John 16:8-11

“ And when he shall have come, he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; 9, of sin, because they believe not on me; 10, of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you will see me no more; 11, of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. ”

Here is the description of the victory which, through the agency of the disciples, the Holy Spirit will gain over the world. The discourse of St. Peter at Pentecost and its results are the best commentary on this promise. It will be a victory of a moral nature, the mode of which is expressed by the term ἐλέγχειν, to convince of wrong or of error; here both the one and the other.

This word does not also designate a definitive condemnation, as the Fathers, and then de Wette and Bruckner, thought, as if the Holy Spirit were to demonstrate to lost humanity the justice of its condemnation. John 16:11 proves that the prince of the world alone is already judged. If, then, the world can profit by the reproof of the Holy Spirit, it is still capable of salvation. This is proved by the effect of the apostles' preaching, in the Acts, in the case of a portion of the hearers. The reproof given by the Spirit may lead either to conversion or to hardening; comp. 2 Corinthians 2:15-16. The apostles are not named as instruments of this internal operation of the Spirit. Their persons disappear in the glory of the divine being who works by their means. But it is certainly through their intervention that it takes place, as the πρὸς ὑμᾶς of John 16:7 proves; comp. also John 16:13-15. The error of the world on the one side, and the divine truth on the other, will be demonstrated with regard to three points. The absence of the article before the substantives, sin, righteousness, judgment, leaves to these three notions the most indefinite meaning. Jesus will give precision to the application of them by the three ὅτι, in that or because, which follow. If this explanation of Jesus Himself failed us, we should undoubtedly regard the idea of righteousness as the intermediate one between the two others: righteousness applying itself to sin to produce judgment. But the explanation of Jesus places us on an altogether different path. Only it concerns us to know whether we must translate the three ὅτι by in that or because. In the first case, the fact mentioned afterwards is that in which the sin, righteousness, judgment, consist, and the conjunction ὅτι may be regarded as dependent on each of the three substantives; in the second, the conjunction in each instance depends on the verb convince, and announces a fact which will establish the truth of God and the error of the world on these three points. The first interpretation, as it appears to me, cannot be applied to the second of these points.

The world, here the Jewish world, was in error respecting sin, seeking to find it only in the shameful excesses of tax-gatherers and the gross infractions of the Levitical law. Israel condemned and rejected Jesus as a malefactor because of His violations of the Sabbath and His alleged blasphemies. The Spirit will reveal to it its own state of sin by means of a crime of which it does not dream, unbelief towards its Messiah, the messenger of God; comp. the discourse of Peter, on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:22-23; Acts 2:36; and Acts 3:14-15. Sincere Jews recognized immediately the truth of this reproof (Acts 2:37). And this office of the Spirit continues always. Jesus is the good; to reject Him is to prefer the evil to the good and to wish to persevere in it; comp. John 3:19-20. This is what the Spirit without cessation makes the unbelieving world feel by His agents here on earth.

Thus περὶ ἁμαρτίας ὅτι does not mean: He will convince the world of sin which consists in unbelief; but He will convince it of its state of sin in general, and this by rendering it palpable to it by means of a decisive fact, its unbelief with regard to the Messiah. It goes without saying that this work of the Spirit is not to be confounded with the usus elenchticus of the law.

The Jewish world is also in error as to the way in which it has understood righteousness. Exalting itself with pride in its meritorious works, Israel has taken its position in opposition to Jesus as the representative of righteousness, and has rejected Him from its midst as an unworthy member. The Holy Spirit will fulfil with reference to this judgment the function of a court of appeal. Holy Friday seemed to have ascribed sin to Jesus, and righteousness to His judges; but Pentecost will reverse this sentence; it will assign righteousness to the condemned One of Golgotha and sin to His judges. This meaning results first from the contrast between the two terms sin and righteousness, then from the following explanatory clause, according to which the righteousness which is here in question is that which glorification will confer upon Jesus in the invisible world, and which the sending of the Spirit by Him to His own will proclaim here below. This righteousness cannot therefore be, as Augustine, Melanchthon, Calvin, Luther, Lampe, Hengstenberg, etc., think, the justification which the believer finds in Christ, or, as Lange supposes, the righteousness of God, who deprives the Jews, as a punishment for their unbelief, of the visible presence of the Messiah and of His earthly kingdom (“ you shall see me no more ”). In the words: because I go to my Father, Jesus presents His ascension, the end in which His death issues, as intended to afford the demonstration of His righteousness; and He adds what follows: and you will see me no more, to complete this proof: “You will feel me to be present and active, even when you shall see me no more.” The body of Jesus will have disappeared; but His divine activity in this state of invisibility will prove His exaltation to the Father, and consequently His perfect righteousness (Acts 2:24; Acts 2:26).

The judgment, of which the Holy Spirit will furnish to the world the demonstration, will not be that great judgment of the Gentiles which the Jews were expecting, nor even that of the Jewish world convinced of sin. For the final sentence of the one party and the other is not yet pronounced. The prince of this world alone has from henceforth filled up the measure of his perversity, and can consequently be finally judged. Until Holy Friday. Satan had not displayed his murderous hate, except with reference to the guilty. On that day, he assailed the life of the perfectly righteous One. In vain had Jesus said: He has nothing in me. Satan exhausted on Him his murderous rage (John 8:44; John 8:40). This murder without excuse called forth an immediate and irrevocable sentence against him. He is judged and deprived of power. And it is the Holy Spirit who proclaims this sentence here on earth, by calling the world to render homage to a new Master. This summons reveals the profound revolution which has just been wrought in the spiritual domain. Every sinner rescued from Satan and regenerated by the Spirit is the monument of the condemnation of him who formerly called himself the prince of this world.

Thus by the testimony of the Spirit the world, righteous in its own eyes, will be declared sinful; the condemned malefactor will be proved righteous; and the true author of this crime will receive his irrevocable sentence: such are the three ideas contained in this passage, whose powerful originality it is impossible not to recognize. It does not differ except as to form from John 12:31-32; the three actors mentioned the world, Satan and Jesus are the same, as well as the parts which are attributed to them. Our passage only adds this idea: that it is the Holy Spirit who will reveal to men the true nature of the invisible drama consummated on the cross. The result of this reproof of the Spirit is that some remain in the sin of unbelief and participate thus in the judgment of the prince of this world, while others range themselves on the side of the righteousness of Christ, and are withdrawn from the judgment pronounced upon Satan.

But if this victory of the Spirit is to be gained by means of the apostles, it must be that previously the work of the Spirit has been consummated in them. This is the reason why Jesus passes from the action of the Spirit on the world through believers to His action in believers themselves (John 16:12-15).