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The Holy Spirit’s work
Saturday 10 May 2008
Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday. John Stott, whose biography I am writing, has argued that all four stages in the great event we call conversion are the work of the Holy Spirit. First, conviction of sin. It is the Spirit, Jesus said, who would ‘convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment’ (John 16:8-11). Next, faith in Christ. It is the Spirit who opens the eyes of convicted sinners to see in Jesus their Saviour and Lord, and to believe in him, for ‘no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 12:2). Thirdly, the new birth is a birth ‘of the Spirit’ (John 3:6-8). Christian growth or sanctification is his work too (2 Corinthians 3:18). So the power of the Holy Spirit in evangelism is not optional but indispensable.
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