The Convictor

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; - John 16.8-10

Why does sin even bother us? Why are their certain actions and conduct that are nearly universally deplored? What is it that gets someone to the point where they acknowledge their sin and realise their need of doing something about it?

While Jesus was on earth His preaching and teaching made people aware of their need of a cleansing and forgiveness. He pointed out sin and He pointed out the remedy, but He was leaving.  Now what would the world do?

We have already seen that the Lord was going to send the Holy Spirit when Jesus left. One of the key roles of the Holy Spirit is that He convicts and convinces the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.

Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit man is not going to acknowledge his sin, he is not going to see the need of righteousness, and he is not going to understand judgement. In other words turning to Christ is not the normal thing to do.

In years past there was an issue, I think it might still be there but am not sure. Back in the 70s-80s a lot of folks, well-meaning I am sure, developed systems, tools, and methods for soul-winning. Some were very high pressure with step by step instructions on how to ‘bait the line’ or maybe ‘draw in the net.’ We heard about we could use tactics and tricks to bring people to the point of salvation and then push them to stake the final step and pray the ‘sinner’s prayer.’

And it seemed to work. Numbers of professions sky rocketed. Every soul-winning night saw number of people pray and ‘ask Jesus into their hearts.’

I know for a fact that some people were truly saved during those encounters. I know because they are still going on for Christ today. But I think that they may just have been saved despite those methods instead of because of them.

It is the Holy Spirit alone who can convince a person of their sin, of their need of righteousness, and the reality of judgement. Even the greatest soul winner cannot do that.

Do we need to be sharing our faith? Absolutely.  Do we need to be wise when we do it? Certainly. Is it good to learn how to share our faith? Sure.

But we need to remember that it is the Holy Spirit who does the convincing, not us and our wisdom, skills, and tactics.