Archive for March 6th, 2007
Tasks of the Holy Spirit
And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is unbelief in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. [John 16: 8-10 (NLT)]
Yesterday I wrote about searching for Jesus in the context of the verse cited and in the Confession of Faith. Today’s verse, while about the Holy Spirit, also identifies an aspect of Christ Jesus. For me it comes across more clearly and in slightly different way in the NRSV; “about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer.”
The Holy Spirit has the task of showing or teaching the world about righteous. In the NLT version, the emphasis seems to be on the fact that righteousness will be something that the world can have because Jesus going to the Father. In the NRSV version the emphasis seems to be that Jesus cannot teach and show righteousness because he will not be there, but the Holy Spirit will.
Both ways of looking at it are correct. Jesus goes to God to redeem us. And Jesus, through his example, taught us about righteousness. In the NLT version and the NRSV version unbelief in Jesus is identified as sin. And the Holy Spirit will show the world its error in this.
However, I must say that this seems to be a short list of things for the Holy Spirit to do; even taking into account the judgment that the world will face. But they are broad topics. The righteous of Jesus took him through childhood to his death and resurrection, and is our model for living a Christian life. Sin defined as not believing in Jesus sets outside of any possible salvation and redemption. And the judgment that is not mentioned in the citation is the result of not living correcting and believing in that which will not save you. So while the Holy Spirit may have a short list, I would imagine it would take a lifetime to accomplish it; our lifetime. May the Holy Spirit be at work in your life and you may listen to what the Divine has to say.
