Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Reminder, we know the Holy Spirit convicts the world (John 16:8) of:

• It’s Sin
• God’s Righteousness
• And coming Judgment

Today we’ll look at the Holy Spirit’s second conviction, which is our misunderstanding of how to be right with God.

In today’s scripture, John 16:10 (ERV), Jesus said…
He will show them how wrong they are about how to be right with God. The Helper will do this, because I am going to the Father. You will not see me then.

Consider…
Yesterday we studied the Holy Spirit’s transcript of His case against sin, and learned that Jesus revealed that it’s really a case of not believing in Him.

Today we turn the page to the Holy Spirit’s second conviction, which pertains to our wrong understanding of what’s required to achieve God’s righteousness.

In Romans 10:2‭-‬4 (NLT), the Apostle Paul addressed his fellow Jews. He said of them…
I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

Although this was speaking about the religious Jews, it also applies to religious believers today. The point that the Holy Spirit made from these verses, is that people mistakenly believe in following rules, instead of placing faith in Christ their Redeemer, to be made right with God.

The Holy Spirit drilled deeper into this flawed rule following mentality, citing Romans 3:20 (NLT), which admonishes…
For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Then He declared, rules restrict, but Christ redeems.

The Holy Spirit continued to explain, that based on the law people try to follow, a blood sacrifice is required to be made right. His scriptural proof came from Hebrews 9:22 (AMP), which says…
In fact under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness [neither release from sin and its guilt, nor cancellation of the merited punishment].

Then He connected how Christ fulfilled the law requirement for us, citing Ephesians 1:7 (ERV)…
In Christ we are made free by his blood sacrifice. We have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace.

He then reiterated God’s way of making us right using Romans 3:22 (NLT), which explains…
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

That’s when the Holy Spirit shouted, faith in Jesus Christ, not following rules, makes us right with God.

To strengthen this point for us, the Holy Spirit provided Galatians 2:16 (NLT) as corroboration. It says…
“A person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”

You see the mistake that we make trying to earn rightness with God is that it incorrectly focuses on how good we are rather than recognizing how Good He is.

Then the Holy Spirit pointed out only God is good. In fact His only begotten, sinless Son stated that in Luke 18:19 (ERV)…
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good.

After quoting Jesus, then He reminded us that the Bible repeats how good God is over and over. Then He rattled off a few exhibit scriptures…

• Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. – Psalms 107:1 NLT
• I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me. – Psalms 13:6 NLT
• How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours! – Psalms 116:5 NLT
• Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! – Psalms 34:8 NLT

After reciting these verses, the Holy Spirit led the call and response, “God is Good all the time, and all the time God is Good”.

Next the Holy Spirit leaned into Psalms 116:5, which highlights God being kind, good and merciful. He provided corroborating evidence of those facts using Ephesians 2:4‭-‬7 (ERV), which says…
But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much. We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.) Yes, it is because we are a part of Christ Jesus that God raised us from death and seated us together with him in the heavenly places. God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.

From this passage we see God’s:

• Mercy
• Love
• Grace
• Kindness

Then the Holy Spirit re-emphasized…
God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.

With that emphasis, the Holy Spirit concluded His case by pointing out, our wrong understanding of being right with God, is that we believe it’s based on what we do, rather than believing and accepting what He’s done, through His only begotten Son!

He then made a profound connection…

• Jesus revealed that the error in understanding sin is that it’s actually refusing to believe Him
• And the error in understanding righteousness is failing to believe and accept that we’re made right by what Jesus did, not by what we do.

Only faith in Christ The Redeemer, not following rules, makes us right with the Father.

With that, the Holy Spirit rested His case against the righteousness misunderstanding.

Try to do right to honor God for making you right.

Today’s Song…
You Are My Righteousness

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)