Manifested love, Pt 26: Walk the walk

John 16:5-11                              …None of you asks me ‘Where are you going?’ 6Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.  7But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:  9About sin, because people do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

John 14:26                             26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Activities of the Holy Spirit

Israel is and was a small nation easily overcome by big, powerful neighbors.  In addition, they frequently waffled in their faith; worshipping idols for a time, then returning to the faith in an everlasting one true God.  But in the process, they developed the idea that God was the only Judge who would hear their case; certainly none of the conquering nations gave a twit about the Jewish respond to invasion.  So the idea of the Holy Spirit as an Advocate is a natural, welcome response to the notion that they were always the underdog.

Believers are used to the idea that the Holy Spirit intercedes before the throne on our behalf, that he is our Helper who carries us through difficulties and helps us overcome obstacles.  That, after all, in addition to Teacher, was also Jesus’ activity while he was on the planet.  But now the Holy Spirit carries on that role—and thank God he does.  And we have also embraced the view of Holy Spirit as Advocate.  In this case one can easily see the Holy Spirit as counsel for the defense.  But that is not the view being presented in this passage:  In this case the Holy Spirit is counsel for the prosecution.

The world’s error—sin

So we can see the Holy Spirit presenting a case before the Godly Throne convicting the world system of sin, but just how does that translate to the here and now of our lives?  The world system, maybe better said as ‘unbelieving society’, is not some nameless vague construct, but simply a group of people the believer interacts with to a greater or lesser degree, and herein lays the real crux of this verse.  Just what is the sin in view here?  Since we are talking about a variety of individuals, each with their varied strengths and weaknesses, there can be only one thing in common—unbelief.  People like to think of themselves as ‘basically a good person’ who has a series of unique problems.  But let’s face it.  Contrary to ultra-conservative pundits, smoking, or drinking, or cursing never sent anyone to the lake of fire.  Plenty of fully redeemed believers have continuing struggles like those.  No, the rock in the road that changes one’s course from Heaven to Hell is unbelief.

The world’s  error—righteousness

The dictionary defines righteousness as the condition of being morally right and justified in one’s actions.  My personal opinion is that every single person thinks themselves as righteous.  Otherwise, how could they excuse their questionable activities?  Many people in our culture live high moral lives—Mother Teresa for one.  The thing is though that the world’s righteousness isn’t the same as is Jesus.  It’s righteousness is relative, His is absolute.  It’s is based on feelings and situations, his is based on absolute truth.  For instance, it is relative righteousness to think ending a life is part of a person’s right to choose, it is absolute righteousness to think murder is always wrong no matter what the situation. 

But the Holy Spirit does not sort of float around over the heads of people spreading a sense of conviction or unease.  No, the Holy Spirit works through believers.  When we read Scripture and are convicted by some verse or another to change our life path to more reflect God’s beauty and love we are living in a way that encourages others to ask why we are different.  When we refrain from smoking, or drinking, or cursing, we give someone else the opportunity to ask why.  And we can answer, “Because my body is God’s temple and I don’t want anything to defile it.”  In some small way such things change one’s around us, and that is exactly what God wants of us.

The world’s error—judgment

One of the big trip-wires that pushes people away from God’s proffered forgiveness through acceptance of Jesus Christ in faith is their misunderstanding of the word judgment.  They think they are criticized and judged because of their lifestyle, or sin habits, when actually the word refers to Satan’s conviction because of Christ’s great sacrifice and his defeat of the consequence of sin.  Satan is doomed and he knows it.  So he turns up the heat, lies to people, telling them they are not worthy of salvation, and they might as well keep on sinning.  The prince of this world, Satan, yes has been judged and now stands condemned.

So we believers have an opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into conversation with those who need to hear that message.  When we find ourselves in a conversation with someone we barely know, what should we talk about?  The person we met at the bar last night?  Or the opportunity we had the day before to help someone who just lost a loved one.  It is important to listen for that still small voice that guides and shapes us.

What about me?

God wants all of his children to come to saving faith in his Son.  He want as few people as possible to end up in the lake of fire.  Unsaved people are unaware that they need to be saved until that precise moment when, according to God’s eternal plan, everything lines up to awaken the person to his need for Jesus.  We have all, at one time been unregenerate.  We weren’t born saved.  There are 2 billion people who claim to believe in Jesus Christ which means 6 billion or 75% of the world’s population are not.

So it is time.  Time to make a difference.  In some small way time to help someone live a better life.  Time to love like Jesus loves, time to care for someone in need, time to give someone a cup of coffee.  These are all tiny things that can still change lives.