“In regard to judgment”

In John 16:11, the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus to “convict the world of guilt (8) in regard to judgment.” Which sounds like a final sentencing on humanity, that having rejected and dismissed Jesus in verses 9 and 10, the world must now pay its penalty. 

But it’s not that. A sentence is being announced in court, yes, but – verse 11 – it’s “because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” It’s the devil who’s on the receiving end of being judged and sentenced. And Jesus made that clear back in John 12:31 when he said, “Now is the time for judgment on this world.” And what was that judgment? “Now the prince of this world will be driven out.” 

The judgment Jesus was talking about in John 16:11, therefore, was on the devil. And the sentence pronounced on the devil was the undoing and dissolving of his rule on this planet (1 John 3:8). For the devil it was the worst news possible, because he’d managed to get “the whole world under his control” (1 John 5:19), but he couldn’t control Jesus. Not only did Jesus defeat the devil’s attempts to control him in Matthew 4:1-11, it was his death on the cross that broke the devil’s stranglehold over humanity (Colossians 2:15). And from that point on, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).  

But why the need in John 16:11 “to convict the world of guilt in regard to that judgment” on the devil? What guilt can the world be charged with when it’s the devil who “stands condemned”? 

Well, it’s guilt in two parts. Guilt, first of all, that it took the death of Jesus to break the control of the devil over us, because we’ve always been too weak and pathetic to resist and defeat the devil ourselves. If it wasn’t for Jesus we’d all still be dead fish drifting downstream, reduced to living our lives out with no great purpose and then disappearing into nothingness when we died (Ephesians 2:2-3). And secondly, it’s also the guilt of not living what Jesus rescued us from the devil for. 

It’s the Holy Spirit’s purpose, then, to make this guilt real to people, which he does through Jesus’ disciples who do believe that in Jesus’ death “the evil one does not touch us” (1 John 5:18) and the change that makes in their lives. But in reality, what changes in a person’s life does “Living free of the devil” make?….(next blog)