Chapter Nine: An Advocate

Our verse of focus this evening is 1 John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Last week we discussed the intercession of Christ, that is, Christ’s present work for the believer. He is making our case before the Father, based on His righteous sacrifice and life.

It is, as Ortlund phrases, “the moment-by-moment application of that atoning work.” (Ortlund, 79)

But John tells us that Christ is our advocate. What is the difference? Ortlund treats this at the beginning of chapter nine, and I think offers a helpful clarification. Whereas intercession is the act of going between two parties (or individuals), advocacy is the “aligning oneself with another.” (Ortlund, 87)

Let’s examine this idea of advocate further, specifically in this present passage.

What we see is that our goal is to not sin, though we struggle with living in the flesh, we rely on the strength of our Advocate.

I. Our goal is to not sin- “that you sin not”

John writes to us that we sin not. When Christ saves us, He saves us to live no more in sin. Notice the beautiful balance with the woman caught in adultery. In John 8:10-11 “Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.””

He forgives her sin, while not excusing it, and then commands her not to sin anymore. This pattern appears in regularly in the NT.

When Christ saves you, He saves you in order to free you from sin. Our goal as Christians should be to kill sin continually and to grow in righteousness daily.

However, we realize that we face a terrible dichotomy. We try not to sin, we desire not to sin, and yet, so often, we find ourselves sinning.

II. Our struggle is living in the flesh- “if anyone does sin”

Our daily experience demonstrates our battle with sin. While our goal is not to sin, our reality is that we do sin. What do we do? Do we throw our arms up in the air in despair? Do we find ourselves like Paul in Romans 7:21-24 “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

One of the beautiful reminders of this book by Ortlund is that it is precisely to those who sin that this book is written. It is precisely to those like Paul to whom the heart of Christ is revealed, His gentle and lowly heart.

Our struggle is living in the flesh. Now, before we get to the Advocate, I want to discuss this idea more. John addresses is in detail in this book. There is a wonderful dichotomy between acknowledging our sin and ongoing struggle with it while at the same time aiming to grow in holiness.

The question is, how do we grow in holiness, which coincides with sinning less? Perhaps an analogy will be helpful. Let’s say you own a nice, 1969 Mustang. You drive it regularly, but you really don’t take care of it. You never wash it. You leave trash and empty cans of soda in the floor board. You never change the oil, check fluids, or take care of your tire pressure.

Gradually, you notice things start to change in this one beautiful piece of machinery. It starts to choke when you try and start it. It idles rougher and rougher. Sometimes it mysterious shuts off.

You wonder what is going on with it, so you take it to a mechanic. The mechanic, very gently, asks if you have ever taken it to the repair shop. You reply that you have not. Now the mechanic begins listing repairs needed, and you are flabbergasted at the costs. You ask the repair man how in the world could this be, and he replies that it is all because you failed to take care of it. A little bit of maintenance would have saved you a tremendous amount of repairs.

It is not that different than the Christian life. We wonder why we fail to see victory over sin, but we honestly do nothing about it. We continue driving our cars until they are on the verge of exploding they are in such rough shape. We fail to engage in the regular maintenance of the soul: Scripture reading, meditation, application, prayer, fellowship with other believers, etc. We struggle living in the flesh to be sure, but we can “keep his word,” as John tells in 1 John 2:5.

So, we know our goal is not to sin but in reality we struggle with living in the flesh. Are we like Paul, then, left hopeless? No, we have all hope because we have an Advocate.

III. Our strength is in the Advocate- “we have an Advocate”

When we sin, we do not fret or worry, nor do we take it lightly. We realize that we have an Advocate, One who comes to our side and aligns with us.

Bunyan’s quote on page 90.

Car analogy: when we fail to change the oil, our Advocate comes to our side, tells us He will restore the car to perfect condition, and encourages us not to repeat our mistakes.