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!