The Lord’s word in John 14 through 16 is deep and mysterious because the Lord wanted to bring the disciples into the depths of the unfathomable divine mysteries. These mysteries include the Father’s house with its many abodes, the vine tree, and the newborn child.
John 14 through 16 reveal that the believers in Christ live in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The Divine Trinity is an organism constituted with Christ and all His members. Christ is organic, and so are His members. Christ and all His members have been brought into a divine constitution to become an organic entity, the living organism of the Divine Trinity. The believers live in this organism and participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity for their transformation with the result of being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.
By living in the organism of the Divine Trinity, the believers are convicted by the Spirit of reality (16:8-11). The Spirit of reality is commonly called the Spirit of truth (v. 13). In the writings of John, truth does not denote doctrine; rather, it denotes the divine reality. Hence, the Spirit of truth, that is, the Spirit of the divine reality, has convicted the believers concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
John 16:8-11 says, “When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me; and concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” First, the Spirit convicts people concerning sin. Sin came through Adam (Rom. 5:12); in Adam we were born in sin. The only way to be freed from sin is to believe into Christ, the Son of God. If we believe into Him, He becomes our righteousness, and we are justified in Him (3:24; 4:25). If we do not repent of the sin in Adam and do not believe into Christ, the Son of God, we shall remain in sin and suffer judgment with Satan for eternity.
The unique sin, which can cause a person to perish, is to not believe into the Son. Therefore, the sin referred to in John 16:9 is the unwillingness to be transferred from Adam into Christ. There is no need for a person to commit sin in order to perish; simply refusing to believe into the Lord Jesus is the qualification for perishing. The unique way to escape from our sinful situation is to believe into the Lord; the unique sin that qualifies us to perish is to not believe in Him. According to the New Testament, God’s judgment of unbelievers is not according to the Ten Commandments but according to the unique commandment to repent and believe into the Son of God. Today God has only one commandment for the world—believe into His Son. The Spirit of the divine reality comes to convict us concerning the sin of unbelief. Whoever does not believe into the Son remains a sinner in Adam until the time of judgment.