And the Lord who was to complete it showed us in His Own Flesh (that is, in our Head),
Wherein He rose again and ascended to the Father, what we ought to hope for. For that
thus it is written, “He was delivered for our sins, and rose again for our justification.”4276
The world then is convinced “of sin” in those who believe not on Christ; “and of righteous-
ness,” in those who rise again in the members of Christ. Whence it is said, “That we may
be the righteousness of God in him.”4277 For if not in Him, in no way righteousness. But if
in Him, He goeth with us Whole to the Father, and this perfect righteousness will be fulfilled
in us. And therefore “of judgment” too is the world convinced, “because the prince of this
world hath been judged already;” that is, the devil, the prince of the unrighteous, who in
heart inhabit only in this world which they love, and therefore are called “the world;” as our
conversation is in heaven, if we have risen again with Christ. Therefore as Christ together
with us, that is His Body, is One; so the devil with all the ungodly whose head he is, with as
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it were his own body, is one. Wherefore as we are not separated from the righteousness, of
which the Lord said, “Because I go to the Father;” so the ungodly are not separated from
that judgment, of which He said, “Because the prince of this world hath been judged already.”
4276 Rom. iv. 25.
4277 2 Cor. v. 21.
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On the same words of the Gospel, John xvi. 8, ‘He will convict the world…