Exploring 1 John: We Have an Advocate!
1 John 2:1-3 - If you need a good defense attorney, ask the righteous Son of God!
”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; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.“
1 John 2:1-2 NASB1995
John starts chapter two of his treatise showing his concern and love for the believers. He is an elder statesman of the early church at this late point in his lifetime. All of his believers are his little children, which I find completely endearing. The “Son of Thunder” is now peaceful, wise, and awaiting his eternal reunion with his beloved Jesus. Historians believe that this epistle was written not long before the Revelation of Jesus, which came to John on the island of Patmos, where he was exiled from Ephesus by the Emperor Diocletian. Of course Wikipedia will lecture us that this cannot be the same John as the Disciple and author of the Gospel. I prefer to believe in Occam’s Razor (the simplest solution) and am quite happy considering this to be the same John. It feels right, somehow!
John is expecting the flock to not sin. God does not give us a path to sin freely, then be in His grace. But John also knows that people will sin, so he tells us we have an Advocate to the Father with Jesus. Word study time!! Advocate comes from the Greek word παράκλητος or paráklētos, with the following Biblical usages (we have studied this word before, students, but let’s look again):
summoned, called to one's side, esp. called to one's aid
one who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate
one who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor
of Christ in his exaltation at God's right hand, pleading with God the Father for the pardon of our sins
in the widest sense, a helper, succourer, aider, assistant
of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles (after his ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom
Jesus is the advocate and arbiter of our sins with His Father! I really like this commentary from Enduring Word:
We have an Advocate: Jesus is our defender, even when we sin now. God is not shocked by human behavior. He has seen it all in advance. He didn’t forgive us at one time to later say, “Look what they did now! If I would have known they would go and do that, I would have never forgiven them.” His forgiveness is available to us now.
It is as if we stand as the accused in the heavenly court, before our righteous Judge, God the Father. Our Advocate stands up to answer the charges: “He is completely guilty your honor. In fact, he has even done worse than what he is accused of, and now makes full and complete confession before You.” The gavel slams, and the Judge asks, “What should his sentence be?” Our Advocate answers, “His sentence shall be death; he deserves the full wrath of this righteous court.” All along, our accuser Satan, is having great fun at all this. We are guilty! We admit our guilt! We see our punishment! But then, our Advocate asks to approach the bench. As he draws close to the Judge, he simply says: “Dad, this one belongs to Me. I paid his price. I took the wrath and punishment from this court that he deserves.” The gavel sounds again, and the Judge cries out, “Guilty as charged! Penalty satisfied!” Our accuser starts going crazy. “Aren’t you even going to put him on probation?” “No!” the Judge shouts. “The penalty has been completely paid by My Son. There is nothing to put him on probation for.” Then the Judge turns to our Advocate, and says, “Son, you said this one belongs to You. I release him into Your care. Case closed!”
We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: We may think that our sin sets God against us. But God’s love is so great that in His love, He went to the ultimate measure to make us able to stand in the face of His holy righteousness. Through Jesus, God can be for us even when we are guilty sinners.
A human defense lawyer argues for the innocence of his client. But our Advocate, Jesus Christ, admits our guilt – and then enters His plea on our behalf, as the one who has made an atoning sacrifice for our sinful guilt.
Jesus Christ the righteous means that Jesus is fully qualified to serve as our Advocate, because He Himself is sinlessly perfect. He has passed heaven’s bar exam, and is qualified to represent clients in heaven’s court of law.
We need Jesus as our Advocate because Satan accuses us before God (Revelation 12:10). We need to distinguish between the condemning accusation of Satan and the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Not only is Jesus our Advocate, pulling us from the waters of drowning in our sin, He was the propitiation for our sin. According to the Greek, propitiation comes from the word ἱλασμός or hilasmós, with the following Biblical usages:
an appeasing, propitiating
the means of appeasing, a propitiation
Well, that’s not very useful. Another source I looked at described it as satisfaction or a remedy for God’s wrath. That’s more useful! Not only has Jesus done this for YOU, he has done it for the entire world! So for a better answer on propitiation, here is what Gotquestions.org says about this wonderful act:
The word propitiation is used in several verses to explain what Jesus accomplished through His death on the cross. For example, in Romans 3:24-25 believers in Christ have been “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” These verses are a key point in Paul’s argument in the book of Romans and are really at the heart of the gospel message.
In the first three chapters of Romans, Paul makes the argument that everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is under the condemnation of God and deserving of His wrath (Romans 1:18). Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All of us deserve His wrath and punishment. God in His infinite grace and mercy has provided a way that His wrath can be appeased and we can be reconciled to Him. That way is through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ, as the payment for sins. It is through faith in Jesus Christ as God’s perfect sacrifice that we can be reconciled to God. It is only because of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day that a lost sinner deserving of hell can be reconciled to a holy God. The wonderful truth of the gospel is that Christians are saved from God’s wrath and reconciled to God not because “we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The only way for God’s wrath against sinful man to be appeased and for us to be reconciled to God is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. This truth is also communicated in 1 John 2:2, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” An important part of Christ’s saving work is deliverance from God’s wrath; Jesus’ propitiation on the cross is the only thing that can turn away God’s divine condemnation of sin. Those who reject Christ as their Savior and refuse to believe in Him have no hope of salvation. They can only look forward to facing the wrath of God that they have stored up for the coming day of judgment (Romans 2:5). There is no other propitiation or sacrifice that can be made for their sins.
We can hear these messages but do we really hear them? Jesus is the path for reconciliation with God! How many times can we say it, but still struggle? Christians can’t be sinless, but we can sin less, with the help of our Advocate.
My next devotional examines 1 John 2: 3-6 - If we know Him we will keep His commandments.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I cannot thank you enough for being my advocate before Your Father. You are the Perfect defense attorney for the sinful beings that look to You for propitiation! Amen!
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 4/6/2024 to review the lexicon for advocate and propitiation.
Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 4/6/2024 to review the answer to the question “what is propitiation”?