In John 16:13, Jesus says that “when the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth.” And by “all truth” Jesus meant “the Spirit will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (14). So at the heart and core of all truth is Jesus. But how does that truth become “known”?
Jesus answered that back in verse 7, when he told his disciples, “I will send the Counsellor to you.” When the Spirit comes, then, it is through Jesus’ disciples that the truth about Jesus will be made real.
And how does the Spirit do that through Jesus’ disciples? Verse 8: “he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” The Greek word for “convict” in that verse is a legal term describing a prosecuting attorney presenting irrefutable evidence of guilt.
So what’s been happening in our world, ever since the coming of the Holy Spirit, is a court case being conducted by the Spirit through Jesus’ disciples, in which evidence is being presented that the world cannot deny. Jesus put it in court case terms too, in John 3:19, when he said, “This is the verdict (as to why people are irrefutably judged as guilty): it’s because Light came into the world but people preferred darkness and doing evil instead, and they hated the Light too, for fear of it exposing their evil” (20). Which is why “the world hates me,” Jesus said in John 7:7 – “it’s because I show the world how evil its deeds really are.”
“If,” on the other hand, Jesus adds in John 15:22, “I hadn’t spoken to them (nor done among them things no other man has ever done, verse 24), they wouldn’t be guilty of sin. But now (having heard me speak and seen the miracles) they have no excuse for their sin.”
In this great global court case, then, Jesus was the first witness in the dock providing irrefutable evidence of the world’s guilt. But he was just one witness, and the world got rid of him too. In the wings, however, another witness was waiting, “the Spirit of truth who will testify about me” (15:26). And when he comes, it’s to provide an endless stream of witnesses, starting with Jesus’ disciples (27) and onward into the future through all “those who believe in me” (17:20).
So Jesus sent the Spirit to provide more witnesses, billions of them, to prove that “Belief in Jesus” is the root of all truth….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 