“But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;” (John 16:7-10, NIV)
The Holy Spirit is never a substitute for the Word of God. It is true that unless the Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds to the truth of God’s Word we are deaf to its message. The Bible is a closed book apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, because it is God’s truth and not man’s truth (1 Thess.2:13). Its origin is in heaven and not in earth.
Likewise, just as the Bible has this dependent relationship to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is not some free agent working apart from the Word. We sometimes think of the Holy Spirit in that way. For example, if a new believer or one who is immature in his faith acts in a way that not becoming of a godly life, we assume that the Holy Spirit will convict that person of their sin. It is true that the Holy Spirit convicts believers of their sin (John 16:8). However, sometimes we neglect the responsibility to admonish (which must always be done in love, or else will become in itself an occasion for sin) a brother or sister, because it is never comfortable to do so, thinking that we can just leave it up to the Spirit.
The problem is that the Holy Sprit, always, or might I say, ordinarily works in conjunction with the revealed Word of God. I say ordinarily, not as a provision for some mystical loophole where someone might think they can experience God apart from Scripture, but in the sense the Spirit can also work in relationship to the “law that is within,” or what is called the moral law written in everyone’s heart (Rom. 1:19).
Again, what we sometimes assume in thinking the Holy Sprit will just convict someone and illuminate their understanding about some particular sin, is that in some mysterious way, the Spirit drops new knowledge into our lives like a bolt out of the blue. But Christian maturity for believers is never that easy. Our growth into maturity is always tied to our knowledge of spiritual truth, which is found in God’s revelation, the Bible. We cannot just assume a new believer is to know everything the Bible teaches concerning true conduct and lifestyle. I remember hearing about the rough and muscular longshoreman who was known for his meanness and “colorful” vocabulary. He did not know any other way to speak than with a cuss word in it. But, he was wonderfully and dramatically saved, and with a new love in his heart for Christ and for his fellow workers at the shipping docks, he decided the next day to gather them together and to pray. His prayer was rather crude and would never pass the muster for public worship. But it was pure in heart.
Yes, later by his reading the Word, the Spirit would do his exacting work in transforming behavior and speech, but it doesn’t happen overnight. I know this truth all too well. I need not look at the experience of others to see how the slow and exacting process of the conviction of sin works in a heart. I only look into my own. Of course the end result should not be living with a guilt ridden conscience, but to flee to Christ with that burden of a blighted heart. And that is the glorious work of the Spirit to bring us to Jesus for healing and salvation. That by the way is an ongoing pattern for the Christian life and will not stop until we behold Him “face to face.” Then we live only in response to the grace revealed in Christ. That response is gratitude. The venerable puritan, Thomas Watson described it well when he said, “thankfulness is the rent we owe to God.”
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