Condemnation vs. Conviction: Why Every Christian Should Know the Difference

Have you ever felt bad but wondered if you did something wrong or if it was a spiritual attack? In today's video, we’ll explore the differences between being convicted by the Holy Spirit and being condemned by the enemy. Knowing the difference will drastically impact how you recover from sin, your view and relationship with God, and how you overcome spiritual attacks. Stay tuned!

As a new Christian, I wanted to get everything right. I had a fresh revelation of God’s love for me, and I planned on loving Him back so well until I didn’t. If I messed up or sinned, I would be devastated. Not in a God is correcting me way and let me receive His grace, but a condemned how could I do this self-righteous way. This didn’t help me to grow as a Christian or turn from my ways. Often, it made matters worse. My problem was that I didn’t clearly understand the difference between conviction and condemnation. I didn’t know how to receive correction from God, while resisting accusations from the enemy. If you’ve ever found yourself in a similar situation or you're in one now, today we’ll talk about:

• The difference between conviction and condemnation. 
• How do you respond when condemned with shame and guilt?
• How to allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit to make you better, not bitter.

But first, we need to understand how our relationship with God works. As believers in Christ, we are justified through Christ, meaning we are now in right relationship with God and have hope for eternal life with Him. At the same time, we are also being sanctified, which means we have not yet been glorified or perfected. We are in the process of becoming more like Jesus, and it’s a process. That means we won’t always get everything perfect and correct. We will make mistakes sometimes, and if you are a believer with a Holy Spirit in you, that means the Holy Spirit will convict you to let you know that you need to turn around from whatever way or direction that you’re going and head back to the path that He has for you. At the same time, you may also suffer from feelings of condemnation in the form of shame, and this is from the enemy and not from God.

Christians need to know the difference between conviction and condemnation because one is from God, and one is from the enemy. One leads to freedom, and one leads to slavery. One leads to actual transformation to become more like Christ, and one leads to shame that holds us back from becoming who God created us to be.

Condemnation

Condemnation means to be judged guilty and sentenced to punishment. If you are familiar with the gospel, you know there is no way a Christian can be condemned because the Holy Spirit dwells in you as a seal that you are God’s, and He will come back for what is His. Jesus has already taken on our guilt and the punishment for our sin, and in turn, given us His righteousness that we may be saved, not punished, and never condemned. Romans 8:1 promises us:

 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

Now, here’s a thing: the enemy can still accuse us. He can point out that we should be condemned, but he doesn’t have the power to actually condemn us. Jesus has the power to condemn, but when we look at John 3:17, it says:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17 ESV)

We have been saved, and so that means that we cannot be condemned. The enemy is a liar so he will tell you that you’ve gone too far, you’ve sinned too much, and there’s no hope for you.

The truth is the enemy is projecting his future on you. He is the one that is condemned, but the Christian is forgiven, and wiped clean of her sin, and promised eternal life with God. 

Conviction

That promise doesn’t mean we will always be perfect or walk out this Christian life never to sin again. This is where conviction comes in. Conviction is a process by which God communicates through his Holy Spirit to make us aware of our sins. 

When we offend God or do something out of His will, the Holy Spirit, through our conscience, gives us a feeling that something is off. We know deep in our souls we’ve done something wrong. Now, God doesn’t allow this just so we’ll feel bad about ourselves, although if we love God, we will feel bad because we don’t want to hurt God.

The purpose of conviction is to grant us a chance to turn around and do things God’s way. If we don’t know that we’ve done anything wrong, we will continue to go down the wrong path, which is obviously not what God wants for us. This is why Hebrews 12:6-11 tells us that God disciplines the children He loves. The mistake we’ve made when it comes to conviction is confusing punishment and discipline. They are not the same. The Bible tells us that there’s no fear in love because fear has to do with punishment (1 John 4:18), but God is a God of love. He is love. So He is not punishing you. He is disciplining you. He is teaching you. He’s using the pain of that conviction, of that contrite and broken heart (Psalm 51:17), to mold us more into the likeness of His Son to bring out His image in you so that more people can see His light through you and even your imperfections.

When you take a test at school because you’re in a discipline of math or science or a discipline of English and you get something wrong, your teacher tells you to correct it. This is why we call subjects disciplines because it’s a process of learning. When God disciplines you, He’s putting you through a process of learning, molding, and growing. That’s what it’s about, but you can’t ever get to that process if you're not first convicted because conviction brings an awareness of our sins that we otherwise wouldn't have. You can’t do better if you don’t know better. 

So conviction makes us aware that there needs to be some sort of correction and discipline, but it also gives us the opportunity to get back into alignment with God's will. Essentially, when we sin, we are saying that God is wrong. Our trust in ourselves and our way apart from God leads to sin. But convictions give us a chance to change our minds. To say I was wrong and God is right, as a matter of fact, let every man be a liar and God be true so we can get back into alignment with God. This is important because in order to walk with God and in step with the Spirit, we have to be in agreement with God. Amos 3:3 says:

“Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3 NKJV)

God convicts us when we come out of agreement with Him through our sin, and He disciplines us to get us back on track and in agreement with Him. It’s a process, and I don’t care how long you’ve been in the faith, how many prayers you've prayed, or how many times you’ve read through the Bible entirely; you will make mistakes. God will be forming us and sanctifying us until Jesus comes back, so we need to maintain humility to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us and admit when we’re wrong, so that we can get back on track because that is the way of Jesus.

So here’s the challenge. We know the difference between condemnation and conviction, now however when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, the enemy is going to kick you while you’re down and will accuse you of being condiments. So you can experience feelings of condemnation and conviction at the same time. This is why it’s important for us to not only know the difference, but also understand and hear the voice of God. God is saying sin is not my will; you turn around and return to me because I love you. The enemy is saying you messed up and there's no hope. All lies. God gives us grace.

God has not run out of grace for anyone. The question we must ask ourselves is: Do you believe God is a redeemer? Do you believe that He’s gracious? Do you believe that He wants the best for you? He does not want you to feel bad; he wants you to be good, but we can only be made good by Him when we place our faith in Christ. As we believe the truth about God, we can receive conviction as a gift of God, knowing He wants the best for us.

Receiving conviction, as an invitation to be molded and formed by God to become who He created us to be, takes faith. So, I invite you to watch this video, where I share how to worry less and trust God more.