The Holy Spirit Never “Convicts” Christians
I’ve spent three years of my legal career as a criminal prosecutor, a job that usually has one goal when it comes to wrongdoers: conviction. Once the defendant has pleaded guilty or has been found guilty by a jury, it’s all over. He has been convicted, and the only thing left to do is sentence him.
Early in my legal career, it struck me how often the word “conviction” gets used in the Christian community. In Christianese, the word is used anytime somebody feels guilty about something and wants to explain that the Holy Spirit was the source of their guilt (for example, “I felt convicted about speaking in anger”). But in Scripture, “conviction” is a legal term – not a word used to describe a feeling.
The Bible certainly uses a courtroom analogy when it talks about Christians; but for believers, Satan is the prosecutor, God is the judge, Jesus is our defense attorney, and we’re declared innocent of all charges (Ephesians 1:7, 1 John 2:1, Revelation 12:10). However, the word “convict” or “conviction” is never once used to describe the day-to-day interactions of the Holy Spirit and believers. Instead, “conviction” basically describes (1) how the Holy Spirit interacts with people who don’t believe in Jesus; and (2) what happens to Christians who try to follow rules instead of the Spirit (John 8:9, 16:8; 1 Corinthians 14:24; James 2:8-10; Jude 15).
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