The
Spirit Convicts of Righteousness
The Spirits
work goes beyond convicting of sin. Jesus
said that the Spirit would convince the world
of righteousness. The Spirit is able to do
this, said Christ, because I go to my
Father, and ye see me no more. (John
16:10.) What is righteousness? Simply
defined, it is right doing. Ezra declared of
God, Thou art righteous in all his
ways. Psalm 145:17 In all His
ways includes His dealings with the bad
as well as with the good, with devils as well
as with holy angels.
Since God is
righteous, His law must be righteous. Indeed,
all thy commandments are
righteousness. Psalm 119:172. No wonder
the prophet Daniel exclaimed, O Lord,
righteousness belongeth unto thee.
Daniel 9:7. And David insisted, There
is nothing unrighteous in Gods dealings
with any of the creatures in His vast
universe. His law and judgments, His love and
mercy, His justice and pity, all manifest His
righteousness. The term
righteousness is somewhat like a
basket; it holds all excellencies and all
perfections. Thy righteousness is an
everlasting righteousness. Psalm
119:142.
However, when we look
at the unregenerate man, a different picture
appears. Man is filled with all
unrighteousness. (Romans 1:29.) Of the
billions upon billions of human beings that
have trod the earth, Paul declared.
There are none righteous, no not
one. Romans 3:10. Isaiah said,
All our righteousness are as filthy
rags. Isaiah 64:6.
What is the
possibility of reform? Can man make himself
righteous? Is there any such thing as a
spiritual self-improvement program? Can man
ever completely reform himself? Self may be
ever so disgusted with self-lament and mourn
over its evil ways-but self-will never
overcome self; it can never cast itself out.
Self may reform in some things, but whenever
it works out some voluntary humility, it
quickly brags about it. See what
I have done, boasts
self-attainment. God asks, Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots? Then may ye also do good, that are
accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 13:23.
The office of the
Holy Spirit is to make righteousness so
attractive and so desirable to man that he
will be will to sacrifice his incorrigible
self to obtain it. When the sinner sees the
righteousness, the goodness, and the love of
Christ, who willingly suffered as his
substitute on the cross and died in his stead
for his sins, gratitude wells up in his soul
and he cries out, I believe. When
he accepts Christ, he receives forgiveness
and with this Christs righteousness. He
stands justified before God through the
merits of Christs sinless life and shed
blood.
Jesus was made sin
for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. (2
Corinthians 5:21.) The Holy Spirit not only
deals with the negative-sin-but with the
positive-righteousness. When God forgives sin
through faith in the merits of Christs
sacrifice, He imputes righteousness to the
believer. The believer stands before God not
only as though he had never sinned, but also
as though he had given God the same perfect
obedience that Christ has given Him.
How can the Spirit
convince man of righteousness? Jesus said,
Because I go to my Father. How
can His going back to God convince us of
this? Because God the Father would never have
accepted Jesus back into heaven if there had
been one stain of sin upon Him. Of Jesus we
read, He was in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews
4:15.) Though he were a Son, yet
learned obedience by the things which he
suffered. Hebrews 5:8. He was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,
and given him a name which is above every
name. (Philippians 2:8,9.) Because
Jesus obeyed, God the Father accepted His
righteousness.
How did Jesus develop
His positive righteousness? Isaiah prophesied
of Christ, The Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him,
and shall make him of
quick understanding in the fear of the Lord:
with righteousness shall he judge the
poor
And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins. Isaiah 11:2-5. The
Holy Spirit resting upon Christ enabled Him
to live a righteous life. Because Christ
Himself lived such a life, was Himself so
filled with the Spirit, He could go to
the Father, or be resurrected; and
because of this the Spirit could convict of
righteousness. Only after Christs life
had demonstrated a perfect righteousness
could the Spirit follow and Himself convict
men that they should have the righteousness
reflected in the life of Christ.
However, the
Spirits work in convicting of
righteousness encompassed more than
convicting the sinner that Christ is
righteous. It also includes convincing men
that they may have this same righteousness.
Justification has to do with that portion of
a mans life which he has already
lived-the sins committed in the past. (Romans
3:25.) However, once justified does not mean
always justified. The question naturally
arises, how is the convert to live that
unlived portion of his life that is yet
future? Surely, it is not to be lived to the
lusts of the flesh. (1 Peter 4:2.) To
receive Christ involves accepting the
righteousness that He lived out in His life
1,900 years ago and receiving the same Spirit
that enabled Him to live the righteous life,
He lived then. It means that we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in
this present world, just as Christ
lived while on earth. (Titus 2:12.) How can
this be done? Through the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit! Walk in the Spirit, and ye
shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. Galatians 5:16. Thus, the Holy
Spirit goes a step further and uses the
Christian to convince the world
of righteousness!
The Bible calls this
growing up in Christ
sanctification. The sanctified
believer behaves as Christ behaved. He has a
progressive experience, continuing as long as
life lasts. As justification is by faith
(Romans 5:1), so sanctification is by faith
(Acts 26:18). We receive justification by
believing that Jesus took upon Himself the
penalty for our guilt when He died for us. We
experience sanctification as day by day we
let the Holy Spirit do in us what He did in
Jesus. Sanctification means obedience to the
law through the Spirit. (Romans 15:16.)
Sanctification may also be spoken of as
imparted righteousness. God hath
chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit. 2
Thessalonians 2:13.
Memory Verse:
Galatians
5:22,23. But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control. Against such things there
is no law.
We are continually
adding Bible Studies to this section. We
encourage you to visit again and to
Bookmark Our
Site !