What is conviction? (all bold emphasis mine)
Conviction is the work of the Spirit. Canons 3-4, art. 11 states, “[God] powerfully illuminates their minds by his Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God … by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the inmost recesses of the man, opens the closed, softens the hardened heart …”
“To be convicted is to feel the sheer loathsomeness of sin, to experience an utter dreadfulness of sin. Our attitude toward sin becomes that of Joseph who fled temptation, crying out, ‘How could I do this great evil and sin against God?‘ (Gen. 39:9). We are convicted when we become mindful of how much our sin dishonors God. We become aware of the wrath it exposes to our souls“. Got Questions
Acts 2:36-38 teaches about conviction. It is in the conviction in one’s conscience that one recognizes his need for Jesus Christ the Lord. The result of conviction is conversion, and thus without conviction the cross makes no sense. Like the people at Pentecost under Peter’s preaching, Saul of Tarsus was convicted of his sin against God and Christ. It worked for his conversion, Act 9:5-6 & 22:3-10. The Philippian jailer was convicted of his perilous state, Acts 16:29-30. Or as HH put it, ‘God made an earthquake in his soul’.
Charles Hodge
Hodge on conviction of sin, “There must be some correct knowledge of sin [Canons 3-4 – above]. … Which enters so essentially into the nature of true conviction, is derived from the law, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law is the means of communicating this knowledge, because it is an expression of the perfect holiness of God. … It is not until we judge ourselves by the perfect standard of duty contained in the law of God, that we can have any proper knowledge of [our] real character.
It is in His light that we see light. Besides this knowledge of sin and assent to the Scriptural doctrine on the subject, there is, in genuine conviction, a sense of personal unworthiness, a sense of this judgment of the conscience. With this sense of shame and unworthiness are mingled, … the feelings of contrition and remorse; sorrow for our innumerable offences, and bitter self-condemnation. … we realize our responsibility to God. … Conviction of sin includes a conviction of our condemnation before God. A sense of sin is a sense of unworthiness and a sense of unworthiness involves a sense of just exposure to the divine displeasure”. Monergism, Conviction of sin by C. Hodge; sec. 1; Knowledge of sin. Sense of personal ill-desert.
But we can only know this by faith. The unbeliever has no such knowledge. Therefore the unbeliever has no sense of unworthiness, no self-condemnation, and no sense of exposure to the divine displeasure.
Charles Hodge on the Spirit’s work in spiritual conviction
“There is no form of conviction more intimate and irresistible than that which arises from the inward teaching of the Spirit. … Believers have an unction from the Holy One, and they know the truth … This inward teaching produces a conviction … (1 Cor. ii. 4). … It is founded on consciousness, … objectively revealed in the Scriptures … [not] a revelation of new truths, but an illumination of the mind, so that it apprehends the truth, excellence, and glory of things already revealed. … We cannot appeal to our own feelings or inward experience, as a ground or guide, …”. Systematic Theology, vol. 1, chap. 1, sec. 6. Pdf online location p36/516, Northwest Theological Seminary Library.
Unbelievers
If there is no consciousness of sin and no conviction of sin, is there true conversion? No, all converted unbelievers attest to their convicted consciences. Even though many do not experience it like Paul or the Jailor.
John 16:8, 1 Cor. 14:24, Eph. 5:11 & 13, 1 Tim. 5:20, Jude 15.
Believers
Does the Spirit ever speak to us believers about our sins? Or does He ever draw attention to things we have done wrong? Does He ever rebuke us or correct us? Is there a tapping on your spiritual shoulder?
Hyper-grace teachers say that the Spirit does not need to convict us about sin because God doesn’t see our sins since we are in a new, fully sanctified state. This, they teach, is because Jesus finished everything at the cross. Whitten cringes every time someone teaches that Christ’s blood covers sin. He says that means that God swept sin under a rug of Jesus’ blood and that God wouldn’t do that. RP leaders also say that everything is finished at the cross. If repentance is not necessary, it follows that conviction is not something the believer will experience either.
Canons 3-4, article 16 specifically uses the word ‘correct’. “… this grace of regeneration does not treat men as senseless stocks and blocks, nor take away their will and its properties, neither does violence thereto; but spiritually quickens, heals, corrects, and at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends it …”.
The reformers teach that the Spirit does rebuke us. He does press on us a weight of guilt so that we return unto the Lord in sorrow and repentance. This is the reconciliation unto God in Christ through faith. See 2 Tim. 4:2, Titus 1:9 & 13, Titus 2:15, Heb. 12:5 in connection with verse 8. James 2:9 also shows that the Spirit’s use of the law upon their conscience convicts believers. Also, Rev. 3:19 & 22.
Does conviction take your eyes off God?
“Only in seeing the awesome holiness of God can we see the depth of our own sin, and we are transformed by His love. Isaiah 6:5, Luke 5:8-9, and Job 42:1-6“, Michael Brown, Exposing the Dangers of Hyper-grace, 2014, Kindle location pg 70.
These passages also refute Paul Ellis who says, “you simply cannot focus on yourself and Jesus at the same time. You cannot attend to your shortcomings and behold his glorious perfections simultaneously. It’s one or the other. It’s you or him”.
Calvin also teaches, “[But] it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinize himself”. Calvin’s Institutes, I.i.1-2.
But, conviction makes you feel bad
Whitten teaches that God doesn’t want us to feel bad; but then passages like 2 Cor. 7:8-10 makes no sense because it teaches that there is such a thing as godly sorrow. Godly sorrow, remorse, and true regret happens when the Spirit convicts us of our sins. That is part of the transformational repentance process, the turning from sin and unto God. Even Ryan Rufus can admit that the Spirit convicts us because of love for us. That a heart broken with godly sorrow and grief over sin against God brings change and is restorative.
Love of the Spirit
The Spirit rebukes us and convicts us because He loves us. In the Augustinian tradition, the Holy Spirit is understood as: the love that binds the Father and the Son. And in the same way He is also the love that binds us to Jesus Christ.
The Triune God loves us too much to allow us to remain in our sins because sin damages and destroys us. Because of His love and kindness, He makes us uncomfortable in our sins so that we will turn away from them and turn back to Him. In His lovingkindness He shows us our need for a Savior who is outside of ourselves.
Canon 3-4, article 17. teaches also that, “… the Almighty operation of God … requires the use of means by which God … to exert his influence …in no wise excludes … the use of the gospel [preached Word] … [apostles] piously instructed the people concerning the grace of God … For grace is conferred by means of admonitions … this blessing of God working in us … to whom [God] alone all glory both of means, and of their saving fruit and efficacy is forever due”.
In other words, the Spirit uses the preaching of admonitions to work conviction of sin and contrition.
The purpose of conviction
The Spirit does indeed convict people of their sins and sinfulness. This conviction leads to conversion. So, apart from conviction of sin, the conscience serves no ongoing function. Thus the weight of guilt pressed upon a person’s conscience warns the sinner of his backsliding and his departure from God’s will. See Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Romans 2:15, 1 Corinthians 8:12 and 1 Tim. 1:5-11.
This is all and only by faith
The Holy Spirit regenerates, convicts of sin, moves us to repentance, persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, unites us to Christ, comforts and sanctifies us, adopts, and prays for us. The first five actions in that list can be summed up as faith. Calvin says, that ‘faith is the primary work of the Holy Spirit’.
As Hodge writes, “We [believers in possession of faith] are conscious of being sold under sin; of being its slaves; of being possessed by it as a power or law, immanent, innate, and beyond our control. Such is the doctrine of the Bible, and such is the teaching of our religious consciousness when under the influence of the Spirit of God”. Systematic Theology, vol. 1, chap. 1, sec. 6.
