The Spirit was to be given at Pentecost in a way in which He was not
given before. And it is expressly stated that the one thing needed
before His being thus given was the glorifying of the Son of man.
Link this with our Lord’s word in John 16:13, 14 and we have clearly
revealed the connection between the glorifying of the Son of man and
the work of the Spirit: “He (the Holy Spirit) shall not speak for
himself.... He shall glorify me.”
This is His specific work, to glorify Jesus. But how?
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I
go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you;
but if I go, I will send him unto you. 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 go to the Father, and ye behold me no more; of judgment,
because the Prince of this world hath been judged” (John 16:7-11).
How is the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, of righteousness,
of judgment? Notice it is conviction of one sin, not many, the one sin
of rejecting the Saviour. It is one righteousness, the righteousness
that Christ is. It is one judgment, the past judgment upon Satan, the
completed victory over our great Adversary won by Christ.
In the words “ye behold me no more,” we have the key to the marvelous
truth of this revelation concerning the Holy Spirit. The only example
the world had of God’s righteousness (which is the only kind of
righteousness there is,) was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.
When He goes to the Father how is the world to know what righteousness
is? for it can behold the righteous one no more. They cannot know it
by reading about it. There is one way, and one way only to reveal
righteousness, that is in a human being living a righteous life. To
secure this Jesus Christ the righteous One must be manifest in the
life. “They see me no more. They must know righteousness by looking at
_you_. I have been the light of the world while in it. Now you, having
become sons of light, are to be the light of the world” (John 12:23,
31, 35, 36; John 17:1, 22).
This is how the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, by crowning Him Lord
in the life, and manifesting the Son of man in each of His brethren.
The world is convicted of sin by seeing the meaning of rejecting the
Saviour as revealed in the man who accepts Him. The world is convicted
of righteousness, and the difference between God’s righteousness and
man’s morality, by seeing a righteous man. The world is convicted of
the judgment of the prince of this world by seeing a life set free from
the power of Satan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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