Josh’s Thoughts

In my last post on the Names of Christ I wrote about the name “Amen,” which is found in Rev. 3:14. If you read that post then you may recall that I said that faithfulness is not something that Jesus does, faithfulness is what He Is. There’s a tremendous difference between doing something and being something!

“Amen” is certainly one of my favorite Names of Christ. One reason that it is one of my favorites is because it opens up a window to understanding Christ and who He Is. After all, if Christ wasn’t faithful then why would any of His other Names matter? Why would it matter if He called Himself “Redeemer” or “Savior” if He couldn’t be counted on to tell the truth? Yet when we understand that Jesus is not just faithful, but He is faith–when we understand that He is not just truthful but that He is Truth–then our understanding of the Nature of Christ takes on a whole new dimension.

Now, some readers might be thinking, “Yeah, Josh, I understand the difference between doing something and being something, but I still don’t see why you’re making such a big deal out of it; Why do the Names of Christ matter so much anyway?”

Well, dear Reader, I’m glad you asked

The reason it matters is because, quite simply, Jesus claimed to be God (John 8:56-59; cf. Ex. 3:14). He didn’t claim to be a spiritual guru, He didn’t claim to be helping people find the light inside of themselves or anything of that nature. No, Jesus claimed to be God Himself. The Big Cheese. The Top Dog. The Boss. Papa. The Head Honcho Himself. More than that, one New Testament writer said that Jesus is “the exact imprint of [God's] nature” (Heb. 1:3), and another writer said that God “lives in light that no one can come near….No human has ever seen God or ever can see Him” (1 Tim. 6:16). If we put these two Scriptures together then they add up to one simple fact: No one can see God, but we can understand Him by looking at Jesus. In other words, Jesus our only way to know God and to come to understand Him. We will only know God by knowing Jesus.

So if we truly want to know what God is like then we need to look at Christ and what He was like.

And what’s the best way to do that? I am convinced that the best way to understand what Christ was like is to study the Names that He used for Himself.

Now up until this point I have been rehashing things that I’ve already written. I am doing this for two reasons. First, it’s been a few weeks since my last post, and it’s good to have a refresher. Second, reviewing this information makes for an excellent introduction into the Name that I am about to write about: “The Advocate.”

I ended my last post with a couple of suggested Scripture passages for further reading. One of those passages was 1 John 2:1-6, and I’d like to look at that now:

1Jn 2:1-6 HCSB
(1)  My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father–Jesus Christ the righteous One.
(2)  He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
(3)  This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.
(4)  The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” without keeping His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(5)  But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:
(6)  the one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.

Now there’s two words in this passage that immediately jump out. The reason that they jump out is because they are words we don’t use much anymore. The first is advocate, and it means “one called alongside” [1]. The basic meaning of the word is defense attorney [2], but there’s a little more to it then that. We’ll come back to it in a moment. The second word that jumps out is propitiation. That’s a word that many people have probably never ever heard before–we just don’t use it today! I’m not going to deal with the word propitiation in this post, I only mention it so that the passage will make more sense. Basically the word propitiation means covering [3]. Let’s look at the passage again with the words advocate and propitiation replaced by their definitions, and then it might make a bit more sense:

1Jn 2:1-6 HCSB
(1)  My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a defense attorney with the Father–Jesus Christ the righteous One.
(2)  He Himself is the covering for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
(3)  This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.
(4)  The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” without keeping His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(5)  But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:
(6)  the one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.

The meaning of this passage is quite clear; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand it! John is saying that we should not commit sins, but if we do commit a sin then we have a defense attorney ready and waiting to defend us. Who is that defense attorney? Well, His Name is Jesus. He’s The Advocate.

That concept alone is beautiful! But what if I told you there was even more meaning in this passage?

Let’s use an example to explain this.

Suppose you committed a crime. Not a big crime, just a small one. Let’s say that you ran a red light and got pulled over by a police officer and given a ticket. The police officer has your traffic violation on camera; He knows what you did and you know it to. There’s no getting out of it. You ran the red light, and now you’re going to pay the price in the form of a speeding ticket. So what do you do? Well, if you’re smart you just pay the ticket. No point in trying to get out of it. But let’s say that you’re not smart. Let’s say that you go before the judge and try to get out of the ticket.

You wait for your court date to come around and you enter the court room. You stand before the judge, and…what do you say? Do you claim that you didn’t commit the crime? The police officer knows that you did it. He has it on video! Do you try to come up with some lame excuse? What do you do?

Obviously, this isn’t a good situation to be in!

But let’s take this illustration a step further. Let’s say that you didn’t just run a red light. Let’s say that you did something worse. Far worse. Let’s say that you found out that your spouse cheated on you, and in a fit of rage you shot them. Now let’s say that a nosy neighbor saw the fight through the window and got it all on video tape. What do you say when you go before the judge? What do you do?

What if you’re the spouse who cheated? You’re a wife or a husband with a spouse and children who depend on you. You have a family to take care of and children who look up to you. In a fit of lust, with no excuse, you fall into sexual sin with a co-worker. You’ve just committed a crime against your spouse. It’s not anything that will send you to jail, but in the eyes of your family it’s far worse than murder. You’ve betrayed them. What do you do?

If you were in any of these three situations then you’re wrong. There’s no excuse. There’s no getting out of it. There’s no reasons. You’re just wrong. Period.

So what do you do?

Interestingly enough, this is the position that we find ourselves in spiritually whenever we commit any sin, no matter how small. James wrote that if a person slipped up in just one tiny point of God’s law then that person was guilty before God (James 2:10). So whenever we commit a sin–whether it be a “big one” like adultery or a “small one” like a lie–we find ourselves standing spiritually before our Judge: God.

What do we say? What do we do?

We have no excuse. We can’t say that we didn’t commit the sin. He knows that we did. We can’t say that we’re innocent. He knows that we’re not.

So now we turn to 1 John 2:1 and read that if we commit sin we have a defense attorney: Jesus. But earlier in this post I said that the word advocate has a little different meaning than just defense attorney. The reason I said that is because the role that Jesus plays is a little different than that of a human defense attorney. What’s the difference? It’s real simple, but it’s real crucial:

A human defense attorney tries to proclaim our innocence, but Jesus proclaims our guilt.

Stop and think about that for a moment.

Jesus does not get us off the hook for our sin by just claiming that we were innocent or by trying to make excuses for us. No, Jesus knows that we are guilty. So what does He do? In verse 2 we find the answer: He covers our sin.

That’s it. It’s gone. Covered. Done away with. The memory remains for us, but not for God. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, has come to stand beside us and to use His blood to cover our sin.

So we find that Jesus’ role is so much more than that of a defense attorney. Sin demanded a price, and that price was death (Rom. 6:23), but Jesus paid the price. Now when we commit sin He simply points to the blood and the sin is erased in the mind of God, never to be remembered again.

We carry the memory of our sin, but God doesn’t. We feel guilt, but God has no idea why we are feeling guilty. We feel shame, but God has no idea why. For “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12).

References:

1. John Jr MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed. (Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997). 1 Jn 2:1.
2. Ibid.
3. “Propitiation.” King James Dictionary