The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Conviction of Sin
John 16:9
Of sin, because they believe not on me;


I. WHAT IS CONVICTION OF SIN? The word means —

1. To reprove, censure, or upbraid.

2. To convict, prove to be guilty.

3. To render manifest. Here it is used in the last two senses.

(1) The people of the world are to be convicted at the bar of their own conscience of being sinners. This act is to be manifest to their own consciousness; and as sin includes two elements — guilt and pollution — the one expressing the relation of sin to justice, and the other its relation to holiness, conviction of sin includes —

(a)  The conviction of just exposure to the wrath of God on account of our own character and conduct. And this includes the conviction that we deserve punishment and that we certainly shall be punished unless in some way our guilt is removed.

(b)  The conviction of moral defilement, i.e., that we are in fact and in our own eyes offensive, degraded, and the proper objects of loathing.

(2) The effects of conviction flow from these two sources, and are —

(a)  Dread of the wrath of God.

(b)  Self-condemnation.

(c)  Remorse, including the sense of ill-desert, sorrow for the offence, and craving after satisfaction. It is stilled by punishment or adequate atonement.

II. THE SIN OF WHICH MEN ARE TO BE THUS CONVINCED IS THAT OF NOT BELIEVING ON CHRIST.

1. What is it to believe on Christ? This includes —

(1) The belief that He is what He claimed to be — the Son of God, or God manifest in the flesh; the Messiah; the Prophet, Priest and King, and therefore the Redeemer of men. This involves the recognition of the truth of all His doctrines. This faith to be genuine must not rest merely on external evidence, but on the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

(2) Reliance on Christ, on His propitiation, His saving, sanctifying and protecting power.

(3) Adoring love for His person, zeal for His glory, devotion to His service, submission to His will. It includes this not exactly in its nature as faith, but as its necessary effects: just as we cannot separate apprehension of beauty from delight in it.

2. The worst of all sins is unbelief. And men are convinced of sin when convinced that want of faith in Christ deserves God's wrath and degrades and pollutes the soul.

III. WHY IS THIS UNBELIEF SO GREAT A SIN? That it is the greatest of sins is directly asserted in John 3:18. It is so because —

1. It is the manifestation of the greatest depravity. The disbelief of speculative truth is not sinful, except where some moral obligation is violated in rejecting the evidence by which it is supported. But the rejection of moral truth is in its nature sinful, because it implies moral blindness and perversion of moral feeling. This latter unbelief differs in the degree of its sinfulness according to the importance of the truth and the kind of evidence with which it is attended. That the heathen are sinful and without excuse because they do not believe God, as revealed in nature, is asserted by St. Paul. But this sin is slight compared with those who rejected God as revealed in the Old Testament, and their guilt is small compared to that of those who reject Christ. He is God in the clearest and most attractive revelation ever made of the Divine Being. The rejection of Him implies the greatest blindness and depravity.

2. It involves the greatest conceivable ingratitude. It is not only the rejection of God, but the rejection of God humbling Himself to the death of the Cross out of love for us and for our salvation.

3. It involves a preference and deliberate choice of evil instead of good, and the kingdom of darkness instead of the kingdom of God. "He who does not bow to Christ has bowed to Me."

4. It is the rejection of eternal life for ourselves, and doing what we can to render certain the perdition of others.

IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT ALONE CAN CONVINCE MEN OF THIS SIN.

1. It is certain that human reason or our own nature will not do it.

2. That flesh and blood cannot do it.

3. The Holy Spirit alone can do it, because He alone can open our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

4. It is His office to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us.

V. INFERENCES.

1. It is our first and greatest duty to repent of sin and to believe on Christ.

2. Our next great duty is to labour to convince the world of this sin, and to lead them to faith in Christ.

(C. Hodge, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Of sin, because they believe not on me;

WEB: about sin, because they don't believe in me;




The Sin of Unbelief
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