Conviction or Condemnation
A wise person accepts the discipline of the Lord. In fact, to be corrected by our Heavenly Father is a sure sign that we are His sons and daughters. Holy Spirit-inspired conviction is a gift from God to help us to continue to be conformed to the image of Christ.
When a word from the Lord exposes the wrong motives, disobedience, pride and self-sufficiency in my heart, the proper, healthy response from me is to humbly ask for forgiveness and cleansing. Then, with an attitude of thankfulness for the Love of God that refuses to let me live for very long in violation of Kingdom principles, I arise, “wash my face”, and continue walking in the Life of Jesus.
What if my child did something wrong, say purposefully poured her milk on the floor after I had instructed her not to? (This is assuming one of my daughters was about 6 years old- that was a while ago 
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When I pointed out that her behavior was unacceptable, she may respond to correction by crying profusely and saying honestly, “I’m sorry Daddy.”
Of course, being a loving (though imperfect) father, I would accept her apology and that would be the end of the matter, unless…
She refused to let it end. What if she kept crying over and over again: “I’m sorry Daddy, oh I am so sorry, please forgive me Daddy, I’m sorry…?” What must my child think of me, to not accept my forgiveness?
To me, the above scenario illustrates the difference between conviction and repentance, and condemnation and a religious reaction to correction.
Tim Hughes wrote a wonderful song “Here I Am To Worship”.
In the middle of the song are the lines: “I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross…”
I was in a worship conference several years ago when the worship leader was leading that song. He led us to repeat the above lines, I’m sure he was wanting the realization of God’s great love to sink in.
So we sang it. And sang it again… and again… and again…
After staying on that part of the song for a very long time, I went from being grateful to being alarmed. It seemed like conviction and thankfulness began to change into condemnation and a kind of religious flagellation. I could almost see us with the whips, beating ourselves on our backs in a vain display of false piety.
I was in the congregation so I began to walk around the back of the auditorium singing a different line. To the same tune of “I’ll never know how much it cost” I was singing:
“And now I am complete in You to walk in all You’ve called me to… So here I am to worship”.
True humility is having an accurate perception of Who God is (and of course, that is an ever- increasing revelation), and an accurate perception of who I am. It’s not about false piety or condemnation, but receiving grace to respond to God’s conviction and to walk as a son or daughter of the Most High God.
Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni
July 14th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Dear David;
This is an awesome entry. So many people believe they have to beat themselves up over and over again for something they have confessed, and been forgiven for. I am with you on this. Why should we whip ourselves over something He already took the whipping for?
July 25th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Excellently put, David. The last paragraph is the kicker.
“True humility is having an accurate perception of Who God is (and of course, that is an ever- increasing revelation), and an accurate perception of who I am.”
When I was in a missionary training school in Romania a couple of summers ago, The Holy Spirit taught us through Dean Sherman that any concept of yourself, whether too high or too low, is pride. True humility is having the right concept of who you are, and the only way you’ll have that is to have the right concept of who He is.
Just wanted to say thanks for keepin’ it real.