OUR GUIDE ON THE WAY

Jesus said, "I am the way (οδος) and the truth (αληθεια) and the life (ζωη)." Nobody comes to God, the Father, except through Jesus (John 14:6). How can we walk on the way, know the truth and so live eternal life? Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit "will guide you (us) into all truth" (John 16:13) so that we can live His life and walk in His way guided by His truth.

The Holy Spirit is responsible to guide (οδηγησει) us (16:13). The verb means to lead or conduct us along the way (BAGD, p. 553). The etymology of the word helps us grasp its significance. It comes from two Greek words - "lead" (αγω) and "way" (οδος) - and means to "lead on the way" or "to show the way" (TDNT, V:97). In the Septuagint, the word is used for the "pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go" (Deut. 1:33). The noun form is used to describe Judas who became an escort (οδηγου) for those who arrested Jesus (Acts 1:16).

The Spirit is our guide who escorts us in the way of Jesus by leading us into all truth. There is a textual problem here. He guides us "into" (εις) all truth or He guides us "in" (εν) all truth. The translation "into all truth" suggests that He leads us toward the goal of all truth - a goal we will never reach in this life. The translation "in all truth" suggests that the Spirit leads us in the sphere of all truth. The manuscript evidence favors "in (εν) all truth" so it is best to understand it this way. The Holy Spirit guides us in the sphere of truth as we walk on the path of Jesus. The way of Jesus is enveloped in truth.

We can make some important applications from this text.

1) The way is a path not a moment, a life not an event. The leading is gradual as we walk the way.

2) We cooperate with the Spirit as we walk with Him on the way. Our responsiveness to His guiding is faith not works, but it is faith that walks not waits. There are times, of course, when we must wait for the Spirit to show us the way, but, once shown the way, we must walk it.

3) Jesus, and the Spirit, walk ahead of us on the way. It is, after all, the way of Jesus. He and His Spirit lead. They guide. They do not push.

4) All truth is God's truth, but we must rely on the Spirit, not our brains, to show us His truth. Reason must be always subject to the Spirit. Experiences must not define truth for us.

5) The Spirit has been guiding God's people into truth for many years now since Jesus returned to His Father. We are the beneficiaries of two thousand years of the Spirit's leading. The Bible is the ultimate repository - the inspired record - of the Spirit's guidance into all truth.

THE BURDEN OF KNOWLEDGE

The more of God we know, the more responsible we are before God for our knowing. The deeper we penetrate into God's truth, the greater is the weight we carry for God's truth. I'm so glad that Jesus understands our limitations and feeds us His truth one bite at a time!

Jesus said, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). God's revelation is given piecemeal and progressively down through history. Here, Jesus refutes the false notion that only the gospel accounts were inspired. Jesus pre-authenticates the rest of the New Testament Scriptures with these words. More revelation was coming as God progressively revealed Himself in the collection of writings called the New Testament.

Yet Jesus is thinking of more than historical progression with these words.  Jesus allows for our spiritual immaturity. He accommodates Himself to our level of spiritual growth. He gives the disciples and, by extension, us the knowledge we can bear at any given time. The verb "to bear" (βασταζειν) means 1) to carry or 2) to endure (BAGD, p. 137). The word can refer to carrying a literal burden such as a jar of water (Mark 14:13) or the cross (John 19:17). It can also be used figuratively for carrying the cross (Luke 14:27) or the burden of keeping the law (Acts 15:10). We also bear a burden in the sense of enduring the heat of the day ((Matthew 20:12) or enduring the weaknesses of weaker Christians (Romans 15:1).

We, unlike the disciples, have the full canon of Scripture to examine, but we, like the disciples, may not be able to carry the full burden which comes with that knowledge. We may not be able to stand up under the weight of greater knowledge so Jesus accommodates our weakness as he grows us stronger in the knowledge of His truth. He helps us understand His truth progressively - one bite at a time.

The Spirit of Truth will guide us and teach us (John 16:13) in His truth as we are able to bear the knowledge we need to grow. Jesus doesn't unload His theological dump truck on us all at once. He feeds us daily at His dinner table so we can assimilate His truth into our lives. He illuminates His truth on a "need to know" basis. He teaches us what we need to know when we need to know it and not before we can bear it.

A RULER ALREADY CONDEMNED

The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning judgment, but it is not the judgment of the world that is the focus of the conviction. The Holy Spirit is not bent on convincing the world that they will be judged. He convinces the world that Satan, as the world's ruler, has already been judged. The ruler of this world has been condemned.

Jesus said that the Spirit, when He comes, will convict the world "concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged" (John 16:11). If we are to take the explanatory clause seriously, then the judgment pertains to Satan, not the world. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of its sin, Christ's righteousness and Satan's judgment (John 16:8). Each convicting work has a clause explaining the convicting work.

The verb translated "judged" (κεκριται) is a perfect tense and passive voice verb. The perfect tense is written from the perspective of a future time. Jesus predicts that, by the time the Holy Spirit comes after Jesus' death and resurrection, the ruler of this world "has been judged!" The passive voice tells us that the judgment is done by someone else. On the cross, God judged Satan!

The verb (κρινω) means to be condemned. It is a legal term indicating a judicial verdict has been reached, usually in an unfavorable sense (BAGD, p. 450). A sentence of condemnation was pronounced on the ruler of the world when Jesus died on the cross. The tables were turned on the malevolent ruler who orchestrated the crucifixion. The one condemned by the world pronounced condemnation on the one condemning Him. The cross was a victory not a defeat.

The Holy Spirit convinces the world that their ruler has been sentenced by God. Some sinners in this world will respond to the Spirit's message; confess their sin and trust in the righteousness of Christ. Every sinner who is rescued from the clutches of this world's ruler pounds another nail in the coffin of the condemned ruler (Godet, John, p. 871).

The Spirit convicts people, who consider themselves good, of their badness. The Spirit convicts people, who consider Jesus unrighteous, of Jesus' perfection. The spirit convicts people, who owe allegiance to the ruler of this world, of his condemnation. Sadly, some will choose to ignore the conviction and to side with the condemned ruler rather than trust the righteous Savior because they cannot accept their own sinfulness. One day, the one condemned by the world will condemn the world and all will know what the Spirit taught was true.  Until then, the Spirit continues to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.

WHOSE RIGHTEOUSNESS?

The Holy Spirit convicts the world "concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8). He clearly convicts the world of the world's sinfulness (John 16:9), but whose righteousness is in view in the second work of the Holy Spirit? He convicts the world "concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me" (John 16:10). Is He convicting the world of its own righteousness or of Jesus' righteousness?

Some argue that the three convictions must be consistent. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of its own sin, its own righteousness and its own judgment (Carson, Farewell Discourse, p. 141). In order to do this we must flip the meaning of righteousness to unrighteousness. He convicts the world of its own, sort of, "bad" righteousness. Otherwise, it is argued, we must change the meaning of convict to convince.

There is, however, no great semantic distinction between convict and convince. The verb (ελεγξει) has four possible meanings, but convict and convince are considered to be in the same semantic category - "to convict or convince someone of something" (BAGD, p. 249). The work of convicting is the work of convincing.

Each convicting work of the Holy Spirit contains its own explanatory clause. A causal οτι is used in each case. The cause for convincing the world about righteousness is the return of Jesus to the Father and the fact that the disciples no longer will see Jesus. So, the explanation for conviction of righteousness is Christological. The risen and ascended Christ is the focus. The Holy Spirit's work is to convince the world of Jesus' righteousness. The resurrection is the proof of His perfection which is why belief in the resurrection is foundational to our salvation.

The world has an inverted view of righteousness. We think we are righteous (Luke 18:9), and Jesus is a sinner (John 9:24). This was how the people in Jesus' world saw it (Morris, John, p. 698, fn. 20), and it is still the way the world views righteousness today. In one form or another, we consider ourselves good and Jesus not so good - or, at least, measured by our goodness. As Mary Magdalene famously sings in "Jesus Christ Superstar": "He's a man. He's just a man."

We measure Jesus by our goodness instead of measuring ourselves by His goodness. Therein lies a fundamental problem for mankind so the Holy Spirit convinces people that Jesus is "Perfect Righteousness" in human flesh! He is the standard by which we are measured and fall short.  Here is the starting point for our salvation. We have no hope of righteousness in ourselves when measured by His perfection, and any attempt to bring Jesus down to our level leaves us hopeless in our unrighteousness. Our only hope for righteousness rests in His perfect righteousness imputed to us by God when we believe (2 Cor. 5:21).

The Holy Spirit convinces us of Jesus' righteousness so we will not rest our faith in our perfection but in His!