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AN ADVOCATE
My little children, these
things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1
John 2:1.
The standard for the Christian is “not
to sin”. We are sometimes guilty of ignoring this, but God wants a
cleansed righteous people for Himself. What we find though in practice is that
as we live in a corrupt world, the old nature is easily aroused, even though we
might want to be rid of all sin for all time. However, in these situations we
are not to give in; we are to struggle, fight, wrestle, and war against sin with
all the energy we’ve got. We are to struggle to captivate every thought for
Christ; to struggle to be as much like Christ as we can, but equally recognising
that we will never achieve perfection, that we will never be sinless.
Temptations come when we least expect
them: when we’re off guard, when we’re feeling down, when we’re
rejoicing in a triumph, or when we’re licking our wounds in defeat.
Without warning they come in and have only one goal: to bring us
down. 1 Corinthians 10:13
tells us there is no excuse for falling. There we read of
three comforting guarantees: we will not be tempted with anything
that is not common to mankind in general; we will not be tempted
above what we will be able to bear; God will make a way to escape.
We should continually run far away from temptation (v14).
If however the believer does sin, Satan will accuse him and
demand the death penalty. The Judge cannot just forgive someone; He must be
satisfied that the person hasn’t committed the crime, or there is no case to
answer. Our text says, If any man sin (that's
us!),
we have an Advocate, the best defence Barrister
in the universe to plead our cause. It wouldn’t happen in a human court, but the
Advocate happens to be the Judge’s Son, and He has already paid the penalty
for our sins. Since the penalty has already been paid, there is no case to answer.
The word translated “Advocate” is the Greek word,
paraclete”, translated in John’s Gospel
as “Comforter” (John 14:16). He is a Friend
called in when there is trouble or distress to help in any way possible.
The qualification of the Advocate is that He is
Righteous. Our Lord lived a
sinless life as a man and is the only person who has the right to stand before
God in the court of heaven. The person who has Jesus Christ as Advocate will
never be declared guilty. What is it that the Advocate pleads? Is it the
believers’ reputation? Or his good works? Or that the believer has never sinned?
That the believer has been as good as he can be? No! The Advocate pleads His own
righteousness, being able to save completely all that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives
to make intercession for them. (Heb
7:25).
Two “paracletos”
then are mentioned for the believer. First, the Holy Spirit here on earth dwells
within the believer’s heart, bears witness that we are the children of God,
brings the things of God to our remembrance, gives life, testifies concerning
Christ, guides into all truth. Second, Jesus Christ the
Righteous is in heaven above at the throne of God, interceding on our
behalf on the basis of His own righteousness.
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