1 John 2:1 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: 2: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Introduction

For the last seven Sundays, we have been studying John’s First Epistle. This letter was written thousands of years ago and yet the truths we find in this letter have tremendous and relevant application for our lives today. Just as those who first received this actual letter written by John and benefited from it, so it would be to our benefit if we would do the same as well.

Here in 1 John 2:1-2, John continues his teaching on the subject of fellowship. In this chapter he goes on to assure his readers and every believer, that even when we sin, and we all do, God never stops to love us and has made provision to restore the fellowship that is hindered by sin. This morning consider with me Our Righteous Advocate. There are three things I want you to see in these first two verses of 1 John chapter 2, namely the Purpose of the Letter, the Present Ministry of Christ, and the Perfect Advocate.

But before we dive into the message, I want you to notice how the apostle John begins this chapter. He starts with these words, “My little children ...” (1 John 2:1). John used this expression seven times in this letter. Our Lord also used this expression when He spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper.

John 13:33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.

I have no doubt the apostle John had learned this expression from our Lord. So, here in our text, John addresses his readers as “little children.” This doesn’t mean that his audience were little children. No, “little children” is an expression of affection. As someone has noted, “It is a term of affection used by a teacher to his disciples under circumstances requiring a tender appeal, as when Jesus addressed His Twelve disciples just before His death.” Also keep in mind that John was very old, approximately ninety years old when he wrote this epistle. So, he addresses his readers as an aged and a loving father to his children.

John used this term because he has deep concern for his readers. As we saw in our last two lessons, John had been concerned with erroneous beliefs that some may have embraced and promoted. Now he turns directly to his addressees and makes tender appeal. William Barclay observes, “In this opening address there is the yearning, affectionate tenderness of a pastor for people whom he has known for long in all their wayward foolishness and still loves.”

So, now let’s look at ...

I – The Purpose of the Letter

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not...

What things? I believe “these things” refers to what he wrote back in 1 John 1:5-10, where he talks about the reality of sin and the remedy for sin. John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes in 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Then in verse 10, he writes, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Becoming a Christian does not mean our sinful nature has been completely removed and that we no longer sin. No, Christians still sin, and we will never attain sinless perfection this side of eternity. Then in verse 9, John speaks about the remedy for sin for believers, “If we [believers] confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John declares that God will forgive and cleanse us if we confess our sins.

Now, having written these things, such as, the sinfulness of Christians and the complete forgiveness of sin upon their confession of it, John was concerned that some might use both these statements as an excuse not to take sin seriously. Misunderstanding what John wrote about the reality of sin and remedy for sin in the life of a believer might somehow cause his readers to think lightly of sin, and somehow encourage sin and discourage holiness. Some might say, “If all have sinned, and if it is a part of the Christian life that cannot be avoided completely, why even bother? What’s the use of struggling against something which is in this life cannot be completely be free from? Also, if forgiveness is so easily obtained, why dread falling into sin? We may sin freely, since we have the blood of Jesus to cleanse us anyway.”

That’s a wrong conclusion and what does John say about this wrong conclusion?

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not...

John’s purpose is clear. He is writing these things not to condone sin, but to prevent it. By insisting the reality and presence of sin in the believer’s life, John’s purpose was not to discourage the pursuit of holiness nor to encourage sinning, but, on the contrary, in order that they may not sin.

Understand that when John says, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not,” he is not saying that we will live in sinless perfection. Christians are not sinless, but they should sin less. So, John is not talking about sinless perfection. Look at the second part of verse one, “... And if any man sin...” In other words, John is saying, if anyone sins and it will happen. He knows that none of them was perfect. He recognizes the awful possibility of sin. He was fully aware of human frailty and the seductive power of sin and Satan. But John wants us to know that if we do sin, our situation is not hopeless, because he writes, “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Although believers are not free from sin, we can overcome sin, because God made a provision for sinners like us. This brings us to the next heading.

II – The Present Ministry of Christ

So, John’s purpose in writing this letter was not to promote or encourage sin but in order that they may not sin. However, John is a realist. The apostle John recognized the ever-present danger of sin. He knows that as Christians there are going to be times when we stumble and fall into sin. We will sin and come short while we are still in this body of flesh. As the Psalmist says, “The Lord knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust,” and so He has graciously made provision for us in the event of failure. This is expressed in the words, “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

We have an Advocate

Jesus Christ is our Advocate. The word “advocate” comes from the Greek word “parakletos.’ It literally means one called alongside. An advocate is one who comes to the side of another person in time of need in order to help. It denotes a lawyer who represents his client before a court of law to plead his case. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus does for us when we sin. When applied to the present ministry of Christ, it speaks of His work for believers who have fallen into sin to restore them to fellowship. When we as believers fall into some sin, we are not left to our own poor and ineffective efforts to bring us back into right fellowship with the Father. No, God has made effective provision in Christ. When we sin, Jesus Christ immediately comes to us in order to restore us to fellowship with Father and with Himself.

We need an Advocate because we have an Accuser in the person of Satan. In Revelation 12:10 John describes Satan as “the accuser of our brethren ... which accused them before our God day and night.” When we sin, Satan, our Accuser, brings a charge against us that we are guilty before God and that we deserved to be condemned in Hell. But then the Lord Jesus Christ, our Advocate, our divine Lawyer, our Defense Attorney approaches the Father for us defending us from Satan accusations. But our Lord is not like any other earthly lawyer. When Satan brings some accusation against us believers, our Lord does not enter the court of Heaven and plead that we are innocent. Instead, He acknowledges that we are guilty, but then our Lord Jesus points to His finished work on Calvary and say, “Charge that to My account.” He argues for acquittal not because we are innocent, that would not be true because we are guilty as charged, but because He paid the penalty for our sin and guilt by His substitutionary death on the Cross.

Martin Luther gives us this advice when the devil brings a charge against us, “So, when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know the One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there, I shall be also!’”

Steven Cole observes that, “John does not say, ‘If we confess our sins, we have an Advocate.’ Instead, he says, ‘If anyone sins, we have an Advocate.’ Our forgiveness and our standing with God do not depend on anything we do, but rather on the finished work of Christ. If we are His children through the new birth (Jn 3:3, 7-8), He is there before the Father on our behalf, pleading His blood, even before we confess our sins!”

This brings us to the third and final point, which is ...

III – The Perfect Advocate

Our Lord Jesus Christ is our perfect Advocate. He is highly qualified to be our divine Lawyer. Why? First of all because He is the Righteous One and secondly because He is the propitiation for our sins.

1. He the Righteous One

1 John 2:1 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:

Our Lord Jesus Christ is fit to be our Advocate because He is the Righteous One. He is the Just One. He is the One who fully kept God’s law. He is the One who conforms to the Father’s will in every purpose, thought, and action and Who pleases God completely. He is the One who was tempted at all points and yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He is the One whom the writer to the Hebrews describes as holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:26). He is the One whom Paul describes as the One whom God made sin for us who knew no sin, who never sinned, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.  (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus Christ is the Righteous One, the Sinless One, and His personal sinlessness qualifies Him to be our Advocate. Being perfectly sinless and innocent He is able to enter the Most Holy Place, that is into the very presence of the Father, from which all sin excludes. Not like any other earthly priest, He doesn’t  need an advocate for Himself. Jesus Christ is the only One qualified to plead our case and to enter the Father’s presence.

Rothe says it this way “Only the righteous One, the guiltless, the One that is separate from sin, can be the Advocate with God for sinners ... because only such a one has access to God and fellowship with God.”

2. He is the Propitiation for Our sins

1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is fit to be our Advocate not only because He is the Righteous One but also because He sacrificed Himself as the propitiation for our sins. Jesus Christ bore in His body the punishment due us for our sins; in so doing He propitiated God. This word, “Propitiation” means appeasement or satisfaction. It means the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross satisfied the demands of God’s justice. Our Lord fully satisfied the righteous demands of God.

As we have learned in the past, Jesus Christ is our High Priest, and He is also the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus Christ is both the ministering priest and the sacrificial lamb. Because Jesus was perfect and righteous and without sin, He was an acceptable sacrifice for our sins and His sacrifice was sufficient to pay the price, not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world.

Looking at our text again, it says, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

John reminds his readers that the propitiation of Christ was not limited to them. As Jesus Christ offered Himself an atonement for sin, He appeased God for the sins of the world. There are those who teach that Jesus Christ died only for a select few. But this passage clearly tells us that the blood of Christ was sufficient to pay the price for the sins of the whole world.

In saying this, John was clearly affirming the view that Christ genuinely died for everyone.

John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “ For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

When Jesus died on the cross, His shed blood was sufficient and powerful enough to pay the price for all the sins of all humans. Of course, this does not mean that everyone will automatically be saved. It simply means that the blood of Jesus made provision and made it possible for anyone to be saved. Since Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Closing Thoughts

Let’s read our text again.

1 John 2:1 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.

I have to emphasize that only believers can make this statement. Jesus Christ is Advocate only for those whose God is their Father. In other words, only those who have been born again; only those who have been adopted into the family of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you a child of God? Have you been born again? Have you been born into the family of God but HIs grace, through faith? If you have not, Christ is not your Advocate. When Satan comes with his accusations and if you are not one of God’s children, you do not have an Advocate, you do not have a Defense Attorney to plead your case. Oh, this doesn’t have to be your situation. You can have Him as your Advocate if you will humble yourself and acknowledge Him as the sacrificial Lamb of God who sacrificed Himself as the propitiation for your sins. Believe on the One who was crucified on the cross and took the punishment you and I deserve for our sins and fully satisfied the righteous demands of God’s justice.

There are those who teach that we have to go through a priest or a minister, or through the church to have our sins forgiven. But this is not what Scripture teaches. We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6: Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

The One who died as our substitute, now lives as our Advocate!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, realize that God has graciously and completely forgiven you in Jesus Christ. Keep in mind if you are born again believer in Christ your relationship with the Father is settled once and for all, for all eternity. Once a person is in the family of God, he has entered into an eternal and unchanging relationship with God. But when we sin and we do sin, our fellowship with God is hindered. So, God has provided a way for us to restore that fellowship, and it is only through Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins. In Romans 8:34 we read these words, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Our Lord’s present ministry is to intercede for us. He is at the right hand of the Father, advocating for us believers, pleading our case, even when we sin. He has never lost a case and never will!

“My soul, you have a Friend well fitted to be your Advocate. He cannot but succeed. Leave yourself entirely in His hands.” – C. H. Spurgeon

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well with my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul!

AMEN!