When the Holy Spirit comes into our midst and is active, it is not always happy, happy, clap, clap and feel good. The Holy Spirit has a much higher, and more important function.
The text, spoken by Jesus Himself, shows three very important functions of the Holy Spirit in the message of the Gospel.
There are three main doctrines that we need to be aware of if we are to fully understand the message of the Gospel.
We need to understand the doctrines of:
a. Man’s sinfulness
b. The need to be acceptable to God (righteousness)
c. The consequences of accepting/rejecting the Gospel message
1. Man’s Sinfulness
It is an accepted doctrine of the Christian church that because Adam chose to disobey God’s directive about eating of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he lost his acceptability to God, and condemned the whole human race to be separated from God.
As a further consequence of Adam’s disobedience, the principle of rebellion entered into mankind, where men and women tend naturally toward disobeying the moral law of God.
The extent of this is that the natural will of man is so committed to sin and rebellion, that there is no ability to be able to make a decision to do the will of God without assistance from the Holy Spirit.
“No person can come to God unless the Spirit draws them.”
Therefore, for a person to come to Christ, there needs to be the work of the Holy Spirit within that person to enlighten with the truth of the Gospel, and a further work of the Spirit to enable the person to make the actual decision.
Just coming forward and signing a decision card is not enough for a true conversion to Christ. There needs to be true commitment, and the assurance of salvation, which comes from the Holy Spirit, to make the person sure that they have actually been truly converted to Christ.
Some people trust in infant baptism for their conversion.
This is a dangerous doctrine because as they reach maturity, they do no further to establish their commitment to Christ.
It would be a horrifying thing for such a person to stand before God on the last day and find out they were not saved after all.
Paul teaches in Romans that the Law is our schoolmaster in order to bring us to Christ. How this works is that it is the Law that reveals to us the extent of our sin and how it affects our relationship with God.
If we did not have God’s moral Law, we would not know that we were sinners, and we would only find it out on that last day of Judgement.
Therefore, God, in His mercy, provided us with His moral law in the form of the Ten Commandments. They are there to show us our natural sinful state before God – that we have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
We then cry out: “What can we do to be saved?”
As a response, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the truth of the Gospel of Christ so that we will come to Christ for salvation.
Paul gives instructions for people to make their calling and election sure.
A true conversion to Christ has to involve:
a. A full realisation and acknowledgement of complete sinfulness to the point that there is nothing the person can do to rectify it by themselves, and that the sinfulness rightfully deserves condemnation and everlasting punishment.
There is a point that has to be noted here. There is a belief some churches that a person has a little bit of goodness in them to enable them to be able to make a decision for Christ without the agency of the Holy Spirit.
It is interesting to note that in the early history of the Presbyterian church, there was the absolute belief that a person could not be converted to Christ unless the Holy Spirit did it within them. This is why those who had a passion for souls spent many hours in prayer agonising and wrestling with God for the conversion of sinners.
And that sinners coming to Christ spent much more time crying out to God for their own conversion and did not give up until they had the assurance of salvation from the Holy Spirit.
Along with the belief that people can merely make a decision to be saved, there seems to be a lack of that prevailing prayer for sinners existing in many areas of today’s church.
If this belief is true, why spend the time and effort agonising in prayer for souls if all they need to do is make a simple decision without the agency of the Holy Spirit?
b. An acknowledgement that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay the price for that sinfulness, and that this is the only way that God can forgive the sin and cleanse the sinner.
c. There needs to be a sincere request put to God for the forgiveness of the sinfulness on the basis of what Jesus has done.
2. The Need To Be Acceptable to God
Because of the disobedience of Adam, mankind no longer had fellowship with God.
God cannot abide sin in any form, therefore Adam and all his descendants became unacceptable to Him. This is what we mean by unrighteousness.
Before Adam sinned, he could stand before God and walk with Him without any fear, shame, guilt or inferiority. He was righteous before God.
After Adam sinned, he was afraid of God, and could no longer stand before Him without guilt and shame. This is what we mean by the unrighteousness of mankind.
Unrighteous people are condemned to go to a place of everlasting punishment one day.
There seems to be a resistance to ‘hellfire’ preaching these days. But in the early days, preachers realised that coming to Christ and being saved involved getting rid of the complacency brought about by a Roman Catholic trust in infant baptism for salvation. In order to break the indifference and complacency, the Holy Spirit led preachers to teach about the Judgement of God in some very real ways to shock them into seeing their condition and the consequences of it.
A stark example of this was Jonathan Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. When his congregation heard that sermon, they started weeping and crying out to God for mercy and forgiveness.
Charles Finney, in the middle 19th Century had events where when he preached, the cries for mercy and forgiveness from the congregation drowned him out. On one occasion, he quietened them down so he could continue preaching, but when he started again, he was drowned out once more. He had to stop and spend the rest of his time praying them through to salvation.
This is quite a contrast to what happens these days, where the preaching of the gospel is met with indifference much of the time. Perhaps there is something to learn from these early preachers.
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus came to rescue sinners, and to enable them to become righteous before God.
Because of the virgin birth, He was the only truly righteous person who ever lived. He had two natures – a human and a divine nature, in harmony with each other.
The death of Jesus was not only physical, but spiritual as well.
The man Jesus died a physical death for our sin.
Jesus the Son of God died a spiritual death for our sin.
This was the price that He had to pay in order for the Father to be able to forgive, cleanse, and make us righteous before Him.
Jesus rose again from the dead to prove that He has power over death and sin.
When we ask for forgiveness for our sin, what Jesus did for us enables the Father to fully cleanse us, and to clothe us with the righteousness of Christ.
He no longer sees our sin, but He views us through the righteousness, resurrection, and advocacy of Christ on our behalf.
This is why, in order to become righteous before God we need to accept Jesus as our personal saviour and Lord.
3. The Consequences of Accepting or Rejecting the Gospel
The Judgement to come.
There are two Judgements.
a. The Judgement Seat of Christ: This is where all the Christian believers go to be rewarded for the works they have done in their lives since their conversion to Christ.
This is a happy time for believers because this is the place where their efforts and faith are vindicated by the Lord Jesus Himself.
This is a time where all the loose ends are tied up, and reconciliation made with present and absent believing family members and friends.
Where we meet our Saviour whom we have been walking with in faith all our lives.
b. The Great Judgement of Unbelievers.
This is the Judgement described in Rev. 20. All unbelievers will be required to stand before the throne of God to give account for their lives.
The books will be opened.
The book of their life and deeds
The book of the Gospel which describes what Jesus did for them on the cross
The book of the law, which shows unbelievers the extent of their sin.
Then there is the book of life.
If a person’s name is not in the book of life, that person will go to a place of everlasting punishment.
Once a person gets before the Judgement throne of God, there are no second chances. No way back.
The day of God’s grace and mercy to sinners will be over.
It is appointed to people once to die and after that comes the judgement.
All the figures of history will be there.
The believers will be witnesses to that Judgement.
It will be a very interesting time, because we will get see those figures of history and find out the truth of what they did and said. There will be plenty of time to see and hear all the facts. It will be fascinating for those who enjoy studying history. We will see if the history books are correct.
Here are some other images of what it might be like in the Judgement.
Imagine a cannibal eating someone. In the Judgement, he will come face to face with the person he ate.
We will find out who the murderers are in all our unsolved murders. Because the secrets that people have will be revealed.
It will be a horrifying time for murderers, rapists, muggers, burglars, and fraudsters to be confronted with their victims.
The executives of failed companies, who have caused immeasurable suffering to investors and employees, will be confronted by these people to give a full account of the dishonest dealings that have so negatively affected their lives.
I wonder if those who have had abortions, will be confronted with the babies that they aborted?
There is the story of a believer whose baby died in a cot death. The mother was inconsolable in her grief until one night she had a vivid dream where she was in heaven and met a lovely young woman who identified herself as her daughter who had died as an infant, and who was now with the Lord.
But what a horrible thing it would be for mothers who aborted their babies to have those infants come back to them as a young adults to ask them why they rejected them; and then to see their aborted offspring to go back into the arms of Jesus while they go off to everlasting punishment.
It will be a comforting time for believers who have been falsely accused of crimes, because the truth will come out that will vindicate the believers.
For those who have not accepted Christ as their saviour, all their sins will be revealed for all to see. This will cause shame, guilt, and terror, because these people will realise that there will be no escape for the accounting of them for the things they have done in their lives.
It might take 10,000 years to deal with some people in order to fully investigate their lives and hear the testimony of others involved. That won’t matter, because no one will be going anywhere, will they?
There will be people who have done good works in their lives, but who have never accepted Christ. They will learn that their good works will be useless. The Bible says that our own righteousness is as filthy rags before God. What a horrifying thing for a person who has given their lives to doing good works, even good religious works, to realise that they are going to be lost anyway.
The challenging question for us all, because eternity is forever and there is no return from the place of everlasting punishment.
An eternity of regret and anguish with no relief would be hell enough for many people.
What will you do on that day if you are not sure if you have really accepted Christ as saviour?
3. What Must I Do to Be Saved?
This was the question the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas when the earthquake hit his prison and he realised that everything that Paul had said about Jesus was absolutely true. He must have been told that there was a day of Judgement coming.
Here is what we must do to make sure that our election and calling in Christ are sure:
1. Acknowledge that you are hopeless and wretched sinner, deserving of condemnation and everlasting punishment, with no way in yourself of being able to rectify your condition.
2. Know and acknowledge that Jesus died on the cross for your sin and took upon Himself your sins and the resulting punishment for them.
3. Ask God to forgive and cleanse you from your sin. You might have to get alone with Him and confess the ones that you can remember before you gain the assurance of complete forgiveness.
4. Accept Jesus as your Personal Saviour and Lord, and agree to allow Him, by the agency of the Holy Spirit to turn you into the person He has designed you to be.
5. Continue to pray and wait on God until you receive a full assurance of salvation.
This may be a short or long process depending on how the Holy Spirit works with you. John Bunyan struggled for eight years until he gained the assurance.
The comforting thing is that if you understand this gospel message and know what you must do, it is an indication that the Holy Spirit is working in you to bring you to Christ. It is the Spirit who is giving you the understanding, with the purpose that you will respond positively by making a full commitment to Christ.
Paul Christensen, 12 November 2006