The Switch…

To Joy (part 10)

The first thing the Holy Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus is open the eyes of his disciples to the damage sin does and our utter helplessness as humans to stop it. 

Which leads naturally to the second thing the Holy Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus, as he opens our eyes to how Jesus goes about healing the damage and dealing with our helplessness.

Jesus himself explained the “how” in John 16:8. It’s having our eyes opened to “righteousness.” He explains what he meant by that in verse 10, that “in regard to righteousness I am going to the Father.”

There are two points to note here. First of all, that the solution to sin is righteousness. If righteousness – the qualities of God’s nature – existed all over the world, there’d be no sin and no damage by sin. The problem of sin and our utter helplessness to stop it, therefore, would be solved. 

But Jesus in his human state couldn’t solve it. Even by displaying God’s nature in all that he said and did only made the smallest dent in people’s lives. And dying on the cross didn’t stop the madness either. People kept on being people. The religious leaders were even glad he was dead. 

In Jesus’ short physical life, then, he had little impact on dealing with the damage of sin and bringing in righteousness to replace it. And it shocked his disciples, because they thought the Scriptures said the Messiah would come to conquer evil, not be killed by it. 

But the second point in verse 10 is that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes to Jesus’ statement: “I am going to the Father.” Then it would all become obvious. And of course it was obvious, because if Jesus was with his Father, in all the power and glory that office gave him, he could bring in righteousness any time to the whole world, and by any means he wished too.

But the joy of that for his disciples was Jesus’ choice of means by which he’d bring righteousness and the solution to sin to the whole world. It was them. It was instilling God’s nature, his righteousness, in his disciples. Wherever they went, then, they would be instruments of healing and hope – just like he was…(continues Wednesday)