A Study of the Book of 1st John
“Back To the Basics”
Sermon # 3
“We Have An Advocate With The Father”
1 John 2:1-2
In verse nine of chapter one, we were told, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Does that mean that we can just live however we want because God is gracious and merciful and we can always go running back to Him? No, in fact as we noted last week John goes on in the first verse of Chapter two to say, “I am writing these things so that you may not sin.” John makes it clear that we do not have to sin.
Yet the reality is that as long as we are present in these physical bodies we will still sin and fall at times. For this reason John begins Chapter two, “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. (2) And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
John wants his readers to understand that the work of Christ is the basis upon which the Christian may approach God for full forgiveness and cleansing. John uses three terms to describe how Christ has made it possible for us to approach God.
First, He is Our Advocate.
“And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
The Lord Jesus is our “Advocate” (paraklētos) which is transliterated as the word paraclete. This word “advocate” does not occur outside the writings of John. The word literally means “one who comes alongside to help.” When the term is used in a legal sense today we think of a defense attorney.
But Jesus is a most unusual defense attorney in that he does not maintain His client’s innocence but rather acknowledges their guilt. Our defense attorney does not seek to get us off on a technicality or make excuses for our sin. He admits our guilt and says, “Yes Father it is true they are guilty, but look at me, look at my scars, on the basis of my shed blood, I have paid for that sin in full.”
In a poem entitled “My Advocate,” Martha Snell Nicholson dramatically portrays the adequacy of Christ’s atoning work on the cross. She wrote:
"I sinned. And straightway, posthaste, Satan flew
Before the presence of the most High God,
And made a railing accusation there.
He said, “This soul, this thing of clay and sod,
Has sinned. ‘Tis true that he has named Thy Name,
But I demand his death, for Thou has said,
‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’
Shall not Thy sentence be fulfilled? Is justice dead’
Send now this wretched sinner to his doom.
What other thing can righteous ruler do?”
And thus he did accuse me day and night,
And every word he spoke, O God, was true!
Then quickly One rose up from God’s right hand,
Before whose glory angels veiled their eyes.
He spoke, “Each jot and tittle of the law
Must be fulfilled; the guilty sinner dies!
But wait—suppose his guilt were all transferred
To Me, and that I paid his penalty!
Behold My hands, My side, My feet! One day
I was made sin for him, and died that he
Might be presented faultless at Thy throne!”
And Satan fled away. Full well he knew
That he could not prevail against such love,
For every word my dear Lord spoke was true!"
Do you ever wonder how God could accept you in spite of your sins? It is because of your Advocate. God’s justice is satisfied with His sacrifice and no accusation of Satan or of your conscience can undo the completeness of Christ’s work. He who died as our substitute lives on as our advocate.
Although we should confess our sins (1:9), John does not say, “If we confess our sins, we have an advocate” but rather he says, “If anyone sins we have an advocate.” “Before we even repent of that cruel or brutal word we said, the very moment we had that evil thought, and the moment we did that wrong act, Jesus Christ was there at the throne of God to represent us as Satan was there accusing us.” [J. Vernon McGeeThru the Bible Commentary. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson - electronic ed. 1981)
We need to realize that God has graciously forgiven you completely in Jesus Christ. He is at the right hand of the Father pleading your case, even with your sin. Paul states it this way in Hebrews 7:25, “There-fore He is also able to save to the uttermost (forever) those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them”
Your standing before God does not depend on your performance, but rather on Jesus’ blood and righteousness and properly understanding that truth, will not lead you to sin more but rather, to sin less.
Not Only is He is Our Advocate but...
Secondly, He is The Righteous One.
“If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
John calls the Lord, “Jesus Christ the righteous.” Within the short framework of that statement each of the names attributed to the Lord are an essential part of salvation. In the first place, we need a human Savior and He is provided in “Jesus.” Only a man could take the place of a man. Jesus did not just appear to be a man, he was completely human.
But we also need a divine Savior and Jesus was completely divine and Jesus was “the Christ” He was God’s anointed one, He was the Messiah, who came to bear our sins (Isa 53).
No ordinary man would ever do as a substitute, a mere man could only pay for his own sins, he could never take your place and pay for your sins. But God in human flesh could! For he is also “Jesus Christ the righteous one.” In order that he might bear the sins of others, Jesus had to be “a lamb unblemished and spotless” (1 Peter 1:19).
Not only is He the Righteous one but…
Third, He is Our Propitiation. (v. 2)
“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
Sin is the ongoing problem of mankind. In verse one and verse two the word “sin” translates the verb (hamartia) the most common of New Testament words for sins, which liter-ally means “to miss the mark.” It means to fall short, to do wrong. John counsels strongly against sin, but he is a realist. Therefore he does not go into a long narrative about the nature of sin but rather he speaks of the needed Savior.
In the grammar of the phrase “if anyone sins” in verse one (aorist subjunctive 3rd class condition) John conveys the idea of a strong probability of this actual occurring. Today we would say, “If anyone sins and they will.”
The Catholic Church teaches that no one can recover a right standing with God after sin without confession and some act of religious duty to show their sorrow over sin. Under this system confession is the anonymous revealing of sins to a human priest in a confessional booth. Catholics believe that such a confession is an act which earns one’s forgiveness when combined with the performance of some act of religious duty (such as repeating a prayer or saying the rosary a certain number of times). Under that system forgiveness is earned by the combination of the good works of confession and acts of religious duty. Unfortunately there is no biblical basis for this practice.
But on this one thing we do agree - God’s justice must be satisfied. Every sin ever committed by every person who has ever lived will be punished one of two ways. Either God’s wrath will be satisfied when the unrepentant and unbelieving pay for their own sin or for all that repent and believe, God’s wrath is satisfied in Christ payment on the cross.
For John says, “And He Himself (that is Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” Now I am willing to bet that the word “propitiation” may not be in your normal day-to-day vocabulary. The word in Greek is (hilasmos) means “satisfaction or appease-ment.” John Stott defines propitiation as “an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God.” [John Stott. The Epistles of John. (Erdmans) p. 88]
Propitiation is best explained in the Old Testament sacrificial system. The Old Testa-ment sacrifices teach us that there is a way of escape and of approaching God….namely “through the death of another.” The substitution is made in behalf of the people. The life of an animal is sacrificed in the behalf of the people. This substitution is what atonement means.
The sacrificial animal never did pay for sin but it pictured the future once for all time sacrifice of Christ that would fully satisfy the Father (Heb 9:23-28).It is the word used in the Greek translation of the New Testament (Septuagint) to describe the “Mercy seat.” The Mercy Seat was the solid gold top of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark sat in the Holy of Holies and contained the stone tablets on which were written the “Ten Commandments” – the law of God. The mercy seat as the lid to the Ark occupied a position between the divine presence (the Shekinah glory cloud) and the law of God inside the Ark.
Remember the law was given not to save man but to reveal to man his need to be saved. Paul stated it very clearly in Gal 3:24 when he said, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” The Ark of the Covenant sat in the most restricted portion of the Temple – the Holy of Holies. No one could enter, a veil blocked the entrance, because no one was worthy, and everyone was condemned by the law. But on one day a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest, was allowed to enter the Holy place and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. The Old Testament practice for the Day of Atonement is outline in Leviticus 16:15-16, “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, ….and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. (16) So he shall make atone-ment for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel.”
On the Biblical Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the sins of the people are confessed before God. The key part of the ceremony is when two goats are brought forward. Lots are cast. One goat is slain and its blood is sprinkled on the Mercy Seat to show that the sins of the people were covered.
The second goat is called the scapegoat. The priest placed both hands on this goat, confessed the sins of the people, and then the goat was led out into the desert and released. This goat symbolized the removal of sin and God’s wrath from the community.
John says that this is what Jesus does for us every time we sin. He dies as our substitute and He is the one who makes us right again with God. So it would be literally correct to say that Christ is our Mercy Seat, Christ is our Yom Kippur.
In fact the Apostle Paul picks up on this idea in Romans 3:25 and says, “Jesus is our Propitiation” (literally Christ is our Mercy Seat). It is through His shed blood that we can enter into fellowship with God. His blood is not just a payment for our sin. It is the bridge that affords a brand new relation-ship with God. The veil was torn in the Temple upon the death of Jesus (Matt 27:51). He who had died once for all time for sin (Heb 10:12), removed the wall of separation between God and man.
In the last part of verse two, John tells us that Jesus was the payment for the “sins of the whole world”. He is not saying that everyone is going to Heaven. There are many other places in the Bible that make that clearly not the case. What John was saying is that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for people from everywhere in the world. He is the Savior for all who will trust Him.
Conclusion
In conclusion I want to ask and answer two compelling questions. First, “Can we as believers have victory over sin?”
As believers we should have as a goal not to sin and yet we have the reality that we are going to sin. The New Testament makes it clear that Christians are no longer slaves to sin, if we sin, when we sin, it is because we choose too. What John wants to remind the believer is that we have the spiritual means to have victory over sin. Paul stated the case in Romans 6:12-14 when said, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. (13) And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present your-selves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (14) For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” While we will never attain sinless perfection in this life, we can and must live with consistent victory over sin!
The second question is, “How could a loving God send people to Hell?” The answer of course is that He doesn’t. He sent His only son to be the propitiation (covering for the sins of the world.) Jesus says, “You can go to Hell if you want to but it will be my dead body – over my shed blood!”
We Have An Advocate With The Father”
1 John 2:1-2
John uses three terms to describe how can approach God.
First, He is Our _______________.
This word means - “one who comes alongside to help” - when the term is used in a legal sense we think of a _________ attorney. Jesus Christ is at the throne of God to represent us as Satan was there accusing us. (Hebrews 7:25)
Secondly, He is The ____________One.
No ordinary man would ever do as a ___________, a mere man could only pay for his own sins, he could never take your place and pay for your sins. But God in human flesh could!
Third, He is Our ________________. (v. 2)
“propitiation” - means satisfaction or appeasement
John Stott - “an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God.”
On the Biblical Day of ________ (Yom Kippur) (Leviticus 16:15-16) blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat to cover the sins of the nation of Israel.
Christ is our ____________, Christ is our Yom Kippur. He died as our substitute - He is the one who makes us right again with God.
