When He has come, He will convict the world of sin . . . —John 16:8
Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because we have done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit blots out every relationship on earth and makes us aware of only one— “Against You, You only, have I sinned . . .” (Psalm 51:4). When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every bit of his conscience that God would not dare to forgive him. If God did forgive him, then this person would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the breaking of His heart with grief in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. Once we have been convicted of sin, we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary— nothing less! The love of God is spelled out on the Cross and nowhere else. The only basis for which God can forgive me is the Cross of Christ. It is there that His conscience is satisfied.
Forgiveness doesn’t merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.
Journal DJR
Good morning Lord,
I really like the conclusion of this thinking … “The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.” I get it. I love it. Thank you for it. But the way this conclusion is arrived at is … troubling, messy, hard to understand and somehow still causes some resistance in me. Perhaps in the yet uncrucified part of my mind. There is still that thinking that “there must have been some other way” …. And “Why did He set it up that way?” I know these thoughts are way above my pay grade … but they are there. What to do with them?
You have those thoughts in the yet unredeemed part of your mind. All humans have thoughts like that because they think and love with human love. You will have them less and less as you focus more and more on me and spend time with me. It’s automatic. Dont try to get rid of those thoughts, Just focus on me and let my thinking and my nature come into you and replace them. Getting stirred up about your old unredeemed parts won’t help the process … it will slow it down. Relax. I do love you. Know that and appropriate what I died for. Take it in and live the new life that I have for you.
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