Fulfilling the Promise
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” — John 16:8
One of the chief beauties of the Scriptures is that they contain the wonderful promises of God, which, in times of difficulty, serve as an anchor and comfort for God’s beleaguered children. What greater comfort can there be than to stand on the sure foundation of God’s Word and not on the vain and fickle pretensions of men? At times, however, the remnants of indwelling unbelief, fueled by the devil, rise up within as a torrent and cause us to question the goodness of God and whether these precious promises really apply to us personally. Thankfully, the Word also contains the fulfillment of many of God’s promises, which prove to us that His promises can be trusted and that His Word is indeed true.
John 16:8 gives one of Jesus’ great Pentecostal promises, foretelling the coming of the Comforter — the Holy Spirit — and the reproving or convicting work that He will accomplish in the hearts of men. Later on, in the book of Acts, we have an example of how this promise was actually fulfilled. In His convicting work, the first thing the Holy Spirit will convict men of is the sin of unbelief. The world doesn’t need to be convicted of the reality of sin; sin abounds on all sides so that even the unbeliever has to acknowledge its pervasive presence. Men need to be convicted of the particular sin of not believing in Jesus and how offensive this is in God’s sight. He has given His Son and man refuses to believe in Him. [more…]
Go To Jesus
What is the one specific cry of a truly spiritually regenerated and awakened soul? Is it not for JESUS, the bread of life? Most assuredly! Go to the sinner bowed beneath the weight of the law, to the man awakened to a conviction of his sinful and lost condition, who has been brought to know the nothingness of his own righteousness, and ask him, ‘What will make you happy?’ Bid him go to his religious duties, to his sacraments, to his church, to his minister. Oh, how bitter will be his reproof—“I asked you, as a starving man, for bread, and you give me husks. I need Christ—I need to know that my sins are pardoned—that my transgressions are blotted out—that I am an accepted, forgiven child of God. And nothing short of this will meet my case. [more…]
From The Fullness of Christ by Octavius Winslow
