PARAKLETOS 3 (d) continued: the convictor i: sin

So we return to John 16.8: “And he, the ‘parakletos’, when he comes, will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgement.” The verb ‘elencho’ is used only once, but the preposition ‘peri’ is used with each of the three nouns. The first of the trio is straightforward: we have seen exactly this construction in 8. 46, when Jesus challenges the Jewish authorities to ‘convict him of sin’, or to ‘prove him guilty’. But how do you ‘prove someone guilty’ of righteousness or judgement ? In these two instances, the meaning of ‘elencho’ must elide into something slightly different, something much more like the Socratic use of the Classical Greek original: to ‘prove wrong’ rather than to ‘prove guilty’. So the Spirit will ‘show up’ the world’s thinking, and make it clear that its definition of sin and its standard of righteousness and its idea of judgement are all quite wrong – fatally wrong. The world believes that “I’m no saint” can be said with a complacent chuckle, that “I’m no worse than any one else” means that I am good enough, and that the judgement of my peers is what really matters: if they accept me as a ‘good bloke’ or a ‘good woman’, then I have passed the test. It is the work of the Spirit, and no small task it is, to break through this relativism and to confront the world with the absolutes of God, his absolute holiness and righteousness, and his absolute hatred of sin.