Opening Prayer
Come, heavenly Comforter, and explain Jesus’ Word for us. Amen.
Text: John 16:5–15
“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled 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 depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
Devotion
Don’t be troubled that Christ has gone to the Father, so that we do not see Him. Be happy about it. For by His passing through death and by His resurrection He has taken away our sin, won for us a valid righteousness, and overcome the devil. And from His seat at the Father’s right hand He sends the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth and convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. — In these last words the way of life is shown. The Helper convicts the world of sin, because they do not believe in Jesus. The Savior has indeed taken on Himself all the sin of the world, and yet this one sin remains: not believing in Him, the sin that condemns. Unbelief is the sin that brings all other sins back to the sinner again. When people do not believe in Jesus, they reject the only thing that takes away sin: God’s Son and His merit. To show us this, to bruise our hearts and humble them in repentance, that is the work of the Spirit. No one knows the sin of unbelief except by His enlightenment. – Next He convicts the world of righteousness. But righteousness consists in this, that Jesus has gone to the Father, and we see Him no more. Jesus’ obedience, suffering, death, and resurrection, this and nothing else is the righteousness which avails before God. Not what the Spirit is working in us, but what Christ has done for us; not what we can see and feel, but the unseen departure of the Savior is the righteousness of the saints. We note two things here. First, no human work, but Christ alone, is our righteousness before God. And secondly, this righteousness should be believed apart from reason and feelings, even contrary to all feelings. When we feel only sin and wretchedness, then the Spirit convinces us that we stand righteous before God, in Him who now is at the right hand of the Father and makes intercession for us. — Finally He convicts the world of judgment, namely that the prince of this world is judged. The devil is lying when he says to our conscience that because of sin he still has right and power over us, for he is judged and has lost this right and power. But whoever still serves the devil is judged with him. Whoever chooses him as lord stands under judgment along with him.
This convicting power the Comforter began at Pentecost and continues it until the end of time. He has convicted me with the power of His truth and constrained me with the precious persuasion of love to agree with Him. The world rejected both sin and righteousness, but God’s Word chastened me and bowed me to daily confession of sin and faith. I needed to be silent before Him and deliver myself. And the Helper’s chastening, victorious power over my soul by Jesus’ Gospel is my blessed freedom from the Law and the servitude of the flesh, so that I continually ask Him to keep all my thoughts and my whole soul captive to Christ’s obedience.
Closing Prayer
Yes, good Holy Spirit, speak unceasingly to me and in me! Show me the awful sin of unbelief, and show me the perfect righteousness of grace, and make me courageous in the struggle of the cross against the condemned prince of the world. Amen.
Hymn
When unbelief my soul doth bind
And my own pride makes me so blind,
Then Jesus shows I’m justified
Within His wounds and piercéd side.
He comforts me; for Satan’s pow’r
In Jesus’ death has its last hour;
Though he may strike me in the heel,
My soul he can no longer steal.
Thy Jesus hath thee dearly bought,
A robe of righteousness He brought;
Thee Satan can no more deride,
For thou art Jesus’ precious bride.
Kingo: O Jesu gaar du da din Vey L 396:7.8.10 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Herrnhut (ELH 432); alternate hymn: Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord ELH 2