Believers in Jesus often throw around a talking point that sounds something like this: "The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins." It's another false assumption which is probably the result of misunderstanding something Jesus said in the gospel of John. Jesus is looking forward to the New Covenant as He speaks to His disciples and begins to tell them how He will be departing, but the Spirit of God would be sent as a helper. Jesus explains the conviction of sins by the Spirit would be directed at unbelievers. The Spirit is with believers to convict, declare and remind them that they are the righteousness of God.
Not understanding the plenitude of God's forgiveness and the taking away of sin through the blood of Jesus will leave people in a sin consciousness instead of a righteousness consciousness. Hebrews 10 explains how the Spirit of God bears witness to us that God would no longer remember sins in this New Covenant. They were removed, and the Spirit isn't going to convict us of something that is no longer on the record.
In Christ, we have a brand new identity. The Bible says that in Christ we've been perfected, and we are holy, righteous and complete in Him. This week Mike and Joel talk about how the unbelieving world had to be convicted of sin (see John 16:8-11, Romans 3:19-20) in order to come to Christ, but now that we're in Christ we're convicted of righteousness - because that's who we are! When we sin, we are simply not being who we (already truly) are, and the more we're convinced, and convicted, of our true identity as the righteousness of God, the more we'll live as who we really are. All of this is based upon the finished work of Jesus and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It's all Him, not us!
