The Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness and not sin!

The Holy Spirit today, convicts us of righteousness, not sin. Sounds heretical right? Well, the church of Jesus Christ has heard all sorts of teachings on the Holy Spirit and this issue is one of the many issues I would like to address. Many believers are still clinging onto the grandfather teaching that the Holy Spirit convicts the believer of sin. However, down through the ages, little by little, God has supplied truths of the gospel and we are still rediscovering the gospel till it becomes a perfect jigsaw puzzle.

”But, this great man of God….”

Hold your horses! Let us quote the scriptures instead of this great man or that great man, deal?

”Okay then. John 16:8-11!”

As you wish.

John 16:8-11

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁸ And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹ of sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

”See, the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin! See! See! I told you!”

Let me show u another verse. You supplied one verse, so I supply one.

John 15:19

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

What Jesus meant in this verse is that we(believers) are in this world and yet not of this world! Let’s go back to John 16.

⁸ And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹ of sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

For a long time, people have been using the same verse over and over again to prove their point.

If we preachers had used magnifying glasses, we would have seen the phrase,”convict the world of sin”.

Suffice to say, the word ”they” refers to the world. Jesus was speaking to His disciples so when He says, ”they”, He definitely wasn’t referring to His disciples. He was referring to people outside which is the ”world(unbelievers)”.

Now, what sin is an unbeliever convicted of? Unbelief! How can a believer, who has accepted Jesus Christ into his life, be included in the unbelief category?

Now, see the words highlighted in red. Jesus was talking to His disciples. Notice Jesus used different words? They, you, ruler of this world(devil)? They(world), you(disciples also known as believers), ruler of the world(devil). Jesus distinguishes us from the world and from the devil. We are in the category of righteousness.

The Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius when Peter proclaimed remission of sins. The Holy Spirit unveils to us our righteousness in Christ and not our sins.

The Holy Spirit is a helper according to Jesus. Can you live with a friend, a helper who always points out your faults? Absolutely not! David never had the Holy Spirit because David was never clean. The Holy Spirit at that time, comes and goes. We having been clean, washed by the blood of Jesus, have the benefit of the Holy Spirit coming into us and abiding with us forever and also reminding us of our righteousness in Christ!

 

All your sins have been forgiven!

 Ephesians 1:7

⁷In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Sometimes when people read this kind of verses, they often skip and jump to the next verse. Did you know that knowing all your sins are forgiven is going to give you victory in life? It is knowing you are forgiven that gives you dunamis power to sin no more.

”Are my sins forgiven entirely? Are you sure they are? I feel so sad and condemned because I sinned yesterday, I had a bad thought! How?”

Let me tell you my friend, your sins of your entire life not only your past sins but your entire life has been put into the body of Jesus and He paid a perfect price for every speck of dirt(sin) in your life. All your junk(sin) was put in the body of Jesus and God punished them all in His body so that you and I can be pronounced holy, clean and righteous. Feel no more condemned! You are not dirty,  at the cross, God bathed you with Jesus blood so clean that you are now as white as snow(Isaiah 1:18).

”Amen! I dont sin because I am covered with a blanket of forgiveness! Yipee!”

Listen my friend, you STILL sin, and you sin like crazy every day, if you dont sin, why is there a need of eternal forgiveness? We still sin but they are all washed away. There was a prostitue who was brought to Jesus by the pharisees, cut the long story short, Jesus said to her,” Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It is knowing that there is no condemnation which gives us power to go and sin no more. Amen?

We must have faith in the right things. I believe much more in Jesus blood than in sin, I believe that even when sin increases, His grace will superabound and swallow sin up!(Romans 5:20) Amen? I believe Jesus blood has washed us too too too clean already.

Now, look at Ephesians 1:17 again, God says that our sins are forgiven according to the riches of His grace. Let’s say a boss tells his assistant,”I am going to increase your pay according to the salary you requested.” The word according is not just blessing you out of something but it means that God has forgiven all your sins as much as the riches of His grace. The day you know the riches of God’s grace, that is the day, you know how much you are forgiven! God also promises redemption! Redemption from the curse of the law. The law curses whenever you sin but God declares that the curse will not fall on you because of His son’s death. In Isaiah 54 God swore He will never rebuke you ever again nor will He ever be angry or mad at you. 2000 years ago, Jesus drank the cup of our sins and there God poured out His wrath and anger at Jesus and God condemned, curse, judged and punished all your sins so that you and I can walk free from the path of condemnation into righteousness! Hallelujah!

1 John 2:2

² And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Here in 1John 2:2, John by the Holy Spirit declared that Jesus Himself, is the propitiation for our sins. His blood has washed us clean. The reason why we are forgiven the moment we were saved was because we believed in the person of our forgiveness. His redemptive work was so that before God, He is our person of forgiveness. He is our mediator. When God sees us, He looks at us as pure people. Thats why the Holy Spirit can dwell in us! Paul always reminded people of who they are in Christ to counter sin in the church.  

Hebrews 1:3 

³ who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

The bible says that because Jesus has purged our sins, He sat down forever at God’s right hand. It was not because Jesus is God that He sat down, although He could sit down anytime. It was because of His perfect work at the cross, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Denying your sins are purged, forgiven and remitted is denying Jesus rights to sit on the right hand of God. It is denying Him to sit down! Believe you are righteous now! Believe you are forgiven now!

Now, I want to conclude this, how much are your sins forgiven? According to God’s grace. It is our vested interest to study His grace in the bible. See how Jesus blessed people and healed people, thats how much you know that your sins are forgiven!

©Nicholas Tan Ministries 2011