OUR HEAVENLY ADVOCATE (2:1-2)

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:

• What do you conceive Christ’s role to be, now He’s ascended? Is He sitting passively waiting, or is He active in our sanctification?

• What is an advocate? How are they like, and how are they different from, a priest?

• What’s the difference between atonement and propitiation?

• What do you see as the ultimate purpose of salvation?

• Can anyone be saved, or only those God calls?

NOTES ON THE PASSAGE:

Having talked about the reality of sinning even once we are born again, John's readers might have thought that sinning was inevitable and therefore not something to beat oneself up about. In the time of the Temple's existence, every year on Yom Kippur the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies and covered the 'mercy seat' - the golden lid of the Ark - with the blood of a bull. That 'made atonement' so that God, who dwelt above the Ark, no longer saw their sins against the Ten Commandments hidden in the box; and they could start again with a clean slate. But the ceremony had to be repeated each year and thus actually served as a reminder that at heart they continued to be sinners!

John doesn’t want his readers to misunderstand him as minimising sin and the reality of our sinful hearts. But his purpose in writing is 'so that you may not sin'. He is moving on from the negative to the positive - that Christ has destroyed the power of sin, as well as its penalty and pollution. He will return to this issue in chapter three: Christ’s purpose in coming, was to destroy the works of the Devil.

John's letter is a strong call to holiness, and he will go on to develop this theme and talk about Christian 'perfection': not sinlessness, but a state of continuous fellowship with and deep love of God, which manifests in whole-heartedly obeying Christ's commands, loving our fellow believers, and facing death without fear.

Dealing with sin by repentance and confession leads to forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness. Sin's penalty is dealt with, and its pollution washed away. But the breach in our fellowship with the Father still needs repairing. Christ's goal in dying for us, was not just to pay the penalty for our sin but to restore us to fellowship with the Father (1 Pet 3:18).

If asked, how they conceive of Christ's present state, having ascended to the Father, many Christians struggle beyond knowing that He is seated at the Father's right hand, waiting for all his enemies to be subdued. We know too, that as Head of the Church He appoints apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists and teachers to equip the Church to build itself up as the Body of Christ on earth. He asks the Father to pour out the Holy Spirit, but He no longer acts as a go-between between us and God (Jn 16:25,27) when we pray. Instead, we can pray directly to the Father, in Christ's Name.

All said and done, and despite the fact that He has given us another permanently-indwelling 'comforter' (or advocate) in the form of the Holy Spirit, He still plays a very active role in our lives. 'The Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account' (Heb 4:12,13).

Christ has become our advocate in heaven.

The root meaning of the Greek word para-klētos is someone 'called alongside': which in Latin is ad-vocate. It means someone we can call on as a friend to help us, or as an advocate in a court case. Someone who can bolster our meagre strength or resources, or help us put forward our case.

What is an advocate anyway?

- As a doctor, occasionally I would see a patient accompanied by their 'mental health advocate'. The advocate would have talked with their client beforehand to prepare them. Their role was to accompany the patient to the consultation and help them express their needs in a way that their doctor could grasp.

Here on earth, our earthly advocate 'the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered' (Rom 7:26). And in heaven, Christ our heavenly advocate takes these burdens we can't express in words, and presents them to our Father!

- In legal terms, a lawyer or solicitor is someone who advises a client and prepares a case; whereas an advocate or barrister, is someone specially skilled and authorised to make that case in court. If your case comes to trial, it is the barrister who will accompany you into court and represent you before the judge.

We all know what 'being devil's advocate' means: someone who puts forward the case against something or someone. Peter was being devil's advocate when he tried to persuade Jesus not to go to the Cross. But the devil doesn't really need advocates: he's expert in his own right at being 'the Accuser of the brethren'. We see him at work when he accused Job (Job 1:6-12, 2:1-6) and again with Joshua the High Priest (Zech 3:1,2) and even the apostles (Lk 22:31). In the latter case, Jesus specifically tells us He defended them in court. He was their Advocate. He pleaded their case on the grounds of their love for Him as God's Son, and that He had already fully paid their penalty.

Why does John use 'Advocate' rather than 'High Priest'?

When Jesus prayed in the Upper Room, he consecrated Himself to work for the disciples' sanctification (Jn 17:9,19). He began His new ministry immediately, praying that they should be kept from the Evil One (Jn 17:15), sanctified by God's truth (Jn 17:17), kept in organic unity with each other and with the Godhead (Jn 17:21), brought to full maturity (Jn 17:23), given access to heaven (Jn 17:24) and enabled to gaze upon Christ's glory (Jn 17:24). He prayed not only for them, but for the Church down through the future centuries - even including us! It is rightly referred to as His High-Priestly prayer.

But priests are go-betweens, whereas advocates facilitate direct relationship. In everyday usage, both priests and advocates act on our behalf, acting as a relational bridge so to speak; one in a court of law, the other in the Court of Heaven. But whereas some might see the priest's mediatorial role in the confessional as an ongoing necessity, an advocate's role is about enabling us to communicate directly with Father God. Jesus told the disciples, "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God" (Jn 16:26,27).

Priests offer sacrifices to cover, or atone for, sin. Advocates do not. They argue on the basis of established law. When Christ advocates for us, He doesn't re-offer His sacrifice of Himself. That was once-for-all, and covered our sins past, present and future. No. He points to the heavenly casebook, reminding the Father that there's nothing to hold against us, since He has paid it all and 'we are complete in Him'.

Advocates focus on preparing their clients for the presence of the Judge; priests don't. Jesus, our wonderful High Priest, comes and distinguishes between what is soulish and what is truly spiritual in our service of God. He can do this because opf the incarnation: He has been tempted in every respect just as we are, and can sympathise with our weaknesses. We just need to come into the Light of His Presence to prepare us, and then we can come boldly to the throne of God, to find grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:14-16). The throne of judgement has become a throne of grace!

Hebrews describes Christ's advocacy as a new form of priesthood; 'a High Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek' (Gen 14:18-20; Heb 5:5,6). His ministry operates not by passed-down ecclesiastic authority, but by the power of His endless life (Heb 7:16). Christ fulfilled the Aaronic role of bringing a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Now He is fulfilling a Melchizedek ministry, which involves no sacrifices but bringing out wine and bread and blessing us faith-sons of Abraham, when we are exhausted from the battle. He is the mediator of the New Covenant!

Murray writes, "Christians wonder that they have so little of the peace and joy, of the purity and power which the Saviour gives and which faith in Him ought to produce. The reason is simple, because Christ is only their Aaron, not their Melchizedek. They do indeed believe that Christ is ascended to heaven, and sits upon the throne of God; but they have not seen the direct connection of this with their daily spiritual life. They do not count upon Jesus working in them in the power of the heavenly life, and imparting it to them". (A. Murray, 'The Holiest of All')

Beyond atonement: Christ Himself is our propitiation

The Old Testament system of sacrifices uses the word atonement, which means covering. On the Day of Atonement ('Yom Kippur' in Hebrew) the High Priest would enter the sanctuary and sprinkle sacrificial blood on the lid of the Ark, covering over the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments. That ceremony put the peoples' sins out of sight, so to speak, for another year. But it had to be repeated year after year until Christ came. God was 'keeping covenant mercy for thousands', as He had promised Moses (Ex 34:7).

Paradoxically that annual sacrifice for the sins of the nation, served only to remind them of how sinful they were. It could not remove their consciousness of sins (Heb 10:1-4), nor cleanse their guilty consciences (Heb 9:14). It could not restore them to innocence and fellowship with God such as Adam had had in Eden.

Christ Himself is the propitiation for our sins. The Greeks used this word to mean offerings made to a god, to make him look favourably on their requests: implying that without it, instead of favour there would be wrath.

The difference between atonement and propitiation is the same as the difference between mercy and grace: one gets us out of jail, the other gives us access to the throne-room, and favour for our requests: just as Esther experienced when approaching the King (Esther 5:2).

As we approach the Father in the Holy of Holies, for grace to help in time of need, Christ our Advocate comes with us. He has already satisfied all our sin-debt, past, present and future; converting the throne of judgement into a throne of grace. As soon as He enters the throne-room with us, since He Himself is our propitiation, our reception is assured.

Salvation was never just from judgement, but into fellowship with the Father. Christ died 'to bring us back to God' (1 Pet 3:18). That's why Paul talks about 'the ministry of reconciliation' (2 Cor 5:18-21), then goes straight on to urge the Corinthians to separate from all uncleanness, because light cannot have fellowship with darkness (2 Cor 6:14).

Who is Christ's propitiation available to?

What does John mean by saying that Christ's propitiation is 'not for our sins only, but also for the whole world'? This verse has sparked deep theological controversy between two schools of theology, called Calvinism and Arminianism.

Both schools believe that man was created ‘in the image of God’, but that Adam’s disobedience and the Fall led to a thorough corruption of human nature. By Noah’s time, God saw that ‘every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually’. We are living under the devil’s rule, and cannot of ourselves choose good: so how can salvation be available to all?

Calvin taught that only those whom God sovereignly chooses and calls to His Son can be saved: and thus that we are predestined for heaven or hell. And since God never does anything futile, he reasoned, Christ’s death must have bought salvation only for the elect. Everything hinged solely on God: which is called monergism.

Wesley, an Arminian, felt this was a slur on God’s character; since scripture says He ‘is not willing that any should perish’. If so, all must be capable of responding to the gospel. This could only be true if man’s free-will had somehow been restored: so he taught that Christ’s death had bought a specific form of ‘prevenient grace’ for all - the grace of being able to choose to believe in Christ. Salvation then depends on man co-operating with the gospel's invitation - which is known theologically as synergism. This belief that the gospel was available to all, underpinned his lifelong drive to preach to as many as possible.

[Strangely, Wesley was introduced into open-air preaching by George Whitfield, whose beliefs were Calvinist! They disagreed sharply on this issue for a while, but later reconciled. In Whitfield's view, since we cannot know whom God has chosen, we should preach to everyone anyway.]

In reality, John’s Gospel - like the rest of scripture - supports both views. Jesus told the Jewish leaders that they couldn’t believe His words because they were children of the Devil, not of God (Jn 8:42-45). He said that 'No-one can come to Me, unless they are drawn by the Father' (Jn 6:44). But He also said, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink’ (Jn 7:37).

So how are we to understand this verse, that Christ’s death was ‘for the sins of the whole world’? We know that Creation itself will eventually be redeemed, but what about mankind?  John cannot have possibly meant that everyone will reach heaven (universalism), for he goes on to say, ‘He who has the Son, has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life’ (1 Jn 5:12)

Personally, I believe that Christ’s death was sufficient to make propitiation for the sins of every single human being that ever has lived. But it is only efficient - it is only effective - for those who receive Christ by faith. Someone once explained it to me like this: “As you walk towards the boundary of God’s Kingdom, you see a gate over which is written, ‘Let anyone who wills, enter here’. You go through, and walk on into the Kingdom - but when you look back to the gate, over the inside of the archway it says, ‘I have loved you from eternity past’.