Understanding the Work of the Holy SpiritSample

The Holy Spirit Speaks and Convicts

The Holy Spirit engages in the particular work of speaking and convicting. Often in Scripture, when the Holy Spirit falls upon people, they engage in some kind of speech: praise, prophecy, prayer, or preaching, and the origin of Scripture is divine.

It is not the product of human ingenuity, willpower, initiative, or interpretation. At the same time, Scripture is humanly written. The Holy Spirit superintended the biblical authors—Moses, David, Luke, Paul—at every step of their writing. What we have as a result is the divinely inspired, authoritative, truthful Word of God. According to Scripture, when the Spirit fell/ rushed/came/descended/rested upon people, filling them with His presence, they engaged in prophecy, prayer, praise, and proclamation. And Scripture itself is divine speech in written form, inspired by the Holy Spirit. He is the speaking God!

Even before people embrace the gospel, the Holy Spirit is at work to “convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8). In John’s Gospel, convict means to expose guilt due to sin and the condemnation that results from it. Moreover, “the world” refers to people who are hostile toward God. They are not in a good place before God. They aren’t even in a neutral space. On the contrary, they are in dire straits before God; they are guilty because of their sin and stand under God’s condemnation. Tragically, many are not even aware of their plight. They don’t understand that they’re in grave danger. And before they can embrace the good news of God’s grace in Christ, they must grasp the bad news that they are sinners before a holy God.

First, in Jesus’s words, the Holy Spirit convicts “about sin, because they do not believe in me” (16:9). Second, in Jesus’s words, the Spirit convicts people “about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me” (16:10). Third, in Jesus’s words, the Holy Spirit convicts people “about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged” (16:11).

Of course, this convicting work of the Holy Spirit does not stop once we become followers of Jesus. For example, as we read Scripture, we hear a rebuke like “do not lie to one another” (Col. 3:9). The Spirit confronts us with our terrible habit of stretching the truth to make ourselves seem more than we really are. So we alter how we speak about ourselves. Or we hear a sermon on Jesus’s challenge to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). The Spirit exposes our pattern of rejecting those who dislike us or mock us for our faith. So we change our relationship with them.

Graciously and thankfully, the Holy Spirit convicts us deliberately, patiently, lovingly, and correctively. This conviction furthers our sanctification, or progress in becoming more like Jesus.