Jesus, our Advocate
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness... My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 1:9; 2:1-2
A number of verses in the Bible tell us that we will sin even after we have surrendered our life to Christ (see Philippians 3:12; James. 2:10; 3:2, 8; 4:17). If this is the case then that Christians are still prone to sin even after salvation, he or she should not deny sin because doing so makes God out to be a liar; “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). When a Christian realizes, through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, that he has sinned, he should agree with God about his sin, confess it, and receive the restoration to fellowship that is promised in 1 John 1:9. John says that if we confess our sins, we will be forgiven. We have no reason to be buried with guilt because of our inability to remove sin in our lives. However, we must not forget that because Jesus is willing to forgive our sins, it doesn’t mean we can feel free to keep on sinning. This is what John emphasized; “Do your best not to sin,” as we might paraphrase 1 John 2:1. Then he said, “if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father.” In the Old Testament, when Job felt forsaken by his friends and his wife when he was going through trials and sufferings, he longed for an advocate. ““For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, That we may go to court together. “There is no umpire between us, Who may lay his hand upon us both (job 9:32-33).”” The advocate or in Job’s term, “umpire,” is someone who could stand in his place and represent him before the judge. As Job described himself a suffering sinner, before God, the Holy One, so he needed an advocate “not a man as I am that I may answer Him, That we may go to court together.” The Advocate speaks with extraordinary authority before the judge. However, in our case because His defense for us is that he, our defense attorney, has already paid any price the judge could impose. Jesus is our advocate, one who speaks to the Father in our behalf. The willingness of the judge to forego judgment is not based on the life of the one on trial (us), but rather on the merits of Jesus’ sacrifice, our Advocate. Jesus sacrificed his life in our place. He paid the price for our sin with his death. Just like Job, when we feel shut out and alone, the only way is to look up and draw ourselves to our Advocate.
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman
www.my-wbc.com
