An Advocate

The Heart of Christ Is An Advocate

1 John 2:1 NKJV

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

We struggle to fully grasp the difference between an intercessor and an advocate.

Advocate

Advocate is a legal term, it is a person who acts as a spokesperson or representative of someone else’s policy, purpose, or cause; especially before a judge in a court of law.

An advocate is one who helps us by actually coming over to our side

This word parakletos is the same word used to describe the Holy Spirit; it is one who walks alongside in John 14:16.

John 14:16 NKJV

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

One who pleads the cause of another; Christ, our Advocate, pleads our cause.

Intercessor/Intercede

Intercessor is to speak to someone on behalf of someone else—‘to intercede, intercession.’

We can see this in speaking of Christ in Romans 8:34

Romans 8:34 NKJV

Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

We also see this used of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:26

Romans 8:26 NKJV

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

An intercessor who goes between two parties who are at odds with a view to reconcile them; an intercessor is a Mediator.

John explicitly says that he wrote this letter so that his readers “may not sin.” And if that was the sole message of the letter, that would be a valid and appropriate summons. But it would crush us. We need not only exhortation but liberation. We need not only Christ as a king but Christ as a friend. Not only over us but next to us. And that’s what the rest of the verse gives us.

How Does Our Advocate Help Us?

Our Advocate Helps Us When We Sin

The context of 1 John 2:1 is that call to no longer sin; that is the call of the Gospel. The problem is we do still sin; it is different than before but it still happens.

1 John 2:1 NKJV

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

I do not want to minimize this first statement, my little children, whom I hold dear, stop sinning! Do all you have in your power and will to stop sinning. On the heels of this, a somber fear

As stated earlier, this word for Advocate is used only five times and the other four are in John 14-16 referring to the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word is translated a number of ways, which shows how hard it is to “nail down.” Examples are “Helper” (ESV, NKJV, GNB, NASB), “Advocate” (NIV, NET), “Counselor” (CSB, RSV), “Comforter” (KJV), and “Companion” (CEB).

O’Donnell says, Just as the Holy Spirit testifies “in favor of Jesus over against a hostile world,” Jesus testifies before the throne of God in favor of us over against our sin and its due punishment.

The context of Jesus as our Advocate is after the statement on “if anyone sins.” The next statement is what should be understood as an appositive statement, Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

The next statement is 1 John 2:2

1 John 2:2 NKJV

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Our Advocate Propitiates For Our Sin

Jesus, as our “propitiation,” means that he assuages or turns away the just wrath of the Father toward our sins. His role as Advocate is on the basis of His propitiating sacrifice.

Propitiation is a legal term; Christ as our advocate may have a faint legal connotation but more frequently in literature outside the New Testament in early times it has to do with something more subjective that expresses deep solidarity.

Ortlund, Jesus shares with us in our actual experience. He feels what we feel. He draws near. And he speaks up longingly on our behalf.

I used the word “our” for whom He propitiates for. The world here is not a statement that Christ appeases the wrath of God for every person in the world, for we know:

those who are unsaved will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

God is angry with the wicked every day.

Matthew Henry states, The extent and intent of the Mediator’s death reach to all tribes, nations, and countries. As he is the only, so he is the universal atonement and propitiation for all that are saved and brought home to God, and to his favour and forgiveness.

We can sum up this statement, the world, as to say anyone; it speaks to the sufficiency of the atonement not the extend of the atonement.

We have studied Hebrews 7:25 recently. Hebrews 7:25 says that Christ always lives to make intercession for us, whereas 1 John 2:1 says, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate.”

Intercession is something Christ is always doing, while advocacy is something he does as occasion calls for it.

Apparently he intercedes for us given our general sinfulness, but he advocates for us in the case of specific sins.

Bunyan explains it like this:

Christ, as Priest, goes before, and Christ, as an Advocate, comes after. Christ, as Priest, continually intercedes; Christ, as Advocate, in case of great transgressions, pleads. Christ, as Priest, has need to act always, but Christ, as Advocate, sometimes only. Christ, as Priest, acts in time of peace; but Christ, as Advocate, in times of broils, turmoils, and sharp contentions; wherefore, Christ, as Advocate, is, as I may call him, a reserve, and his time is then to arise, to stand up and plead, when his own are clothed with some filthy sin that of late they have fallen into.

How Should This Change Our Lives?

You already have an advocate

We naturally advocate for ourselves: we need not do this as we have an Advocate who is actually in the Heavens for us.

We are called to forsake our sins, and no healthy Christian would suggest otherwise, but when we sin we have an Advocate with the Father.

When we sin, we got to Jesus - He is our propitiation, our intercessor, and our advocate.

You already have a propitiation

There are times we get discouraged and feel we have somehow removed ourselves from grace.

We know we are told to forsake that sin and we thought we had come to a place where it was no longer there.

We must first truly look in our heart to know if we have repented of our sin.

We must also look at our lives to make sure we are not making opportunity for us to sin.

But we do not do penance as if that can, somehow, endear Christ to us.

He is our propitiation, our intercessor, and our advocate.