This post has been revised and expanded into a chapter in my book Jesus Now.
Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Official Blog of Author & Speaker Frank Viola. Digging below the surface and moving beyond the shallows in today's Christianity.
The Finger or the Hand?
The Four-Fold Price of Truth
I’ve heard this before…that the Spirit convicts in specifics, while our accuser convicts in generalities. Where does that come from in the bible? The spirit of this question is from a deep sense of trying VERY hard for years to live a God honoring life without bitterness while married to a mean alcoholic. I’ve decided to finally separate and I’m hearing “Failure of a Christian” in my ear….”You should be able to have joy and forgiveness in all situations, 7×70.”….all the while my heart is singing with freedom from oppression.
The enemy also condemns people over “specific” things that God doesn’t disapprove. And so do legalistic people. When the Spirit leads, there is life and peace.
Except there is nowhere in the bible where we are told that the Holy Spirit “convicts” Believers of their sins. For good reason, God is not dealing with us on the basis of our sins.
I’m going to push back on that idea as I’ve heard it before and I believe it’s misleading.
Jesus said the Spirit would convict the world of sin. He never said He wouldn’t convict His own people. Paul was very clear that the Spirit can be “grieved” by believers and that He can also be “quenched” by believers. The Spirit “reveals and illuminates” all truth to the believer. This includes sin, which we experience as conviction. Use whatever word you like, but it’s the enlightenment of the Spirit shining His light on sin in a person’s life and His grief registers on our conscience.
The Spirit primarily reveals Christ, but if we are out of step with Christ, the Spirit will register that in our conscience. Historically this has been called “conviction,” but use whatever word you wish. The concept behind the idea is true and biblical.
It doesn’t matter what word you use, the thinking behind it is still based in the misinterpretation and misapplication of John 16:8 – which is clearly speaking to unbelievers not believers, and then only to the unbelievers unbelief in the Son.
Nope, I’m not basing my argument on that text. I didn’t even reference it in the post or in my comment, except to say that Jesus does NOT say, “The Spirit never convicts God’s people.”
But putting that text aside, I repeat: the thinking behind my post is based on Ephesians and 1 Thessalonians.
The Spirit is a Person, a real Person, and He can be grieved by us as Paul said in Ephesians. Paul also says not to quench the Spirit in Thessalonians. When a Christian grieves the Spirit, it registers in our conscience. This isn’t “guilt” or “condemnation” but it’s the sense of grief and sorrow and lack of peace. Again, it’s the illumination of the Spirit (most theologians past and present call it “conviction”, and that’s a perfectly good word to describe it). Illumination is another way to describe it as the Spirit gives us light on both things positive and negative.
If believers resist, ignore, or push down the Spirit’s illumination, they can “sear their conscience.” Paul talks about godly sorrow leading to repentance – again, he was writing to believers. So sorrowing over sin is good and the Spirit will work that in our hearts if we let him. James addresses this too.
In addition, the Lord disciplines and chastises his own children. And the Spirit will also lead us to make restitution when we have wronged someone, as I’ve said. Without these additional thoughts, the message is incomplete and can lead toward libertinism, which I know you don’t want.
If I could use a metaphor that I think will help … a man’s daughter will always be his daughter. It doesn’t matter what she does, she was already forgiven. The father’s forgiveness for her covers every infraction, past, present and future. Once she did something wrong and apologized to her dad. The father said to her, “thank you for apologizing. This is a good thing. But I forgave you long before you ever did anything wrong.”
BUT … the father will discipline her for her own good when she does something wrong. He will chastise her when for her own good. He will train her, which is sometimes painful. And there are *consequences* to her actions. And when she does wrong to others, the father will expect her to make restitution. (Feel free to throw mother in there instead, but don’t miss the point.) And the father would have no problem with her apologizing, because this clears the air *with her,* even though his forgiveness is always there and has already been granted.
I hope this clears it up for you. If not, you must be suggesting that Paul’s words in Ephesians and 1 Thessalonians no longer apply to Christians? If so, please provide support for that.
There is only one place in the NT that ties the word “convict” and the Holy Spirit together, and that is John 16:8. If you state, as you did, that the Holy Spirit convicts” us, you are referencing John 16:8, either consciously or unconsciously.
If John 16:8 is not applicable to believers, and it is not, then there is no need to come up with “other” explanations or words for what was never there to begin with.
The Holy Spirit testifies to us that, “”your sins and lawless deeds God remembers no more” (Heb.10:15-16). As you have said yourself the Holy Spirit is a Person, specifically the third Person of the Holy trinity…He is God. How is it that you have God the Holy Spirit convicting believers of that which He says He remembers no more?
Steve, you are missing Frank’s point. You missed it the first time and he gave a long explanation and you’re missing the second time.
Drop the word “convict” dude and see what he’s saying. Use a different word “illumate” and you’ll see what his point is completely biblical. Unless, like he challenged you, you don’t believe Ephesians or 1 Thess.
Frank, great explanation. The daughter analogy was perfect.
Funny, but I see it as Frank, and now you Jeff, as missing my point. Quite frankly (no pun intended), I am surprised by Franks view as both Andrew Farley and Tim McVey, among others, share the same view that I have. Would love to see you guys “discuss” it some day, Frank.
I have been richly blessed by all that God has done through you Frank, thank you for being available to Him. God bless.
What I wrote to you was the same thing I wrote to Andrew in response to something he said in one of his books. My concern is that people would come away with exactly the things you are saying. Andrew said he agreed with my points.
I don’t know Tim McVey. You probably mean Steve.
To my mind, Paul trumps all of us, so we should follow what he and Jesus taught and measure any author — including me — by Jesus and Paul, etc. Jeff makes some important points that I don’t think should be dismissed. I haven’ missed your points at all; I’m proving biblical evidence to the contrary.
You have to deal with Paul’s words about the Spirit being grieved and quenched BY CHRISTIANS. Don’t ignore those words, mate. I think Jeff is making an accurate observation that you seem to be hung up on the word “convict” and are missing everything else we’re saying.
I would only have to “deal” with Paul’s words if I disagree with them, I do not. Or if they somehow disagreed with what I believe, they do not. I do not disagree with your points either, they are simply irrelevent to my point. I do disagree with the assumption by you that the points I have made contradict your points or visa versa. I do not see them as points that cancel out the others, in either direction.
What is your concern, is my prayer.
I think it’s time to wrap this up.
The concern, very simply, is that if a person is taught that the Holy Spirit never convicts — that is, illuminates — a person’s heart when they sin, they will turn deaf to the Spirit’s instincts and impulses when they sin. They will confuse conviction with condemnation and ignore it. Thus when they quench and grieve the Spirit and that’s registered in their conscience, they dismiss it and thereby can end up searing their conscience.
This isn’t theoretical. It’s happened to MANY believers who bought into the idea that the Spirit doesn’t convict Christians when they sin. So they repress the Spirit’s operation on their hearts when they sin. Many people have testified to this later on, after they discovered that this teaching isn’t biblical.
Your initial push back reflected this kind of thinking, even though 2 different people pointed out that you’re hung up on the word “convict” and were missing the point. Paul clearly says the Spirit DOES deal with us with respect to sin. In your initial response, you said He doesn’t.
The post contains an important truth. All who are familiar with the Spirit’s work and the enemy’s work when it comes to sin have resonated with it in their own experience.
I hope this helps. If not, and you still don’t see what I’m saying, let’s revisit this in a year. Time is often the best ingredient for helping Christians see eye to eye.
So we’ll leave it there until then.
As someone grappling with depression and regret, I find your imagery very helpful. Surely, God desires our joy in Him while at the same time working to form Christ in us. He is perfect in working in our life while we perceive his workings imperfectly. I tend to mistake Satan’s “hand” for the Spirit’s “finger” but I am fully capable of making the opposite mistake as well. God loves me but hates my sin, and it seems that your imagery reinforces that point very nicely. Thank you.
We all need the spiritual gift “the discerning of spirits” so that we can know which thoughts and feelings to resist and which ones to embrace and cultivate. (“Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.)
Sometimes believers get our resisting and drawing near confused. We draw near to accusations and resist conviction.
Thanks Frank for this post! It’s amazing how subtle the enemy’s accusations enter into our consciousness and rather than observing if what I am experiencing is leading me to Christ or to guilt and depression, etc. I never took the time to notice the differences in those experiences. Thank you again Frank for being a vessel that the Holy Spirit uses to open our eyes from the slumber some of us are in.
Rev. 12:11 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.
What does it mean that they also overcame him by the word of their testimony?
Their confession of faith in the testimony of Jesus, lived out and spoken. In one of his epistles, John says our faith overcomes.
Wow, I really needed this reminder right now. A great, simple analogy to make this clear. Thanks.
“We are not ignorant of his devices…”
A timely word for today. Thanks.
Wonderful insight! I’m very thankful that you wrote this article, Frank. I’ve experienced both sides – paralyzing condemnation and positive conviction. Learning to differentiate the two is a huge weapon against depression/blues/funks/etc. In my own experience, I’ve observed that the Spirit’s conviction is accompanied by a positive motivation to repent of a sin or wrongful attitude or behavior. Paralysis is exactly how I would define the effect of the enemy’s arrows of accusation that lead to self-condemnation and depression. The Spirit’s conviction lifts one up into new freedom in Christ, while the enemy’s accusations weigh one down into a pit of despair.
Thanks. Well stated.
well done – hits the nail on the head very succinctly – its a topic i’ve given considerable thought to and also written about – satan’s lies are always rather vague & leave one full of self condemnation – the distinction i’ve made is that anything which leads to repentance must be from the Holy Spirit and w/o an apology to God in the mix it must be from the devil.
Amen, the Word!
Thanks for the encouragement Frank. I needed it today!
And the Spirit brings Godly repentance, which restores. The accuser only brings guilt and condemnation which does not restore our relationship with God.
“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” -2 Corinthians 7:10
yes Frank i was encouraged by the statement– keep your eyes on Christ instead of yourself– beholding is becoming.
This foundational insight helps identify Satan’s distortions that are cunningly designed to hinder spiritual growth.