The difference between conviction and condemnation was something I struggled with a lot as a young Christian. It seems to be something that’s not often touched on or even understood by many Christians. But for me, learning the difference between conviction and condemnation was a battle that I had to win if I was to grow in my Christian life.
Simply put, God convicts us of specific sins or weaknesses, giving us hope that if we bring it to Him, He can and will forgive us and heal us. On the other hand, it’s the Devil that condemns us, saying that we’re just generally bad and hopeless. It’s been understanding the difference between these two that has been an essential part of my being able to get to grips with some of the sins, failures and shortcomings of my life and to also recognize when the voice of Satan is trying to bring hopelessness to me in some matter.
Is what I’m saying here according to God’s Word? In John chapter 8, the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who’d been caught in adultery. They called upon Jesus to agree to the writings of the Jewish law that she should be stoned to death. But Jesus said to them, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” And the next verse says, “When they heard it, they went out being convicted by their own conscience”. (John 8:9) Jesus’ words brought conviction.
How about the Devil’s words? In Revelation 12:9 the Devil is called “the accuser of the saints”. The devil is like the prosecuting attorney in a courtroom, constantly bringing our sins before ourselves and God, calling for our condemnation and judgment.
But there’s another kind of condemnation and one that’s perhaps even more subtle. The apostle John wrote, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” (I John 3:20) Some people have a lot of trouble with that. Their heart condemns them in several ways. For one, since we are all sinners (Romans 3:23), then without the rebirth through salvation in Jesus, each of our hearts overcomes us through one sin or the other.
Sometimes though, even if you’re saved, your own heart may have the habit or tendency to condemn you. It’s like negative thinking. A verse that helped me on this one time was “He that justifies the wicked and he that condemns the just, both of these are an abomination to the Lord.” (Proverbs 17:15) You can get to thinking, “Oh I’m really humble because I’m always so down on myself”. But it’s not the way the Lord wants us to be in the spirit. For us to condemn ourselves is actually an abomination to God, according to that verse, just as much as if we were justifying the wicked,
Maybe the most famous verse about condemnation is, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which be in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1) But in some ways, it’s a thin line to walk. On one side, we don’t want to “fall into the condemnation of the devil” (I Timothy 3:6). God forbid. But that sure doesn’t mean in any way that we want to harden our hearts against the gentle chiding voice of the Holy Spirit which “will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment”.
It comes down to which voice you are learning to listen to. We don’t want to be in tune with “the accuser of the saints” or our own heart that can condemn us. But we do want to have a clean conscience that can help to be a guidance to us. And even more than that, we want to have a clear channel to the voice of the Lord Who will convict us and lead us in the paths we are to walk in.
Someone said one time that it’s like a chain with a weak link. We’re that chain and we all have weak links, sins, and weakness, areas that we need to change and grow in. The Lord takes a look at the chain, probably sees a number of weak links and He points out the one that He wants to work on. He points to one weak link and says, “That one right there, give that one to me and I’ll fix it.” But then the Devil comes along and says, “Oh my God, that is a bad chain! It’s bad! It needs to be totally thrown away!”
That’s the difference between conviction and condemnation. One is specific, doable and brings hope for change and improvement if there is repentance. The other is general, totally negative and also hopeless. God help us all to know the difference between condemnation and conviction and to learn to recognize the Lord’s voice of conviction that brings change, hope and progress. “For Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world works death.” (II Corinthians 7:10)
Hi Mark, I think you’re hitting the issue spot on. I would like to add just a bit, on the condemnation challenge, as I view it. One of the reasons why we are struck within the entrapment of condemnation is that, until we learn to identify hypocrisy and self righteousness within our own individuality and learn to distinguish the difference between what comes to our conscious mind as our own self righteousness and what comes to us from the righteousness that Christ reveals to us through our conscious adherence to the voice of conscience and the spirit of the word we seek to apply, we would otherwise be limited to speak and act only through what comes from our sensual perception and desire for recognition and acceptance. When we are yet blind to our own Ego and it’s need to sense acceptance, we will be deceived by our judgement that is steeped in our own righteousness and hypocrisy. We will tend to either feel that we would be competing with God on righteousness when we actually apply what inwardly our conscience would lead us to feel is the right thing to do or say in a given situation…unless we learn to identify that It is the voice of Christ that speaks through our conscience and as such, allow credit to go to Christ for revealing the right balance in the ballot and the rightly divided word of truth!
As we are all conditioned through religious and cultural manipulation to think that as sinners we can not really trust the voice of conscience…and are consequently left with only a vague adherence to the dead letter of the law/word as we make our judgement, and in this bypass of the inner still voice of conscience, we are left with only the letter of the law/word without the Spirit! As such we have no balanced sense to apply what the Spirit would have guided us to apply, through the syncrocity of inner Core conscience and the spirit of the Word! As in the example of the Pharisees that sought to condemn the woman through the letter of the law/word, without checking inward to the voice of conscience as to what the intention and motive were driving their applying of the word and the inquiry! In other words, they were unable to identify their own hypocrisy and self-righteousness that were driving their intent…for without checking with their own voice of conscience they were only able to act out of self righteousness, and consequently had to be condemned by their own conscience when Jesus confronted their intent by pointing their attention to their conscience. When we truly come to realize that when we speak truthfully, when we act truthfully, when we do not hide our mistakes…but acknowledge them without condemnation as we know as human beings we are not capable of avoiding making mistakes…both in deeds and in our words! We give credit where credit is due when something is said and done rightfully; we acknowledge that Christ is working from within us when we seek to follow his voice to us through our conscience!
Hi Marc,
Very well written, very helpful, am contemplating to copy and paste it for a couple of friends.
Lots of love Mary