John 16:8

Will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

The Revision more correctly renders, "Will convict the world of sin." There are three points concerning which the world would be convicted, concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit would effect these important results through some means. If we would understand its methods we have only to turn over to the fulfillment of these predictions recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts 2:38, the Holy Spirit fell upon the eleven apostles and they spoke as "it gave them utterance." The words that they spoke were the words of the Holy Spirit. In the record of what it said by the mouth of Peter we find that it convicted (1) of sin, in that those who heard had rejected the Lord of life and glory; (2) of righteousness, in that it was demonstrated by the manifestations of that hour that God had exalted the Lord whom they had condemned to his own right hand, of which they had the proof in that "he had shed forth" what they saw and heard; (3) of judgment, in that they were assured of the "wrath to come" and warned to "save themselves from this untoward generation." Thus has the Holy Spirit, in every age, convicted; by the words of Holy Writ that it has spoken, or by the earnest stirring words of the saints, either spoken or written. It "convicts" by acting through those into whose hearts it is sent, "because they are the sons of God."