83. Christ Our Advocate
Christ Our Advocate But not only are we helpless, but there may come times when we are tripped into actual sin. Christ is therefore our Advocate, having gone into heaven “now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24).
John writes to God’s children that we “sin not.” But knowing Satan’s subtlety and our helplessness, he tells us that “if any (saved) man sin, we have an advocate with the Father (not with the Judge), Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). In this work Christ does not continue to atone for sins, for that work He finished on the cross. Instead He meets every accusation of Satan, who accuses us before God day and night (Revelation 12:10), by His presence before God in His death-scarred body, which shows that He has already suffered the full penalty in our stead for every sin we fall into.
“Five bleeding wounds He bears, Received on Calvary:
They pour effectual prayers, They strongly plead for me:
‘Forgive him, oh, forgive,’ they cry;
‘Nor let that ransomed sinner die.’” No accusation against any child of God can ever pass that nail-scarred and spear-marked body! What a salvation! No wonder Paul cried out in ecstasy: “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15), nor that Peter saw abundant reason for the saved to “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8), for ours is a salvation so perfect that no power in the universe can ever touch it. As our Advocate, Christ says everything for us before God, and nothing against us, just as an attorney on earth does for his client. For while everything is against us in ourselves, yet He has taken it upon Himself and answered perfectly for it all, and so, “if God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). And as our Intercessor, none of us will ever know until we reach heaven what terrible dangers and overwhelming trials His prayers for us have delivered us from. It is because of these prayers that nothing comes into our lives through the aperture of God’s permission except what He can use to make us more like Him. And that is why the Holy Spirit moves Paul to write to us: “In everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Is such a salvation worth having? If you are not saved, does the desire rise up within your heart to be lifted out of your slavery to sin and your dread of eternity, into a rest, joy and peace so perfect that no power in the universe can ever disturb it? Then you are ready to learn how to receive Him who is Himself our eternal life. The instructions on how to be saved are very simple and very short. Indeed they are so easy that many miss the way because they think it is too simple to accomplish the result. Naaman nearly missed the cure of his leprosy because the prescription was so simple to carry out that he wanted a harder thing to do (2 Kings 5:11-14). But it is impossible to make a hard thing out of accepting a gift!
God’s Word to us on how to be saved is—“Believe;”just that and nothing else. Almost one hundred times in the Gospel of John, to say nothing of the rest of the New Testament, this word occurs in connection with receiving salvation. The first three Gospels end with Israel rejecting Christ and the world not knowing Him. Then comes the fourth Gospel in which John begins by saying that as many as received Him, “to them gave he the power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). And he ends his Gospel by saying: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30-31).
John is also the one to tell us that the only sin of which the Holy Spirit ever convicts the sinner is that of not believing. (See John 16:9). Indeed, no one but the Holy Spirit ever could convince anyone that failure to believe is a sin.
Recall also the story of the frightened jailer in Philippi, after an earthquake had released all his prisoners (Acts 16:25-34). He came in trembling before Paul and Silas and cried out: “What must I do to be saved?” And Paul answered simply: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”