Posted on 11/19/2006 2:01:02 AM PST by .30Carbine
Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because we have done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit blots out every relationship on earth and makes us aware of only one— "Against You, You only, have I sinned . . ." ( Psalm 51:4 ). When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, this person would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the breaking of His heart with grief in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. Once we have been convicted of sin, we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary— nothing less! The love of God is spelled out on the Cross and nowhere else. The only basis for which God can forgive me is the Cross of Christ. It is there that His conscience is satisfied.
Forgiveness doesn’t merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.
In 1910 Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen, who still resides in London (as of 1992).
In 1911 he founded and became principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, where he lectured until the school was closed in 1915 because of World War I. In October 1915 he sailed for Zeitoun, Egypt (near Cairo), where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.
My Utmost for His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and in this, the last decade of the century, remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic. [from the flyleaf of the book]
Absolutely no flaming! These daily threads are intended to be devotional in nature. If a particular day's offering says nothing to you, please just go on and wait for the next day. Consider these threads a DMZ of sorts, a place where a perpetual truce is in effect and a place where all other arguments and disagreements from other times and places are left behind.
I can attest from personal experience that reading from Chambers daily will almost certainly change - not one's faith - but one's perspective of his/her own faith, and open up new vistas in your spiritual life. If - when - this happens to a reader of these threads, and they choose to share what has happened within them - we are treading on hallowed ground. Be respectful.
- Religion Moderator
Amen!! Thank you dear (((".30Carbine")))
I'm not getting the concept of "conviction of sin."
Any help will be appreciated.
Conviction of Sin is not the same as conscience. I like the way Chambers has phrased it, as quoted above.
My first experience of the Conviction of the Holy Spirit occurred when I was 29 years old, while reading the Ten Commandments, some months after having asked God to reveal Himself to me, and to show me that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus were actually true...if, indeed, they were.
The reason I was reading the Ten Commandments was because two female Jehovah's Witnesses had come to my door and asked if I wanted to discuss the Bible. I'm sure they'd never heard my reaction before!
"God sent you to teach me how to read the Bible! Oh, come in! Come in!" I exclaimed with great joy, very sure that I was correct in what I said.
After pleasantries we sat at my kitchen table and they asked me what I knew about the Bible. I told them I knew the Ten Commandments.
"Have you kept them?" one asked.
"Well, better than most," I said. "But I'm sure I haven't kept them perfectly, and I don't remember them all."
One of the ladies said, "You can read them in Exodus chapter 20. Would you like to read it?"
Well of course I did! They opened a brand new Bible to the passage and handed it across the table to me. "Read it out loud," she invited. So I did.
Exodus 20Above is the English Standard Version; I don't know where to get the Jehovah's Witnesses version. I think this rendition is fairly close - their's is beautifully poetic - though, as I found out very shortly upon investigation, inaccurate.
The Ten Commandments1And God spoke all these words, saying,
2"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3"You shall have no other gods before me.
4"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13"You shall not murder.
14"You shall not commit adultery.
15"You shall not steal.
16"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
I was so enthralled by the beauty of the words, and the power (or authority) of them, and the fact that I myself could actually read and understand them! Even after reading through the list I believe I actually said out loud, "Still, I haven't done too awful bad. I think I've gotten 8 out of 10 of them."
The ladies said not a word, and no shadow crossed either of their faces. They registered no judgment against me whatsoever in word or look. As I recall the two ladies spent a bit of time answering questions I had of the text and before they left said that I could have that Bible if I wanted it! They also offered me one of their paper pamphlets and asked if I would like a subscription to these.
"Thank you, but no," I said. "I just want to read the Bible!"
After the ladies left I read the passage in Exodus 20 over and over again. As I read it I paused after each Commandment and measured my life against it. I didn't know that what I was experiencing as I read and pondered the words was called "conviction" or that it came from "the Holy Spirit." I only knew I was increasingly feeling a dawning of horror - especially, it seemed, upon my third or fourth reading, as I couldn't pass over that word, murder.
"Well, I haven't murdered anyone," I kept thinking. But I couldn't get past that word: I was inexplicably stuck on it - struck by it! And I couldn't imagine why! Nothing in my memory, nothing in my conscience, nothing in my experience indicated in any way that I was guilty of murder...yet...there was that word and it disturbed me.
In one flash-of-lightning moment the dawning horror because piercing, fully risen light and I knew that the abortion I had chosen at the age of 19 was the murder of my own child. In the same instant I knew, much as Chambers' has worded it, that this sin was AGAINST HOLY GOD and like the sun or the flash of lightning HE ALONE FILLED MY MIND with dread, for HE WAS and in that moment I knew it, and I knew for certain that He saw me, He knew me, and He had known me always, and He knew all my ways intimately. I sobbed like screaming and could not stop. I have no idea how long I cried, but it seemed like hours...and must have been.
Yet I tell you truly, so strong in that endless time period - before? during? afterward? I do not know - with the searing light and horror and pain-beyond-description was this balm, a covering, the absolute assurance of God's Infinite Love for me:
Jesus paid for this sin, too.
Dear Vision, I can not define "conviction of sin" for you. You must define it for yourself, or have God define it to you. I share this testimony because it is all I can share. I am not your teacher. One is your Teacher, the Christ, and He will show you if you look at His Word with your heart.
"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."
~John 16:7-11
I'm blown away by your post. Thank you dearly for all of it. It really has cleared up a few issues for me.
I hope I don't come off as looking for a teacher. More like a study group(:
Faith-sharing bump.
Lord, with All my Heart I Thank You! (Ps.138:1)
I like that and I appreciate the clarification. Questions are wonderful ways of searching the depths of a man - like a deep well they are, but men of wisdom "draw them out" (:
LOL, concerning yourself or myself? (;
"Why do you ask My Name, seeing it is Wonderful?"
(Judges 13:18 and Genesis 32:29)
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
~Revelation 12:10-12
Thank you so much for the mention of this resource! Please, if and when you get to post some passage from it, from that chapter, please include me in the ping!
Good morning C! God bless you all your days in all His Ways, amen!
Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to 'convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment' (Jn. 16:8). The word John uses for 'convict' means 'to scorn', 'to pour contempt', and 'to convince'. It is this severe ministry which the Holy Spirit exercises in his office as Advocate. It is in his work of glorifying Christ and vindicating him that, of necessity, the Spirit must accomplish this painful work in men's hearts. He defends Christ and vindicates him; but in so doing he serves as the counsel for the prosecution in God's indictment against sinners.reference to the Day of Pentecost.... 'when he comes' (15:26,16:8)
Conviction by the Spirit takes place in three areas: Sin, Righteousness, and JudgmentThere is an interesting discussion which follows is in some ways more interesting then the overview...the outline is:Conviction of sin is produced because men do not believe in Christ (Jn 16:9). This does not mean that men are sinners because they do not believe....His teaching is that men do not believe because they are sinners. The apex of their sin is unbelief in the face of the full light of divine revelation. What therefor takes place when the Spirit of God comes upon a man's life, awakening him, is the realization of his guilt before God, the fact that he has no resources to meet God's charge and no Saviour in whom to hide from God's wrath (for he does not believe in Christ). He is Christ-less and hope-less (Eph 2:12)
Conviction of righteousness is produced because Christ goes to the Father (Jn 16:10). It would be possible to understand these words in isolation as referring to the sense awakened in the hearts of the convicted that they lack righteousness, and that this is what Christ supplies. But that does not clarify the whole statement, nor does it take account of hte emphasis on the Spirit's work in directing attention to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The words 'because I am going to the Father' provide us with a clue to interpretation. Christ goes to the Father in John's terminology, by death, resurrection and ascension (cf. 14:12,28,16:28). It is to these events that the Spirit will bear witness because they provide the divine vindication of Christ. They show that God has justified his Son in the face of man's rejection of him. It seems to be to this that Paul alludes in I Tim 3:16, when he says that Christ was 'vindicated by the Spirit' (perhaps primarily the resurrection, Rom 1:4). When the Spirit displays Christ's righteousness, he thereby displays man's guilt, and thus brings an abiding sense of conviction as a consequence.
Conviction of judgment is produced because the prince of this world is judged (Jn 16:11). Men laughingly despise the notion of a judgment to come, and they do so because they have been blinded by Satan (2 Cor 4:4). But on the Cross Christ conquered and judged the prince of this world and made an open show of him in his triumph (John 12:32, Col 2:13-15). If he is condemned, he is leader of the Christless, the judgment and condemnation of men is even more certain. The death of Christ, which unbelieving men took to be the judgment of God on him, was in fact a judgment of their master, and therefore a guarantee of their won impending doom!
The ministry of the Spirit thus produces a total reversal, a conversion in our thinking. Instead of calling Christ in question we discover that we are being called in question by hi Spirit. The contempt or indifference or opposition which we poured upon him now rebounds upon us. The positions are reversed: It is not Christ who on the Cross is declared guilty of sin--but I am declared guilty! It is not Christ who is condemned --but I who am condemned!
This interpretation is borne out by the fulfillment of these prophetic words on the Day of Pentecost. When the Spirit come and in the preaching of Peter the Lord Jesus Christ was proclaimed and exalted, three things resulted:
i) Men were impressed by the fact of their unbelief (Acts 2;23,36)
ii) They were persuaded of the righteousness and vindication of Chirst (Acts 2:24,32,33)
iii)They recognized the exaltation as Lord over all his enemies (Acts 2:34-36)
The immediate result of this was deeply-felt conviction: 'When the people heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). These are the words of men who have been convicted of sin. The prophecy of Jesus had been fulfilled....
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