"We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous"
A closer look at 1 John 2:1.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. - 1 John 2:1 (ESV)
Introduction
The book of 1 John is an incredible book of the Bible that gives us some amazing verses like:
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. - 1 John 1:9 (ESV)
This an amazing verse and I can’t imagine the Bible not containing this amazing truth.
We are also given some important reminders about “practicing righteousness.” For example, we read in 1 John 2:29:
29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. - 1 John 2:29 (ESV)
Verses like these remind us of the importance of living a life that honors Christ and remind us that this is something we have to “practice.” This comes through the power of the Holy Spirit and requires perseverance and is not something that we will somehow perfect.
But despite these amazing verses that point us back to the gift of faith that comes from God, there are also a couple in this book that have troubled me and have caused me believe the lie “I have to be good enough to earn my salvation.”
Here is an example from 1 John 2:3-4:
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. - 1 John 2:3-4 (ESV)
If you pick up a Bible, open it to this passage and start reading here, you feel the tension. The verses seem to say that if we know Jesus, the result is that we will be perfect (“keep his commandments”). And if we say that do “know him,” but we aren’t perfect, then we are simply liars.
To be clear, there is some tension that is supposed to be created with this passage. We should read these verses and examine our lives because if we do know Jesus Christ, our lives should be changed. And if we don’t see the change - or see the work in progress - that should be a warning sign.
The “problem” with these verses, however, is context. My “works based” mentality would see passages like this and immediately run back to “I have to be perfect in order to save myself.” And that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
These verses caused a struggle for years until the Lord in His kindness allowed me to stumbled across 1 John 2:1 several years back. I was on a cross-country airplane trip traveling to accompany my college-aged daughter to a conference. It was a particularly dark time in my life and someone had passed along a short book about 1 John and I worked my way through during the flight.
Though I had read 1 John 2:1 many times during my Christian life, for some reason the message it contained became illuminated to me in a fresh way and it became a great encouragement to me.
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin”
The book of 1 John was written by the Apostle John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and in these first words of chapter 2 we get an idea of the affection he held for the original audience of this letter. He refers to them as “my little children,” a clear indication that he wants the message he is delivering to be received as children would receive a message from loving parents.
And the first part of is message is not such an easy one. It is both a warning and a command: “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” He is not going with the flow of the world - sometimes known as “kids will be kids” - and ignoring the danger of sin. No, he wants the effect of the message he is sending to be that his audience avoids sin.
He doesn’t want the audience to sin - whatever that sin might be - but he also wants the audience to live a life that is warned and wary of sin in general.
“But if anyone does sin”
“But if anyone does sin.”
This phrase isn’t the most amazing part of this verse - that comes next - but it is an amazing passage. Especially for someone who thinks they have to work their way to God.
God is not providing an excuse for us to sin. He is not saying that He is okay with sin. He’s not saying He will turn a blind eye to sin.
But, the reality is that sinful mankind will sin. We are going to sin in word, deed and thought and, unfortunately, we are doing to do this prolifically. Even the most incredibly “good person” likely sins at least three times per day and what is added up over a year that’s almost 1,000 sins. When that number is multiplied over a lifetime, the number of sins is staggering. The average 40 year old has sinned about 40,000 times - and that is for a “really good” person.
Given this perspective, it seems that the fatherly Apostle John is being gentle with the audience here. Instead of reminding us “when we sin thousands of times,” he gently notes “if anyone sins.”
Ultimately, he is delivering great news to us, if we know Jesus Christ and we sin.
If we know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and then “if anyone does sin,” - which is going to happen - there is help for us.
“We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”
What is this help we have?
If (when) we sin, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
This is incredible news. This is the gospel.
Let’s look at this news in three parts.
Advocate
The first thing John tells us is that we have an advocate and when we read the whole verse we know that this advocate is Jesus Christ.
Internet dictionaries tell that the word advocate means someone who speaks on behalf of someone else, or to represent someone who needs help.
That is the idea being presented here by John, that when we sin, we have someone who will speak on our behalf, or someone who will represent us because we really need help.
Jesus Christ Himself is our advocate. He is doing this work for us. He is representing us because we need help. And to say we need help in our situation, is quite the understatement.
Father
Why do we need help?
We need help because when we sin - and as detailed above even the best of people are prolific sinners - we sin against God the Father. We sin against God Almighty who is holy and righteous. When we sin, we break God’s law and deserve the punishment He promises. As we are reminded in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.”
When we sin, we get what we deserve. In the same manner that a worker should be paid for his wages when he works, it would be unfair (and would violate who God is) if we sinned against Him without consequence. And as we are reminded by Jesus Himself, God has not only the authority to send us to hell, He also has the ability to do so:
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. - Matthew 10:28 (ESV)
Indeed, our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29) His essence is holiness and perfection and He is, indeed, the opposite of sin. He hates sin, wants no fellowship with it, and because of His nature, is forced to give an accounting for sin. We should not take Him, His power or His promises lightly.
The Righteous
This Jesus Christ, who is our advocate, is also described by the Apostle John as “the righteous.” We have an advocate with the Father who is righteous.
But what does this mean?
Let’s start with the fact that Jesus is God. Because of this, He also shares the divine attributes of the Father (and the Holy Spirit), namely He is also holy and perfect. And perfect is another way of describing being righteous.
Jesus was also fully man. We know this because He came from heaven and walked among us. He was born of a virgin, led a sinless life, fulfilled all aspects of the law, and thus was eligible to serve as the perfect sacrifice to God for the sins of all people.
He was unjustly crucified and after He was dead, He was buried in a tomb. Three days later, He was resurrected, signifying His victory over sin and death. Forty days later, after appearing to many people, He ascended back to heaven.
Jesus Christ the righteous now stands before God in our place.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
When we sin - and we all sin - and if we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, when God the Father looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He sees us, He just doesn’t see our sinful condition. Instead, He sees the work of Jesus Christ.
Application
The ramifications of this are stunning. They are life changing.
This verse does not give us permission to sin. There is nothing in the Bible that does that. Doing so would equate to giving permission to nail Jesus to the cross. Having that opinion of sin would be gross and morbid.
Instead, we are called to follow Jesus, to let Him be our Lord in addition to being our Savior. And when something is our lord, we do what that lord says. In this case, our lord is a good God. He is patient and kind. He is love. He wants us to love others and to look out for them. He wants us to forgive as we have been forgiven. He wants us to take the narrow road that leads to life.
And when we stumble along this journey, He says it is okay. We aren’t kicked off of the team. We aren’t disqualified. We aren’t tossed away. No, when we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.
