John 16:8-10

“And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not on me. Of righteousness because I am going to the Father and you see me no more. Of judgment because the prince of this world has been judged.”

‘When He is come.' From the previous verse we can add ‘to you'. The Holy Spirit is not some vague wind blowing around the world. He comes to and on God's people, and it is through them that He carries out His activity.

‘He will convict the world.' The basic meanings possible for this verb are (1) "to convict or convince someone of something", (2) "to bring to light or expose something, and thus reveal guilt”, and (3) "to correct or punish someone". The last is clearly not His purpose at this time. It may well be that it is a combination of the first two that is in mind. He convinces and convicts. This work will mainly be accomplished through His disciples and their lives and preaching, followed by the lives and preaching of those who follow them.

‘He will convict the world of sin -- because it believes not on me'. This means that He will make clear the sin of men's unbelief. Not to believe in Christ is the greatest sin of all for it is to sin against Him Who is the light, and reveals the darkness of the heart. It is to hide from the light. The light has shone revealing the truth about God and His love for man revealed in the cross and in the giving of His only Son. By rejecting Him men show what their hearts are really like deep down. Thus through God's people the Spirit will expose men's unbelief, and cause them to be declared guilty. Guilty because of what they are, and guilty of not believing in, and responding to, the light from God. He will bring home the fact that when the world as a whole rejects the One Who has come as a light into the world they do so because their deeds are evil, and they are therefore condemned because of it (John 3:16).

We can compare here John 12:37. ‘Although He had done so many signs before them yet they did not believe on Him.' The sin of these men against the light from God was the more inexcusable because the coming of the One Who was the light was testified to by such great signs. They had no excuse at all. Had their hearts been open their response would have been certain. But they had in fact deliberately closed their minds to Him. They were therefore doubly guilty.

For as Paul elsewhere makes clear, all men are without excuse for God has revealed Himself in other ways too and men have still closed their hearts and minds (Romans 1:18).

There are, however, the comparatively few, who will be awakened by the light that has come from God, and will respond to it (John 3:18). They too are convinced of the sinfulness of not responding to the light, they too are made aware of the sinfulness of their own hearts. But in their case their response is to come to Him to receive forgiveness and eternal life.

‘He will convict the world of righteousness -- because I am going to the Father and you see me no more.' The presence of Jesus in the world has revealed more fully than ever before what true righteousness is. He was righteousness personified and His life and teaching had shown forth righteousness in all its true glory. Thus the work of the Spirit may be seen as taking over that task of revealing what true righteousness is to the world, when Jesus has gone to the Father, again mainly through God's people and through God's word.

He will convict the world of righteousness because He will bring home to them what true righteousness is. He will convince some of them of their own need of righteousness. He will bring home to them how they can obtain perfect righteousness through Christ.

So will the world continue to be faced with the light, to have the truth about itself and its deeds exposed. The righteousness and the righteous teaching of God's people will convince some and lead to their response to Him. But that same activity will also face those who reject Christ with their sinfulness, and will declare them guilty, ‘so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be declared guilty before God' (Romans 3:19). And they will not like it.

This convicting of ‘righteousness' may also be seen as convincing men of their need for imputed righteousness. They will recognise that there is a need for them to have righteousness put to their account by the One Who as the Righteous One bore their sins and offered them His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30), because their own righteousness can never be enough. These two aspects of righteousness, true righteousness and imputed righteousness are but two facets of the same jewel. Imputed righteousness is the true righteousness of Christ put to men's account. The awareness of true righteousness will make them aware of their need, because they are not truly righteous. The offer of imputed righteousness will provide a way by which they can receive righteousness and become acceptable to God. And then they will begin to live righteously and teach righteously and the Holy Spirit will convict the world of righteousness. Imputed righteousness inevitably results in practical righteousness as God comes home to the heart, and the result is that that world is also faced up to true righteousness.

So the Spirit's convicting of righteousness may be seen as declaring that, as a result of Christ's offering of Himself, the Holy Spirit will, through God's people and through His word, bring home God's offer of imputed righteousness through Him, which men will either accept ‘unto righteousness' or reject ‘unto judgment'. However this awareness of the need for imputed righteousness can only arise from a recognition of what righteousness really is. Without awareness of the one, men will not recognise their need for the other.

Alternately some would argue that the idea behind ‘righteousness' here is of vindication, and thus they see it as meaning that the Holy Spirit will vindicate Christ and establish His righteousness before the world. Thus when Christ goes to the Father it will be a proof that the Father has vindicated Him, something that the Spirit will bring home to the world.

Indeed all may be seen together in that the Spirit will reveal true righteousness, including revealing the true righteousness of Christ which can be imputed to the believer, something which will result in the offer of mercy to man through that righteousness and the vindication of Christ, together with the imparting of true righteousness which will result in men becoming truly righteous.

‘He will convict the world of judgment --- because the prince of this world has been judged.' This means that His work will be such that it demonstrates the judgment of ‘the prince of this world'. The prince of this world is finally Satan (Luke 4:5) but the term also incorporates all who rule in this world in antagonism to God. For they rule under Satan (which was why at Jesus' temptation Satan could offer Him authority over the whole world). This then involves in judgment all those who ‘lie in his (the Evil One's) arms' (1 John 5:19). Again in Paul's words, ‘the whole world is declared guilty before God' (Romans 3:19), along with its supernatural prince. Some will be convinced of this by the cross and respond to Christ. Others will stand convicted and condemned.

We must compare in this regard Jesus' words in John 12:31, ‘now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out'. There they are linked with His being lifted up on the cross. As Jesus is lifted up on the cross for man's sin, and then finally resurrected in vindication of His righteousness, this expresses and declares God's judgment on the world for its sins, and on its ways and on its prince. In the final analysis this can only refer to Satan for it was he and his minions who were defeated at the cross (Colossians 2:15). It is this revealed judgment that the Holy Spirit will bring home against the world, declaring the world guilty, producing response from some and rejection to final judgment in others.

Thus we may sum up that the work of the Holy Spirit through the disciples, His people and His word, will be to make mankind aware of its need and sinfulness, especially in respect of its attitude to the One Whom God sent. He will bring home to man what true righteousness is, and how he has fallen short of it, and how Christ has provided true righteousness for guilty man on the cross resulting in His own vindication. And He will make clear the final judgment of God on all who fail to respond as evidenced by His work and victory on the cross, while in the light of that revealed judgment causing some to be convinced and respond to Him..