This is almost a view of the light of the world in the last day, when it comes to judgement, to final judgement. There will tragically be millions of people, hard as nails, dead against the Lord, absolutely obdurate, proud, determined not to repent, or anything of the kind, and yet even in that unrepentant state, as God judges them, and deals with them, He will make them to feel deeply and desperately the guilt of all their sin. It will not be a conviction that will bring them to repentance, but it will be a conviction that will force them to say, ‘The judgement is true and right, and I am banished justly and properly.’ How hypocrites, and all guilty, will be speechless like that in the last day. It’s mercy now: the worst adulteress, caught in the very act, she could be offered the opportunity to repent and to come and know cleansing and forgiveness. But in the last day, it will be too late.
Same with us. Sometimes, before we’re saved, when we are set against these things and we’re indignant against God, and there does come an element of conviction, and we feel ashamed of some sin, like them, we run away, we slink away, we don’t respond. The only response, of course, is repentance and utter dependence upon Jesus Christ and looking to him for forgiveness. They, the Pharisees, tried to discredit the Lord, but he shone the law into their hearts, and they were ashamed and had to withdraw.