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There is one Man who can front the most hostile scrutiny with the bold challenge, 'Which of you convinceth Me of sin? and His very haters have to answer, 'I find no fault in Him, while those that love Him rejoice to proclaim Him 'holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. There is one Man who can front the most rigid Law of Duty and say, 'I came not to destroy but to fulfil, and the stony tables seem to glow with tender light, as of rocky cliffs in morning sunshine, attesting that He has indeed fulfilled all righteousness.
It was His Holiness, then, that first drew on Him the hostility of the world that radiant white-hot sanctity in which His Sacred Humanity went clothed. Which of you convinceth me of sin?... Let him that is without sin amongst you cast the first stone at her! These were words that pierced the smooth formalism of the Scribe and the Pharisee and awoke an undying hatred.
So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said: "The herdsman's son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; stall I not be avenged?" Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword. "Surely thou shalt be avenged, for I have learned from one of the elders that which convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the base-born shall surely die.
Now mark, The law also convinceth to work for life, the Spirit convinceth to believe for life; the law saith, He that doth not fulfil me, shall be damned. The Spirit saith, He that believeth in Christ shall be saved. Now observe the terms of the law and of the gospel, are different one from another as to justification.
Pilate's wife speaks with awe of 'that just person. 'Which of you convinceth me of sin? 'If I have done evil, bear witness of the evil. 'I find no fault in Him. We may take it for granted that the impression Jesus made among His contemporaries was, at the lowest, that He was a pure and good man. The nation had to choose one of two. Jesus was the one; who was the other?
There is conscience, and the law, yea, and nature itself that doth convince of son; as before I have proved at large. Yet neither is conscience, that law; or nature itself the Spirit of Christ; no, but are much inferior to it, as being things of no glory in respect of it. But the Spirit convinceth men of their unbelief, together with other sins.
So that friend, here is something beside the Spirit of Christ, that can and doth convince of sin, even a man's own conscience, the law of nature; nay nature itself, which no man will say is as good as the Spirit of Christ, except they are guided by a deluding Spirit. Again, thou sayest, He that convinceth of sins against the law, leads up to the fulfilling of the law.
But again, page 12. thou seemest offended, because I say, "They are deceived, who think to obtain salvation by following the law, which they call Christ, though falsely." But this is thy frothy argument, "The law convinceth, and is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; therefore the law is not taken away," sayest thou.
But if thou mean the light of the law, is the light of the gospel, or the Spirit of Christ, I must needs reprove thee. Then farther thou art offended, because I said, when the spirit of Christ convinceth, it convinceth of more sins than the sins against the law. Friend, will the law shew a man that his righteousness is sin and dung?
Friend, what is this to the purpose? must we seek for justification by the works of the law, because the law convinceth? you may as well say, we must seek for justification from our consciences, because they do convince: Now where the scripture saith, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; do you think it means, we must be first fitted by purification of ourselves by, or according to the law, before we can be saved by Christ from the curse of the law?
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