Scripture
My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.
~1 John 2:1, ISV
Quote
The bible nowhere teaches that once we have savingly been united with Christ, we find grievous sins to be a thing of the past.
~Dana Ortlund {Gentle and Lowly, p.90}
No follower of Christ is sinless. He was– we are not. The Spirit of Holiness within us has made us more sensitive to sin. Our sins feel far more sinful after we become believers. Our depravity and sinfulness becomes more and more apparent and the burden of our sin becomes heavier as we long for our complete sanctification. We all know that Jesus is our atonement. Our sins are forgiven because He shed His precious blood on the cross. We know that He is in heaven making intercession for us at this very moment. But it is easy to overlook the fact that Jesus Christ is our ADVOCATE. As our LORD and King, Jesus stands over us. As our faithful high priest, He stand between us and the Father and as our Advocate, He stands beside us. I have always thought of the advocate as a lawyer, one who stands beside us in the court room.
John was not encouraging believers to sin but he said, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” Peter was a disciple and an avid follower of Jesus, but his pride got him in deep trouble and he fails Jesus in a time of crisis. Jesus was not shocked but Peter was crushed. The weight of his sin was too much and he was given to despair. Jesus refused to leave Peter is this state of despair. He interceeded for him but He also advocated in his behalf. How is Jesus able to help us? He is righteous! Yet He shares our humanity and He feels what we feel. He is sympathic and understanding. The very sin that we think would alienate us from Him draws Him to us. Peter felt like throwing in the towel, but Jesus did not allow that to happen.
I like what Dana Ortlund said on page 89 of his book GENTLE AND LOWLY, “Even our repenting of our sin is itself plagued with more sin in need of more forgiveness.” Folks, let us face the facts, sin is still a problem. Yes it is a problem I long to be free of, but it is a problem. I am afraid some folks think that REPENTANCE is a one and done thing, but it is not! Repentance is a way of life. When we drop the ball, we need to remember that His blood has atoned for our sins, but we also need to remember that His advocacy carries more weight than our sin. As Ortlund says, “Jesus can not bear to leave us alone to fend for ourselves.” He knows we wouldn’t have a prayer. We have a WONDERFUL Savior, don’t you agree!
Extra
PTL for the cloud cover yesterday and the cooler temps but it starts climbing back into the 90’s today. We need some rain at 1120 Iron Man. My corn field is beginning to hurt.
I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.