John 16:9 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 16:9

Comments

In verses 9-11 this is elaborated upon a little by the Lord: ‘Of sin, because they believe not on me.’ Now some people have taken this too far. ‘Oh,’ they say, ‘you mean when a person is judged by God, there is only one sin he is judged for – unbelief in Christ. The other sins, serious as they are, they are all out of the reckoning. There is one thing God wants to know: “Have you believed in Christ?” Well, that is silly nonsense. We are judged for all our sin, but of course the crowning sin is rejection of Christ, unbelief in Christ. We are judged for all the other sins because we do not believe in Christ. If we believed in him, we would be forgiven everything. So yes, we go into judgement, we are judged for all sin. That is what the Scriptures say, in so very many texts. ‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the things which are written in the book of the law.’ That is the basis of judgement – all our sin, any one sin, whatever it is. ‘For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all,’ says the apostle James. We are judged for all our sins, and every one of them, but the crowning sin is unbelief in Christ, and in a sense, it is the most foolish sin: to not believe in the one person, the divine person, the God-man, Jesus Christ who can save your soul, the kindest one who has come from heaven to make atonement for our sin, to not receive him is so foolish. To reject one of such dignity, he is eternal God, with the Father, through whom all things were created, is the biggest insult you could possibly give. So it is the crowning sin, but it is not the only sin.

Application

Now the great thing we must preach about is sin. I remember hearing a well-known evangelist, no longer alive, saying (this is some years ago), ‘It is a great mistake to put too much emphasis on sin.’ His reasoning, his thoroughly human reasoning, was quite sound, because people find it objectionable and you will not raise crowds, and you will not get a hearing, but his solution was therefore, ‘Do not preach too much about sin.’ But what Christ tells his disciples, and us, is, ‘Preach about sin; witness to me, because as you do so the Holy Spirit will convict within.’ That is the difference. Yes, it is unwanted, but if you want the work of the Spirit, you must preach the things that the Spirit wants to do. He wants to convict of sin. And people will be saved.

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John 16:9 Commentary and Bible Study