Christ Our Advocate #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. That brings us to point number two. The second problem is Jesus, the defense attorney here. Second problem with that view, which I already alluded to, is that the attorney view violates the context.

It violates the context, beloved. Look at our verse again. John says, "'My little children, I'm 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.'"

This is a simple observation. But beloved, look at the verse...look at the verse. John does not say we have an advocate before God the judge. He says that we have an advocate with God the Father. He's invoking the figure of God as a father, not as God the judge here. Look back at 1 John chapter 1 verse 3 where he states that his whole purpose is to promote fellowship with the Father. He says, "'We proclaim to you what we've seen and heard so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.'" He states from the beginning that his purpose is to promote and enhance our common life with God the Father. Beloved, he's talking about a family relationship here, not a courtroom setting.

Beloved, why do I need an attorney with my father? That doesn't fit the usage that John is making here in my judgment. He's talking about God as our Father, the one in whom we have spiritual lineage, the one who has given us spiritual life. He's not using the courtroom metaphor here. He says it's an advocate with the Father. If the defense attorney view was right, I would expect him to be saying an advocate with the judge.

That's not what he says. Now there's a third problem with the attorney view that makes me skeptical about its accuracy. Third problem is this, the attorney view violates good theology...good theology. Listen, beloved, when you think of a judge, you think of someone in a black robe up front designed to impartially judge the case and to weigh the comparative merits and then render a decision. When you call Jesus a defense attorney in the throne room of heaven, you invariably, inevitably create some kind of sense that the Father is somehow reluctant to grant forgiveness, that He's got to weigh the merits of this and then make up His mind. That's what a judge does. He weighs merits and then he renders a decision. One writer who actually holds to the defense attorney view summarizes the problem this way. He says, this picture of Jesus as a defense attorney in the judge metaphor, the courtroom scene, this picture is in danger of presenting God as an unwilling judge from whom forgiveness has to be rested, wrestled with by the advocate for sinners. So Jesus under this view, where this view takes you inevitably, even if it's just simply in the recesses of your own heart as you're confessing sin in a broken penitent spirit, it leaves in your mind the sense that maybe God is reluctant to do it.

Maybe He's got His arms folded across His chest. Let me hear the case first and then I'll decide. No! No! No!

Absolutely not! We can't tolerate that view, despite how good the men are that have proclaimed it over the decades. Beloved, nothing could be further from the truth where that takes you. Now in fairness to the men, they wouldn't portray God that way. But that's where their view leads. That's what it sets in your mind, what it sets in your heart. And my responsibility today for your spiritual well-being is to purge that from your mind and help you to see that that's the wrong way to think of God as a believer. Nothing about that could be further from the truth. Get this because we're talking about good theology now.

This is the problem that we're now trying to address. Beloved, get this, God the Father and God the Son are both motivated by love in the matter of your salvation. It's not like Jesus really loves us and He's got to talk the Father into it.

No, they both were motivated eternally by love for the elect to save them and preserve them all the way to glory. Look at chapter 3 verse 16. I want you to see this right in the context of 1 John because you see what was in the mind of John as he wrote the entire letter. First John chapter 3 verse 16, speaking about God the Son.

This is so precious. He says, we know love by this, but He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Beloved, who was it that laid down His life on your behalf? Jesus Christ, God the Son. The Apostle John writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, let me tell you what love looks like. Look at God the Son laying down His life voluntarily on a cross on your behalf.

There's love. He says, God the Son, motivated by love in the matter of your salvation. Now get this, chapter 4 verse 10...chapter 4 verse 10.

Beloved, I am just reading Scripture to you. Chapter 4 verse 10, in this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Clearly speaking about God the Father because God the Father sent the Son, the Son is distinguished from God in this verse. God the Son, God the Father, God the Father loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to be the sacrifice which would turn away the wrath of God that otherwise would fall upon our heads. Beloved, right in the epistle of 1 John, it says, Jesus the Son loved us in our salvation. And it says, God the Father loved us and sent Him to achieve our salvation. Beloved, there is no conflict in purpose between God the Father and God the Son. They were both animated by eternal electing love before the foundation of the world to set into motion the chain of events that would lead to your salvation.

They're on the same side. God the Son is on your side when you sin. That's why He came, He laid down His life to forgive your sins. And beloved, praise God, God the Father loves you and is on your side as well.

They both equally seek our welfare. God the Father is not an unwilling judge when you're confessing sin. He is a willing Father who loves you and is ready to pour out forgiveness, indeed forgiveness that is already settled and accomplished. And beloved, I think the defense attorney view obscures that reality and that's why I differ with good men on the way to understand it. Beloved, you've got to see that God the Father and God the Son love you and that the whole point of salvation was a manifestation of the love that is a central feature of their character. John 5 24 says, when you believe, you've passed out of judgment and into life. Now, okay, you say, all right, all right, all right, all right, enough already.

I believe you, I see what you're saying, it's not the defense attorney view. That still doesn't tell me what this means. What does it mean then?

Well here's what I think about that. Point number three is that Jesus is the High Priest who helps us before the Father. Jesus is the High Priest who helps us before the Father.

Now, if John is not talking about a legal atmosphere here, what is he describing? Well the context surrounding this verse 1, the context is the language of sacrifice. Look at verse 7, at the end of verse 7 where it says, the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. Blood poured out in a violent death is a sacrifice to God. That blood continually cleanses us from all sin. In verse 2 he says, He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.

We'll look at this more next week. But He's the atoning sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God. The context then suggests a sacrifice being offered on your behalf. And the sacrifice, when you talk about a sacrifice in connection with the idea of an advocate, an intercessor, a mediator, when you talk about it in that context, the picture more rightly suggests a priest who intercedes on our behalf, Jesus being that one and only priest.

Now stay with me here. The Bible, and we'll look at verses very soon, the Bible calls Christ our High Priest. Now in the simplest of terms, a priest is someone who represents people before God. A priest in that representative capacity offers sacrifice on behalf of them, on behalf of the ones that he represents. And then based on his sacrifice, he intercedes before them in his God-appointed role as their representative, as the one who bridges the gap, as it were, between people and God.

That's the idea of priesthood in general. Beloved, that is the sense in which Christ is our advocate, our intercessor. And I want to take you to some passages in Hebrew that we'll just read far too quickly to help reinforce this idea that I think explains in detail what John said in such a short synopsis here in the opening verses of his epistle. Look at Hebrews chapter 7, beginning in verse 25. I'm just going to read four or five passages here very quickly, remembering that in 1 John he talks about Christ as our intercessor in the presence of the Father, one who is with the Father, interceding for us.

These passages from Hebrews open up the meaning of that to us. Chapter 7 verse 25, speaking of Jesus, actually in verse 24 it says, Jesus on the other hand because He continues forever holds His priesthood permanently, therefore He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens who does not need daily like those High Priests to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. The sacrifice that Jesus offers in the presence of the Father was Himself. He laid down His life at the cross. That was His sacrifice that brought us to God. Chapter 9 verse 11, when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this creation and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood He entered the holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption. Verse 24, Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us, in God's presence for us on our behalf. Oh, how great this is!

How precious! Chapter 10 verse 14, by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Finally verse 19 through 22, therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, and since we have a great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Beloved, that's the picture that I believe that John is presenting here. Jesus Christ as a High Priest, having offered His life as a sacrifice for our sins, God having accepted that sacrifice in full once for all, now Jesus in His ascension entered into heaven in order to represent us in the presence of God, having offered the sacrifice of His own life to effect a permanent, eternal reconciliation with God. Beloved, that sacrifice was once for all. There's no more argument going on about it. They're not arguing about this anymore. They never were arguing about it. They, meaning God the Father and God the Son, they were always unified.

They were never set against each other. Beloved, listen to me. Thinking about your battle with sin and a guilty conscience as a sincere believer who wants holiness but knows that you're falling short, beloved, God the Father has accepted the finished sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross so completely that even your sins as a believer are not a barrier to fellowship with Him. The joint purpose of love between God the Father and God the Son toward you has been accomplished.

It's settled. Christ's death has turned away the wrath of God forever. Now on the basis of that sacrifice, Christ represents you in heaven and helps you before the holiness of God. He's not making a repeated intercession in the sense that something new happens each time you sin. Rather, John is describing a settled intercession, a complete intercession based on Christ's once for all sacrifice. Jesus Himself stands before God as your helper and representative, having forever removed the barrier of sin that otherwise would have hindered your fellowship with a holy God which is what John writes to promote. A high priest, not a defense attorney, a high priest who intercedes based on a perfect sacrifice that he made and which carries eternal value in the throne room of God on your behalf, beloved, you individually. You want a picture that will seal this intercession to your mind?

Turn back to a section of the Bible that you have trouble staying awake when you read on it sometimes. Exodus chapter 28, this is a picture to help you see the reality of Christ's representation of you in heaven. In the Old Testament, the high priest wore garments that symbolized His intercession for the people. There were stones, it was an elaborate garment. They carried much symbolic value that helps us get a picture of what the work of Christ is like on our behalf.

Now in Exodus chapter 28, God is giving commandment to Moses on the preparation of the garments of the priests. And look at verse 9, he says, you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel. Six of their names on one stone, six on the other, verse 10. Verse 12, you shall put the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for a memorial. So when Aaron the high priest entered into the holy place where the presence of God was dwelling, he carried on his shoulders the names engraved of the tribes of Israel on these stones.

But that's not all. Look at chapter 28 verses 28 and 29. Another garment, the breast piece, had a similar symbolism. Exodus 28 verse 28, they shall bind the breast piece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord so that it will be on the skillfully woven band of the ephod. Verse 29, Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment over his heart when he enters the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually.

There were other jewels on which the names of the tribes were written. And so on his shoulders, in his priestly garments, on his shoulders he had the names of the son of Israel. On the breast piece of judgment, he carried the names of the son of Israel over his heart. And so when he entered into the holy place, the high priest carried their names with him as he represented them before the father in this Old Testament picture that God had for Israel. As he did his work of intercessions, their names were written on him.

He carried their names on the strength of his shoulders and over the affections of his heart. David, that is a picture of the way Jesus Christ represents you before the father. Jesus Christ bears the names of His elect on the strength of His omnipotence and in the love of His heart before God the Father in heaven, all guaranteed in its adequacy and in its sufficiency based on the power of His sacrifice on the cross, He now carries the names of everyone who believes in Him up into heaven and represents them and defends you and intercedes for you based on His illimitable strength and on the infinite love of His glorious heart.

Your name, beloved, inscribed, as it were, on the very affections of everything that He is about. John says that that...that is the kind of help that you have in heaven when you sin as a believer. God accepts you not on the basis of any merit that you have. His attitude doesn't fluctuate up and down like your pursuit of sanctification does, it's settled, beloved, it's settled. It's settled because Christ's work is settled, because His appearance in heaven is settled. Christ is there as our settled intercessor and helper before God. And God the Father accepts Him.

That's what He wanted, that's what He planned from the very beginning. This is too glorious for words. Beloved, listen to me.

I wish I had heard these things years ago. It would have saved me so much grief and discouragement. Jesus' intercession assures you that God will always favorably receive you when you approach Him to confess your sins. God is satisfied with Christ. Christ names you as His own. And so God accepts you based on Christ's merit, based on Christ's work. Those matters are settled, beloved. They don't come up for review each time you sin.

These are settled. And so if you came here today, beloved, as a Christian who has fallen into sin and you feel the guilt and anxiety that that brings, these words could not be any sweeter to you than what they are. You can find relief, certain confident relief for your guilty conscience at the throne of grace. God will receive your confession unfailingly because He is satisfied with Christ and Christ represents you in heaven. You have an advocate, one who maintains your cause before the Father. Beloved, what can I say? Go to Jesus.

Go to the Father. He will receive you. That is why Jesus came.

He came to save sinners and to preserve them all the way to glory. Beloved, dwell in the vain regrets of sin. Just pursue the settled resistance to sin with a sincere confession that says, Lord, I confess this sin, I completely trust Christ to represent me before You and my heart desire is to live out a life of gratitude that bears the fruit of true repentance, Father.

I trust You because I trust Christ. Beloved, that kind of prayer is a prayer that God promises to receive based on the merits of Christ. Go to Him, beloved, trust Him and glorify this great Christ who purchased such a great salvation.

Let's pray. As we pray and as we open, if you're not a Christian, this gift of God's salvation is available to you, that perfect work of Christ is available if you'll believe in Him. Based on that same sacrifice for sin, I invite you to come to Christ and find the forgiveness of your sins if you don't know Him. Father, we thank You for the plan of salvation that You implemented and designed out of Your own eternal love.

It was Your love that sent Christ. Lord Jesus, we thank You for offering the sacrifice of Your own life that settles the matter of our forgiveness forever. When You said it is finished on the cross, You meant it.

It is finished. Reconciliation for those of us that believe in You is fully accomplished and we're amazed at the wonder of the glory of that. Unworthy sinners reconciled to God in the merit of Christ forever. Oh God, we honor You, we worship You and from the depths of our unworthy hearts, we thank You for what You have done on our behalf and we look forward to that glorious day when the faith of all of this becomes sight and we experience the fullness of that reconciliation face to face. Bless us as we go, Father. Thank You for Your goodness to us, which words cannot measure and tongues cannot tell.

In Jesus' name, amen. My friend, there is no substitute for reading the Word of God for yourself and spending the time day by day going through the Bible in a systematic way so that you have a full exposure to everything that the Word of God says. It's remarkable the way the Spirit of God works through the Word to minister to our hearts in that way. To help you do that, we have a couple of different Bible reading plans available on our website, thetruthpulpit.com. If you would go to thetruthpulpit.com, click on the link that says About, you'll find a sublink there that takes you to two different Bible reading plans that you can choose from. It's free, it's there available to help you in your reading of God's Word, and I know that the Spirit of God will use that in your life if you're not used to reading God's Word on a regular, systematic basis. Make this the day that you start something new and move in that direction, and join us again next time here on The Truth Pulpit as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.