We have an advocate: don’t forget your future

I am excited because I am a child of the king. There is no one truly in the kingdom that means me any harm and there is no one outside the kingdom that has the power to harm me because I am constantly defended by my friend Jesus.

But Jesus is more than just a friend. He fills many needs and performs many roles in my life. One of those roles is as my advocate, or lawyer, and it is this role that we will discuss in relationship to our future.

When the Christian considers his future, there are two aspects that come to mind. There is the here and now and the heavenly future. Our conduct in the first effects whether or not we reach the second. I believe it is necessary that we start with the understanding that Jesus’ work as advocate is in the here and now and not in the heavenly future.

In I John 2:1 we read, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: ” This statement is present tense. It is something we now possess. It is something we can presently count on as being valid and active. It shows an ever present advocate named Jesus in the lives of Christians.

Not so many centuries ago man became separated from God because of sin. We all know and understand this. We also know from Isaiah 59:1,2 and similar scriptures that it is always sin that separates us from our God. It is Christ as our advocate that approaches the Father on our behalf to seek our forgiveness. Since He also is the payment for those sins (1 John 2:2) He is able to effectively accomplish achieving our forgiveness each and every time He approaches the Father on our behalf. God has never refused to grant any request that Jesus has made in His role as advocate. What we need to understand is how to get Christ to approach the Father on our behalf. We will discuss that shortly.

First I want us to realize fully that Christ’s work as our advocate ends when we enter the grave. His pleas are for the here and now. If we have been forgiven of our sins and kept pure by the blood of Christ, when we leave this world we will be spotless and no longer have need of Christ’s services as advocate. He will have done his job and done it well. If we leave with sin on our record, we will be lost and He will not plead for us at judgment. He will instead condemn us because we failed to take advantage of His grace and services as advocate while we were in this life. There is no forgiveness after death, only judgment.

How then do I properly respond to Christ as my advocate? First, of course, I must be in His church or body. Ephesians 5:23 tells me He is the savior of the body and many scriptures tell me that the body is the church (Ephesians 1:22,23 5:23,32 Colossians 1:18,24). Secondly, I must seek His help to achieve my forgiveness (I John 1:7-9). I do this through first repenting of sin and then filling my life with prayer, part of which is for forgiveness for sins which I have given up and for which I am truly sorry. Immediately Jesus springs into action and approaches the Father on my behalf. He shows that I am penitent and then He applies the wealth of His sacrifice to my account and the balance, by grace, is paid in full. But Jesus responds only after we take the proper steps to reconcile with God and abandon sin.

We should be reminded that as long as we are walking in the light, that is living the Christian life, Jesus is constantly active in our lives. Our forgiveness comes quicker than the telling of it here in this paragraph. What a wonderful advocate we have in Jesus Christ.

We should also remember that Jesus is constantly on call. Access to Jesus through prayer is like having our own toll-free 1-800 number open seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. He is always there for us if we will simply take advantage of His sacrifice and services on our behalf.

This understanding of the ever presence of Christ in our lives should bring us much comfort and freedom from worry. We need to learn to trust in His forgiveness and dispel any doubts about the limit of His power to forgive. There is no limit except that of the non-penitent heart.

Let us take a minute now to kick around the idea of worry. I want to include this discussion now because I’m worried that if I wait until later I might forget and leave it out entirely. (Just a little demonstration of how worry works). I suppose I could also worry about whether or not this is the proper place to discuss worry and whether or not I will do an adequate job discussing it. If I were to worry enough along these lines I would probably abandon writing this book altogether.

Worry is a destructive force. Some years ago I was passing through Kansas and stopped into the local congregation to worship. In the Bible study one woman stated that she realized that an hour didn’t go by in our lives that we did not sin and she was worried that she would die without forgiveness because she might not get to pray about all these sins before she died. Her philosophy would almost demand that she die while in prayer to have any hope.

There are two problems with her thinking that I pointed out then and would like to discuss now. First, the idea that we cannot live an hour without sin is absurd. There is no Bible for that idea. It is neither Biblical nor logical. John clearly indicates in his epistles that we can live free from sin generally and that when sin does enter we have an advocate, Jesus Christ. Logically, one should clearly see that he should be able to last at least two hours during worship, and if two then more than two. It is reasonable that we might go long periods of time without sin (Paul preached until midnight, probably without sin). The question, though, is not how long we can go without sin but what happens when sin does take place. That brings us again to our advocate, Jesus Christ.

Secondly, there is demonstrated clearly a doubt about the ability of Jesus to perform as advocate and keep us clean to be presented in eternity to the Father as the bride of Christ, pure and spotless. There should no doubt arise here. Jesus can and will keep us pure as long as we are His faithful disciples.

Before we go too far on our discussion of worry, let us consider two scriptures. The first is Philippians 4:6,7. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”.

This is a very positive scripture and contains great comfort; not the false comfort produced by false teachers but the true comfort produced by God’s divine promise. We can have assurance of forgiveness and sonship through prayer and total trust in Jesus. There is no need to worry according to this passage. There is, after all, a vast difference between worry and watchfulness.

The other scripture is found in Jesus great sermon recorded by Matthew. In Matthew 6:31-34 we read, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

This scripture, among other things, teaches us to seek after righteousness and not allow ourselves to be consumed by worry. God know us and our needs and will provide as He wills. All that is important is our relationship to Him which is established through our advocate, Jesus Christ.

Another practice I have witnessed (on more than one occasion) was Christians passing the Lord’s supper on the first day of the week and not participating in this feast. Upon inquiry they told me that they were not worthy to take of the feast because of something in their lives. What a tragic misunderstanding of Christ’s power on our behalf. Many of these people were sorry for their sin (whatever it was) but doubted their forgiveness. We must never doubt the power of Christ’s atoning blood in our lives. Jesus is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins” and we must always believe in that or Christianity will become meaningless to us. Christianity was never intended to convict us of sin only but to also cleanse us of it. There is no doubt necessary in the power of our advocate, Jesus Christ. He can and will save the penitent child of God from the horrors and consequences of sin.

One last scripture for our consideration is Romans 6:9-11. “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Our salvation is assured through Christ as long as we walk with Him in all that we do. The salvation of the saints is an unquestionable surety.

We have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous.