FROM this point in the discourse, the Lord resumes the instruction of the last two verses of chapter 15 in reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit. In the intervening verses the Lord had spoken of the witness of the disciples and the persecution it would involve. He resumes this great theme with the words, “When He is come,” an expression used before in chapter 15:26, and again in 16:13. In each case it marks a fresh stage of instruction. In chapter 16:8, His coming demonstrates the true character of the world. In chapter 16:13, He comes to guide the believer into the truth of another world.
Before that other world is revealed the true character of this world is exposed, and so we read, “When He is come He will bring demonstration to the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” No question is raised as to who receives the demonstration, but the fact is stated that the presence of the Holy Spirit demonstrates the true character of the world. As a matter of fact it is not the world, as such, that receives the demonstration, but those in whom the Spirit dwells, though they indeed use what they have learned to witness to the world of its true condition.
The presence of the Spirit does not test the world. The world has been fully tested by the presence of Christ. He was here in such manner that the world could see His works of grace, and hear His words of love; and the Lord sums up the result of this testing by saying, “They have both seen and hated both Me and My Father.” When the Spirit comes the world cannot receive Him, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. Nevertheless to believers—those in whom He dwells—He brings demonstration of the result of the testing, so that the believers, instructed by the Spirit, have no false conceptions of the world. They know by the Spirit’s teaching the true character of the world as seen by God. Its character is demonstrated in respect of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. This conviction is wrought in the soul, not by the use of abstract statements, but by an appeal to the Lord Jesus and the great facts of His history.
First, its state is proved in respect of sin. The presence of the Spirit is in itself a proof of the evil state of the world, for if Christ had not been rejected the Holy Spirit would not be here. His presence is a proof that the world has hated, cast out, and crucified the Son of God. Jew and Gentile, representing the world religiously and politically, combined in saying, “Away with Him, crucify Him.” It is therefore a world that does not believe in Christ, and this solemn fact proves it is under sin. We might understand the world not believing in anyone else, but if the world does not believe in Christ—One with whom they could find no fault—it is a clear proof that it must be dominated by an evil principle which God calls sin.
The final and absolute demonstration that the world is under sin is seen, not in the fact that men have transgressed certain laws of God, or defiled the temple and stoned the prophets, but in that, when God was manifested down here in all the grace, love, power and goodness on behalf of guilty man, as set forth in the Son become flesh and dwelling amongst men, the world finally and formally rejected God by refusing to believe in His Son. This is the outstanding fact that demonstrates the sin of the world. However fair the exterior of this world may look at times, whatever advances it may make in civilization and invention, the fact remains that the presence of the Spirit proves that it is a world that does not believe in Christ, and therefore a world under sin.
Secondly, the evil condition of the world is proved in respect of righteousness: The presence of the Spirit proves not only the absence of Christ from the world, but also the presence of Christ in the glory. If Christ’s absence is the greatest proof of sin, His presence in the glory is the greatest expression of righteousness. The sin of men rose to its height when the world put the sinless One upon the Cross. Righteousness is seen, on the one hand, in that Christ, who was nailed to the Cress, has gone back to the Father; and on the other hand, in that the world as such will see Him no more. It is only right that He should have the highest. place in the glory: it is only right that the world, that saw and hated Him without a cause, should see Him no more. Thus it is demonstrated that the world is under sin and without righteousness.
Thirdly, the Spirit brings demonstration of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Behind the sin of man there is the craft of Satan. Man is but the tool of the devil: God has counseled to set Christ in the place of supreme power in the universe. The devil has set himself to thwart the purposes of God; and from the garden of Eden to the Cross at Calvary, he has used man as his tool to carry out his plans. At the Cross it looked as if the devil had triumphed, for there he succeeded in using man to nail to the cross of shame the very One that God has destined for a throne of glory. But the presence of the Spirit brings demonstration that, in spite of all that the world, moved by the prince of the world, has done, Christ is in the highest place in glory. God has triumphed over man’s sin and the devil’s power. The place of glory in which Christ is set is the proof that the devil has been defeated in the greatest expression of his power. This must, mean the final and absolute judgment of the devil; and if the devil is judged, the whole world system of which he is the ruler, will come under judgment. The judgment is not yet executed, but morally it stands condemned with its ruler.
Such then is the state of the world under the eye of God, demonstrated by the presence of the Spirit. It is a world under sin, without righteousness and going on to judgment.