GRADUATE SCHOOLS FEATURE FACULTY MEMBERS OF ALL KINDS
. I’LL
never forget my first semester when I met two gifted professors who each treated students very differently. One professor was stern and strict. As he walked the halls, the passers-by would tighten up. He was intimidating in his tone and condescending in his speech. The other professor treated his students as colleagues. He was friendly, full of energy, and encouraging toward those around him. He looked for opportunities to help his students succeed. Rather than pointing out their failures, he had a future-oriented focus: What would his students need to succeed? Would they be ready for placement in top-notch research institutions? He was interested in training them for what was ahead.
Both professors were well respected in their field. But they went about their daily interactions with students in starkly different ways. As students got to know both professors, you can imagine what happened. They were drawn to one and repelled by the other. I still remember the day we were required to select academic advisers to mentor us. Numerous students flocked to the kind professor. Very few, if any, wanted advising from the condescending professor.
The Holy Spirit is our mentor. But what type of mentor is he? What is his approach and how does he interact with us
?
CONVICTION OR
COUNSEL?
The book of Hebrews tells us that God (the Father) doesn’t remember our sins anymore (Hebrews 8:12). Then the author reiterates the same point, declaring that the Holy Spirit
doesn’t remember our sins either (Hebrews 10:17). Why mention this point twice?
We think that
the Holy Spirit
is making us feel
guilty and distant
as punishment
for our sins.
Sometimes we separate God’s act of love on the cross from the Holy Spirit’s perspective on sins. This subtly implies that God and the Holy Spirit are not on the same page. It’s amazing that we can imagine ourselves to be at peace with God the Father, but then we think that the Holy Spirit is making us feel guilty and distant as punishment for our sins. Many Christians call this feeling the conviction
of the Holy Spirit.
How can we use the term conviction
for Christians? In one breath, we admit that God has forgotten our sins. We say he doesn’t take them into account. We may even agree with the writer of Hebrews that the Holy Spirit himself has forgotten our sins. But in the next breath, we announce firmly that the Holy Spirit convicts
us of our sins.
To unravel this apparent contradiction, let’s look at the meaning of the term convict.
Convict
means “to find guilty.” Within a judicial system, conviction is followed by sentencing and then punishment. Inside the word conviction
is the term we usually reserve for a person who is incarcerated—a convict.
So should the verb convict
be used to describe interaction between the Holy Spirit and children of God? Probably not.
The root convict-
only appears eight times in the Bible. And not one of those appearances has anything to do with the daily life of the believer! The gospel of John contains the only passage that joins Holy Spirit
and convict
:
I [Jesus] tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world
concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.
JOHN
16:7-9 NASB, italics added
So who’s being convicted here? It’s the world, characterized as people who do not believe
in Jesus. Jesus is not talking about Christians who already believe in him! In this and all other relevant passages, context makes it clear that the term convict
is exclusively reserved for unbelievers.
NEW
EXPECTATIONS
If it’s inaccurate to speak of the Holy Spirit as convicting believers, then what can we expect from him regarding our behavior? The epistles clearly describe how the Holy Spirit operates in the lives of believers. He’s our Counselor, our Helper, our Comforter, our Advocate—and the one who guides us into all the truth (John 16:13). He prays on our behalf (Romans 8:26). And he testifies to us concerning our identity as children of God (Romans 8:16).
It’s inaccurate to speak
of the Holy Spirit
as convicting believers.
But how does our behavior improve? By these very means! How can we not believe that the counsel of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to bring about genuine change in our lives? Rather than dredging up the past, the Holy Spirit trains us for the future. Rather than treating us as convicts, he recognizes us as holy saints. When sinful behaviors occur in our lives, he reminds us of Jesus’ work on the cross. We need to know that we’re pure and made for good
deeds, not sins. The world is certainly not
going to teach us that!
The work of the Holy Spirit doesn’t find a parallel in this world. We can’t look to any other relationship as an example of his counsel and guidance. Why not? Because no human mentor can maintain a mind-set of total forgiveness, esteem us as perfect people, and simultaneously coach us regarding attitudes and actions.
God has forgotten our
sins. Shouldn’t we?
Is this just splitting hairs? Not at all. Too many Christians succumb to the Accuser while wrongly attributing these attacks to the conviction
of the Holy Spirit. There’s no better tactic for Satan than to first tempt us and then flood us with guilt by masquerading as the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we even entertain guilt just for having the thought pass through our minds!
God has forgotten our sins. Shouldn’t we? When our view of God is off-kilter or our understanding of Christ’s work is incomplete, it’s natural that our sense of what the Holy Spirit is doing will likewise be askew.
We’ve got a clean slate. The Holy Spirit is in our corner. He’ll never
leave us. And he is an effective coach.