God doesn’t want anyone to perish. That’s why God has given everything to the people to accomplish His will and save people from death. However, every person has been given a free will to make his own choices in life. Every person may decide which path to go: the broad way of the world, that leads to destruction or the narrow way of life, that lead to eternal life. Throughout the Bible, we see one recurring theme and that’s the great love of God. The love of God, that doesn’t want anyone to perish. That’s why throughout the Bible He called the people to repentance. But what brought the people to repentance? The revelation and conviction of sin brought the people to repentance. Because how else can a person repent if a person doesn’t see his sinful state? And how can a person turn away from his works, that go against God’s will, if a person doesn’t consider his works evil? Let’s look at the conviction of sin in the three dispensations of the Bible, and how sin was revealed in each dispensation.
The conviction of sin in the dispensation of God
As I mentioned in a previous blogpost, we can divide the Bible into three dispensations: the dispensation of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. However, in all three dispensations we see the continuous collaboration between the Almighty God, Jesus; the Word and the Holy Spirit. In the first dispensation of God, we see the relationship between God and His people; Israel.
When God; El-Elohim created man after His own image, man was made perfect. Until man decided to go his own way and rebel against the words of God and sin. The spirit in man died, and man became a living soul, who had knowledge of good and evil. We read about the relationship between God and Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph etc. They all walked with God after His will. While God had not given them His law yet. But they listened to His words and believed His words. Therefore they walked in obedience to His words.
However, we also read about Cain, Esau, the sons of God, the people, who lived in Noah’s age, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah etc. they all lived their own lives and didn’t live according to God’s will.
God gave His law
We read about God’s people, who lived in Egypt under the oppression of Pharaoh for 400 years, and how God saved them. God heard their cry and chose Moses, as His representative to redeem His people out of Egypt and from the oppression of Pharaoh. When God redeemed His people by His hand and had led them into the wilderness, God had already revealed Himself through all the signs and wonders. But God wanted a relationship with His people; He wanted to be their God and that they would be His people. Therefore He gave them the law, that revealed His will concerning their lives.
For 400 years, they lived after Pharaoh’s will and according to the Egyptian culture, behavior and rituals and had worshiped idols. They were defiled and that’s why it was time, that God’s people would be cleansed from all unrighteousness and put off their old life. The only way to do that was to renew their mind with God’s will because the mind determined their actions. Through the law of righteousness and life, God made His will known to His people and sin was revealed. The law represented not only His will but also His nature, righteousness, and holiness.
The holy law of God brought light in the darkness and gave life to those, who would submit himself to the law; the will of God and obey the law.
The law revealed the truth and exposed every sin, that would lead to death. Because God didn’t want anyone to perish. By keeping the law and all the regulations, that belonged to the law, His people would be blessed, saved and have life. But every person, who was part of His people, had a choice to obey the law of God or not.
Throughout this dispensation, we see that God’s people were devoted to God for a specific time and then turned away from Him. That’s the nature of the old man, who walks after the flesh; devotion to God, a turn away from God, repentance, devotion to God, turn away from God, etc. Every time His people got into trouble by leaving His law and adopting the culture, customs, and behavior of pagan cultures, they cried out to God and repented. Then God, who is faithful and full of goodness, saved them. But it didn’t take long before His people rebelled again and became disobedient to the law. But what exposed the sin in His people’s life? The law of God exposed the sin and apostasy of the carnal man.
The conviction of sin by the law
When the law of God was read before the people, the holiness of God became visible and sin was revealed to them. The law was their teacher, and showed them, how far they were driven away from God and His words. Then His people had a choice to repent or not.
Without the law of God, which represents the law of righteousness and life, they were not aware of the fact that their lives were full of sin. His people had rejected the law, the words of God, and lived just like all the other nations, after the lusts and desires of the flesh. They did their own will and were led by their flesh instead of the Word of God. They took strange women from other nations, they committed adultery, idolatry, there was sexual uncleanness and they allowed abominations in the house of the Lord.
But as soon as the law appeared and was being read, sin was revealed and convicted man of sin. Without the law of God, there was no awareness of sin.
The conviction of sin in the dispensation of Jesus Christ
In the second dispensation, we see the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His work of redemption, and His relationship with God’s people. He is the Word, that became flesh and lived among the people. Jesus was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and power, and went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38). Jesus represented and brought the Kingdom of God, including the law of God; the law of righteousness and life, on earth. Jesus lived after God’s will and therefore He established and fulfilled the law. God’s holy nature lived in Jesus and He confronted the people of God with their sins.
The conviction of sin by the Word
Jesus; the Light shone in the darkness and brought all things, that were hidden in darkness into the light. The Light confronted man with their sins. Those, who were willing repented. They were baptized and removed the sins out of their lives and followed Jesus.
But those, who were rebellious and stubborn and had the devil as father, weren’t willing to repent.
They rejected Jesus Christ; the Word and remained living in sin. They hated Jesus because Jesus testified of their evil works.
The world cannot hate you (the old man) since you are part of it), but it does hate Me (new Man filled with the Holy Spirit) because I denounce it and testify that its deeds are evil (John 7:7)
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hates me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. (John 15:22-24)
The confrontation with the Word, Who represents the righteousness and holiness of God, revealed the sin in man. The Word convicted man of sin.
The conviction of sin in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit
In the third dispensation, we see the birth of the new creations and the relationship with the Holy Spirit. What the devil had destroyed in the garden of Eden was restored by Jesus Christ. Jesus established the law and dealt with the sin problem of man. By His dying and resurrection and by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the new creations were born. Through regeneration, the flesh of the old man was crucified and the spirit was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. The new man was born by water and Spirit and was no longer a son of the devil but had become a son of God. Man was reconciled in Jesus Christ with the Father and had received His Holy Spirit. Man didn’t belong to the world, but to the Kingdom of God.
The Holy Spirit, Who bears witness of Jesus Christ; the Word and Who represents the Kingdom of God, and the law of righteousness and life, live inside the new creation. Just like God had prophesied:
After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people (Jeremiah 31:33)
By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God’s will and His nature live in the heart of the new creation.
The old nature of the devil, which is present in the flesh doesn’t exist anymore but is crucified in Christ. Now, God’s holy nature lives inside of the new creation. When the new creation walks after the spirit, he shall submit himself to the Word and the Holy Spirit and shall obey the will of God. Therefore the new creation shall establish the law (Rom 3:31)
The conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit
Jesus bore witness of the Holy Spirit and said that the Holy Spirit reproves (convicts, confute, admonishes, exposes, rebukes) the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8-10)
The Holy Spirit represents the will of God and convicts the sins of man. Just like Jesus convicted the sins of man and called man to repentance and put away sin. And just like God convicted the sins of man, by the law and called His people to repentance and to put away sin.
God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are One, and therefore They have the same nature and the same will. They shall never contradict Each Other!
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and exposes all the lies of the devil. Therefore everything that happens in darkness, He will bring into the light. He confronts people with their sinful state and reveals to them their evil works from God’s point of view instead of man’s point of view.
That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. He alone will convict the person of sin and show him his defiled sinful nature.
Without a conviction of sin, a person cannot repent and lay down his life and put away his sins. That’s because the person is not aware of his sins. The person doesn’t see the necessity of laying down his flesh and become born again in the spirit. He shall not consider the works of the flesh as evil and therefore shall never put off the carnal works of the flesh. The person will only do that if God will reveal to him his spiritual state.
The conviction of sin brings man to repentance
God doesn’t want anyone to perish. That’s why, because of His goodness, He gave His law, His Son, and His Holy Spirit. So that the sins of the world, which are concealed in darkness and are hidden for the natural eyes of the old man, will be exposed and man has the opportunity to repent, remove his sins, be saved, and become a new creation in Jesus Christ.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
