, and judgment. What does that convicting work actually do?
No single English word carries the Greek verb Jesus uses here. Older translations show the struggle.
The Lord tells us that when the Spirit comes, He will elegxei the world. It is hard to bring across the true force of that word. "Reprove," as the King James Version has it, is too narrow, if not simply wrong. "Rebuke" is out of the question here. "Convict" barely fits the first clause, and does not fit the second and third at all. It also assumes an effect on people that may not be there at all. "Convince" does not satisfy either, unless it means giving proof by His presence rather than by His action. By coming and staying in believers, apart from the world, He gives the world proof by demonstration of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
The charge is not a list of wrongs. It is one refusal.
The law dealt with Israel as those under it. But now it is the Spirit who shows the world its "sin." The reason is not that people break the law, that divine measure of a man's duty. The reason is that they reject the Son of God: "concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me." He had come in grace; to reject this was fatal. It is not merely failure in obligation, but contempt for God's love.
Another writer turns the same charge into a question the Spirit puts to the world:
The Comforter shows the sin of the whole world as the one that has rejected God: "He will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me." There are plenty of other sins, but the Holy Spirit would say to the world, "Where is Christ? What have you done with Him?"
The second count points away from this world, to where Jesus has gone.
Jesus was going through death and resurrection, and then going up into the glory of the Father. That is how divine righteousness would be proved and displayed. The point here is not forgiveness of sins and justification for us, as it is in Romans 3. It is righteousness set up in the open, in every sphere that sin has touched and spoiled. Christ's death was the world's supreme act of unrighteousness. His glorification was God's supreme act of righteousness, and the guarantee that righteousness will win everywhere in the end... To show sin alone would not have been enough. Righteousness is the opposite of sin, and the thing that will abolish it in the end, so righteousness must be shown too.
The third count is more than a warning about a court date still to come.
This world has refused Christ and has no righteousness of its own. Righteousness now sits on the throne, and that is the proof of the world's guilt. So one thing only is left: judgment. So the last convicting work of the Spirit is to bring home the fact of judgment to the consciences of men. He does this not only by warning of a judgment still to come — "it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." He also brings home that judgment has already been passed and carried out, in the mind of God, on the prince of this world.
One writer names the place where that sentence fell.
The judgment on the prince of this world has come already. He is judged in the cross of Christ.
The proof can be complete, and men can still refuse it.
"He will convict" does not necessarily mean that men will accept the conviction. The guilty do not necessarily admit that their sentence is right. The world certainly does not admit it. Still, God has demonstrated the guilt of the world, and placed men under responsibility to receive His sentence. That is the way into blessing beyond imagining: the salvation for the guilty that the gospel proclaims.
What proves the case is less a set of arguments than a Person who is here at all.
Had this world received the Son, the Spirit would not be here in His present testimony dwelling in our hearts. I have no doubt the demonstration comes first to us, and then through us to this world. We seek to bear witness to the Son, and to the sin of this world in rejecting Him. But it is the presence of the Spirit which brings this demonstration, not so much what the Spirit has to say.
- Presence. The Spirit is here because the world cast Christ out. His arrival is itself the evidence. The verb means "give proof" more than "tell off."
- Sin. The charge is not law-breaking but unbelief — contempt for the love that came in the Son.
- Righteousness. The world has none of its own. Christ in glory shows where righteousness is, and pledges that it will fill every sphere.
- Judgment. Not a threat about tomorrow only; sentence has already fallen on the world's prince at the cross.
- Response. Men may refuse the proof, but it stands. That same verdict opens the door to salvation for the guilty.
of sin, because they do not believe on me;
The Lord is telling His disciples what will happen when the Helper comes. The first item is startling. The Spirit will prove the world's sin, and the proof rests on one fact: they refused Him. Two questions follow. Why unbelief and not the more obvious crimes? And what does the Spirit do when He "convicts"?
Under the law, God measured Israel's guilt by broken commands. Here the measure changes. The world has turned away the Person who came in grace.
But now it is the Spirit Who shows the "sin" of the world. He shows it not because they break that divine standard of a man's duty, but because they reject the Son of God: "concerning sin, because they do not believe in me." He had come in grace, and to reject this was fatal. It is not just a failure to meet an obligation. It is contempt for God's love.
Unbelief here is not one fault among many. It sums up what man is.
It was not just sinfulness or wrongdoing. Both could have been charged against them by nature and by the law. It was their very state, their whole state with God… They were sin, and nothing else. Where all beauty was, they saw none. Where God was revealed in the flesh, they did not know Him. When He came to His own with personal grace, they did not receive Him. They hated and rejected Him.
The proof is not only in what the Spirit says. It is in the fact that He is here at all. Had the world welcomed the Son, He would not have been sent.
The very presence of the Holy Ghost stamps the world with this sin. He could not be sent here, unless Jesus had been rejected — unless God's own Son had been cast out.
The same fact also explains who receives the Spirit and who does not.
Why is the Holy Spirit in this world in the special way in which He is? Because Christ is rejected. Why is the Holy Spirit given to some and not to others? Because some believe and some do not. This marks the difference between the believer and the world. It shows the guilt of the world.
The Greek word here is hard to translate. Kelly weighs the usual options and settles on proof supplied, not an effect produced.
"Reprove," as in the King James Version, is too narrow a meaning, if not false. "Rebuke" is out of the question here. "Convict" barely fits even the first clause, and does not fit the second and third at all. It also assumes an effect produced, which may not be there in any case. "Convince" is not satisfying either, unless it means giving proof by His presence rather than by His action.
The accused can deny a case that is fully proved. That does not weaken it — and it leaves a door open.
"He will convict" does not have to mean that men will accept the conviction. The guilty do not always admit that their sentence is just. The world certainly does not admit it. Still, God has shown the guilt of the world, and has placed men under responsibility to receive His sentence. There lies the way into blessing beyond imagining — the salvation for the guilty which the gospel proclaims.
Commentators differ on how far the world itself receives this. Hamilton Smith says the proof lands not on the world but on those the Spirit lives in. They then carry it outward.
In fact it is not the world itself that receives the demonstration. It is those in whom the Spirit dwells. They do use what they have learned to tell the world its true condition.
That witness is not abstract. Believers meet this same unbelief whenever they talk with someone outside the faith.
The Spirit is here to bear witness to this. His very presence here bears witness that Christ is rejected. And when we meet unconverted people in this world, we too see that they have not believed.
Some stretch this verse to mean that unbelief is now the only sin God counts. Ridout answers that rejecting the remedy makes the record worse, not empty.
Rejecting Christ does not wipe out every other sin committed; it underlines them. Here is an atonement available for terrible sins. That atonement is rejected, and this makes the sins worse still.
- Proof, not scolding. The word behind "convict" means evidence laid down — a case established, whether or not the accused admits it.
- Proof by presence. The Spirit is here because the Son was cast out; His being here at all stamps the world with the sin.
- Proof of one thing. The charge is not broken law but refused grace — the Son came in love and was not received.
- Proof carried by believers. Those in whom the Spirit dwells receive the demonstration first, and then take it to a world that does not see Him.
- Proof that opens a door. God has settled the guilt, so men may accept the verdict and receive the salvation the gospel offers to the guilty.