When will the world be convicted of sin?

Iraq (image courtesy Wikipedia)

By Spencer D Gear

We live in a world where incredible wickedness is displayed. We know of the atrocities under Emperor Nero, Adolph Hitler & the Holocaust, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Boko Haram kidnapping of girls in Nigeria, and the ISIL slaughter in Iraq and Syria.

But what about the lying and deceit that is part of everyday life, work and business? When will it be exposed? When will the world be convicted of its sin and when will judgment be declared on a rebellious sinful world?

Now that question assumes that such will happen. I didn’t invent this one out of thin air. I read it in John 16:7-9, Jesus Christ speaking,

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement: ⁹concerning sin, because they do not believe in me (ESV).

A fellow raised it on a Christian forum:

(image courtesy clker)

Convict the World?

John 16:8-9
“When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me”
When does the Holy Spirit convict the world of it’s (sic) unbelief, before or after regeneration?[1]

I asked him,[2]

There is a bigger issue than what you are raising IMO. We need to know what we are talking about with the meaning of ‘convict’ or otherwise.
John 16:8-9 reads in these various translations:

‘And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me’ (ESV);
‘And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:9 Of sin, because they believe not on me’ (KJV);
‘When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me’ (NIV);
‘And when he comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me’ (RSV).

So what does the future tense, active voice, indicative mood of elegchw mean in this verse: convict, reprove, prove to be wrong, or convince?

Another replied:

The conviction Jesus talks of here is a condemnation because they do not believe in Him.
So nothing to do with being saved.
Nothing to do with any kind of born again regeneration. Do we agree?[3]

While I agreed with his sentiments, he still had not clarified enough, so I pursued the topic: ‘But you haven’t provided an exegesis of the verb, elegchw. We won’t know to what it refers if we don’t know the meaning of the word’.[4] His comeback was:

This? KJV uses ‘reprove’
Greek Lexicon :: G1651 (KJV)

to convict, refute, confute
generally with a suggestion of shame of the person convicted
by conviction to bring to the light, to expose
to find fault with, correct
by word
to reprehend severely, chide, admonish, reprove
to call to account, show one his fault, demand an explanation
by deed
to chasten, to punish

BLB – Jhn 16: Gospel of John 16 (Blue Letter Bible: KJV – King James Version).[5]

That dished up a mish-mash [6]

That fellow amalgamated headings and sub-headings here to make the meaning rather confusing.

Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol 2 (Eerdmans 1964) gives the meaning of elegchw in the NT with the active voice as:

to show someone his sin and to summon him to repentance’. This may be a private matter between 2 people (Mt 18:15; Eph 5:11); a congregational matter under the leader as seen in the pastoral epistles (1 Tm 5:20; 2 Tm 4:2; Tit 1:9, 13; 2:15). It is also the work of the Holy Spirit in the world as we see here in John 16:8, the exalted Christ in the community (Rev 3:19) and of the Lord in judgment at the parousia (Jude 15) [Kittel 1964:474].

This exegesis of the term in Kittel concluded that

the word does not mean only “to blame” or “to reprove,” nor “to convince” in the sense of proof, nor “to reveal” or “expose,” but “to set right,” namely “to point away from sin to repentance”…. The noteworthy and impressive battle against sin which is part of NT Christianity is reflected in the rich use of elegchw and related words (Kittel 1964:474).

A. T. Robertson, one of the greatest Greek scholars of the 20th century stated that elegchw is an ‘old word for confuting, convicting by proof’ [already in John 3:29; 8:46] (Robertson 1932:266).

One of the best non-technical explanations I have read is in William Hendriksen’s commentary on the Gospel of John 16:8 in which he states of ‘will convict’:

But just what does the term convict mean? Convince and convict are not always nor necessarily identical in sense. A man is convinced of a doctrine or of a duty; he is convicted of a crime. Nevertheless, when the context or universe of discourse is human guilt, the two verbs may approach each other very closely in meaning. However, the English verb to convict is rather ambiguous because it may mean either: a. to prove guilty, without implying that the person whose guilt is proved is ready to admit and confess his guilt; and b. to awaken to consciousness of guilt. Surely, when the Holy Spirit convicts the world through the preaching of the Gospel, both of these results are achieved, but not in each individual to whom the Word is proclaimed. The Gospel immediately proves the whole world to be guilty. In the case of many this guilt is brought home to the conscience, so that they feel it. And among these, again, there are some (God’s elect) who not only are convinced of it in their soul, but also admit it openly, truly repent, and, confessing the wrong which they have committed, cast themselves upon the mercy of God in Christ. Hence, the verb to convict does not have the same meaning for all. By and large the wicked world continues in open hostility to God, his Christ, and his people (see Vol. I, p. 79, footnote ²⁶, meaning 6). Though its guilt has been exposed or proved (hence, though in that sense it has been convicted), it does not repent.

The term employed in the original (elegchw) is at least just as elastic in meaning as is the English word to convict. That it means more than merely to rebuke has been shown by R. C. Trench, op. cit., pp. 13–15. However, as his summary is not complete and as he seems to build his case on some (and not on all) the uses of the term, the value of his discussion is somewhat limited. In the passages which he mentions the verb implies to rebuke with good effect, that is, to bring sin home to the conscience.

The divergence of views with respect to the proper translation of the term is evident from the following Table, which lists all the seventeen instances of its use in the New Testament. (In this summary no mention is made of John 8:9 and of Jude 22, where the textual support is weak.)

A.V. A.R.V. R.S.V.

Matt. 18:15 tell him his fault show him his fault tell him his fault

Luke 3:19 reprove reprove reprove

John 3:20 reprove reprove expose

John 8:46 convince convict convict

John 16:8 reprove convict convince

I Cor. 14:24 convince reprove convict

Eph. 5:11 reprove reprove expose

Eph. 5:13 reprove reprove expose

I Tim. 5:20 rebuke reprove rebuke

II Tim. 4:2 reprove reprove convince

Tit. 1:9 convince convict confute

Tit. 1:13 rebuke reprove rebuke

Tit. 2:15 rebuke reprove reprove

Heb. 12:5 rebuke reprove punish

James 2:9 convince convict convict

Jude 1:15 convince convict convict

Rev. 3:19 rebuke reprove reprove

Moulton and Milligan, op. cit., on this verb, prefers the translation convict (in the sense of “bring to light the true character of a man and his conduct”) for all three instances of its use in the Fourth Gospel; and renders it expose, set forth in I Cor. 14:24; Eph. 5:11, giving papyri support for both uses (Hendriksen 1953:324-325).

Conclusion

My overall conclusion is in line with that of Hendriksen that the world is convicted (about the true character of human beings and their conduct) by the proclamation of the Gospel and that will be exposed in judgment at the parousia (i.e. Christ’s second coming).

I know that this has been long and quite technical, but I find it is too easy to throw around the meaning of ‘convict’ in John 16:8 without doing the exegesis. I also realise a lot of folks won’t have the interest in and tools to do this kind of exegesis.

Works consulted

Hendriksen, W 1953. New Testament commentary: Exposition of the Gospel according to John. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, also available at: Biblicalwritings.com.

Kittel, G (ed) 1964. Theological dictionary of the New Testament, vol 2. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. The article cited was on elegchw by Friedrich Büchsel, 473-476.

Robertson, A T 1932. Word pictures in the New Testament: The fourth Gospel, the epistle to the Hebrews, vol 5. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press.

Notes

[1] gmm4Jesus#1, 10 May 2014, Christian Forums, General Theology, Salvation (Soteriology), ‘Convict the world’, available at: http://www.christianforums.com/t7821375/ (Accessed 12 May 2014).

[2] Ibid., OzSpen#9.

[3] Ibid., sdowney#10.

[4] Ibid., OzSpen#12.

[5] Ibid., sdowney#13.

[6] The following is my response at ibid., OzSpen#15.

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