Page 38 - First Steps 2023

There’s a huge difference.
Conviction leads to repentance and the hope of change. Conviction
is a recognition something’s wrong and needs to be addressed. That’s
empowering.
Condemnation is a one-way ticket to discouragement and defeat.
That’s anything but empowering. Instead, it shuts you down, leaving you
with an “I’ll never be good enough” aftertaste in your mouth.

Conviction comes from God through his Holy Spirit. Condemnation
comes from the devil. Don’t confuse them.

• The Holy Spirit empowers change in your life—and part of that is
not building a wall around you so you never encounter temptation.
You’ve been set free to make choices, remember? To choose to love
God, follow Jesus, and grow in holiness. Were you to never encounter
temptation, you’d never have to grow in your faith and dependence on
God as you make changes.
Sometimes a sinful habit falls away painlessly. Other times it’s a
lengthy struggle. Either way, the secret of holiness is humility and depend-
ing on God.
This passage provides encouragement in that direction:

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he
may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).

• The Holy Spirit ushers in a new law, a new reality for your life.
You already know that, because you’ve sinned, you deserve spiritual
death. Yet, because of God’s grace, you’re given new life instead.
And though you’re free of the eternal effects of sin, you’re still strug-
gling with day-to-day temptations and sin, still working to conform to the
image of Jesus.
That just doesn’t make sense, does it?
No—because grace itself doesn’t make sense—at least not in our
“you get what you deserve” world of cause and effect. The Holy Spirit
upends that with a new way of doing things, a new law.

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