1 John 2:1,2 - "The Advocate"

1 John 2:1,2

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

The apostle John addresses believers with tender clarity, calling them "little children" and setting before them both exhortation and comfort. The purpose is not to minimize sin, but neither is it to leave the conscience in despair. The believer is exhorted not to sin, yet the reality of sin remains. The Gospel does not rest on denial, but on Provision. When sin confronts the conscience, John directs the eye away from self and upward to Christ: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (v.1).

An advocate is one who comes alongside another to take up his cause. The picture is unmistakably legal. God is presented as the Righteous Judge before Whom all must give account. The sinner has no standing to defend himself. But Christ stands there as the Advocate, not offering excuses, not pleading mitigating circumstances, but presenting His own Righteousness. He is not only righteous in character; He is the Righteous One Whose obedience answered every demand of God’s law.

This Advocacy is grounded entirely in His accomplished work. Christ did not ascend to heaven hoping one day to secure acceptance for His people. He ascended because the work was finished. His Presence at the Right Hand of the Father is itself intercession. Scripture declares that He “ever liveth to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25), not by repeated sacrifice, but by His continual representation. The believer’s standing before God does not fluctuate with performance. It rests upon Christ’s finished obedience and shed blood unto death.

John carefully connects Christ’s Person with His work. He is the Advocate because He is also the Propitiation. “And he is the propitiation for our sins” (v.2). Advocacy without satisfaction would be empty. God’s justice required more than sympathy; it required just payment. Propitiation speaks of wrath satisfied, law honored, justice fulfilled. At the cross, sin was not ignored, postponed, or covered temporarily. It was put away. God was shown to be just, and the Justifier of those represented by Christ (Romans 3:26).

This advocacy is particular and personal. John does not speak in abstractions. He includes himself: "we have an Advocate" (v.1). The address is not to the world at large, but to the elect, who are the children of God. Christ does not intercede for everyone without distinction. He intercedes for those given to Him by the Father, the same ones for whom He laid down His life (John 17:9). His Priestly work is effectual, not hypothetical.

Yet John is careful to guard against a narrow, national understanding. Christ is the Propitiation not for Jewish believers only, but also for the whole world. This speaks not of every individual without exception, but of God’s purpose to save sinners from every tribe and nation. Jew and Gentile alike are gathered under the same Advocate, justified by the same blood, upheld by the same Righteousness.

The believer’s struggle with sin is real and ongoing. Conviction remains part of the Spirit’s gracious work. Sin is never treated lightly, for it was sin of God's children that nailed the LORD of Glory to the tree. Yet conviction does not drive the believer away from God; it drives him to Christ. Even when conscience accuses, and Satan condemns, the verdict in heaven does not change. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

This comfort does not rest on the believer’s faith as a contributing work, but on Christ’s work as the finished Foundation. Faith is given to look away from self and rest in what has already been accomplished. Christ was “delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25). Justification was obtained when He rose. Advocacy flows from that settled reality.

Thus the believer lives between the reality of their sin and God's Holiness and the assurance that Christ's finished work accomplished their redemption. Sin is acknowledged without despair. The believer's Hope does not rise and fall with inward frames, but stands firm in the Living Advocate. There is never a moment when the believer stands alone before God (Ephesians 6:14-17). We have, even now, an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.