(Tripp Ledger – 5/12/2015)

The Error of this World

“When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”  – John 16:8-11 (NIV)

Here Jesus tells us why the world is wrong about three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment.  Some of these reasons might seem a bit curious at first, but upon reflection they become much clearer.

First, Jesus says the world doesn’t understand sin because “people do not believe in me.” Now to the world sin is simply doing bad things, but they don’t understand why sin is sin. Genesis 1:26 says that God created us in His image. Our purpose is to bear the image of God. Anything that prevents us from doing that is called sin. Whenever we miss that mark, we sin. Sin cannot be understood if our obligation to God is removed. So to understand sin, we must believe that Jesus came as the perfect image of God, and we must desire to be remade in His image.

Second, Jesus says the world is wrong about righteousness “because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer.” There has been only one righteous person in history, Jesus Christ, and the world killed Him because it doesn’t understand what righteousness looks like at all. To fill this void it has struggled to make up its own version. Just be a good person we’re told, and “good” usually means mostly likeable. The world can’t understand righteousness because it refuses to look to Jesus.

Third, Jesus states the world errs in judgment because it doesn’t realize “the prince of this world now stands condemned.” The world does not realize that these matters are settled. Sin has already been defined and condemned. It cannot be legislated away; no Supreme Court decision or shift in popular opinion can reverse sin or minimize its destructive power. Righteousness, too, has already been defined by Jesus Christ, and the only way to be saved is to become a partaker of the righteousness of Christ through baptism. There is no other way. The belief that all “good people” will enter heaven demonstrates the world’s ignorance about sin, righteousness, and judgment. The prince of this world and its ways and reasoning has already been condemned.

But here is the Good News: to be right in these areas we simply need to look to Jesus! Romans 8:1-4 tells us, “Therefore, there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Pastor Barry Nelson