A Discourse of Christ's Intercession
A Discourse of Christ's Intercession My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.— 1 JOHN 2:1 .
T HE apostle having, in the latter verses of the former chapter, spoken of the extensiveness of pardon, ver. 7, 9, subjoins, ver. 8, 10, that yet the relics of sin do remain in God's people. But though all sin that was pardoned, was pardoned upon the account of the blood of Christ, which had a property to cleanse from all sin, and that confession of sin was a means to attain this forgiveness purchased by our Saviour's blood, yet men might suck in the poisonous doctrine of licentiousness, believing that upon their confession they should presently have forgiveness, though they walked on in the ways of their own hearts. And, on the other side, many good men might be dejected at the consideration of the relics of sin in them, which the
apostle asserts, 1 John 1:8, 10, that no man was free from in this life. In this verse, therefore, the apostle prevents those two mistakes, which men might infer from the former doctrine, that we may not presume by the news of grace, nor despond by a reflection on our sin.
I. Presumption, on the one hand, in these words, 'My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not.' Though I have told you that forgiveness of sin is to be had upon confession, yet the intent of my writing is not to encourage a voluntary commission.
II. Dejection and despair, in these words, 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.' If you do commit sin, you must not be so much cast down, as if the door of mercy were clapped against you; no, there is an agent above to keep it open for every one that repents and believes. Here, then, the apostle treats of the remedy God had provided for the sins of believers, viz., the advocacy of Christ, who having laid the foundation of our redemption in the satisfaction made to God by his blood, resides in heaven as an advocate to plead it on our behalf. This, saith one,* is the sum and scope of the whole gospel; he that believes this can never despair; he that believes it not, is ignorant of Christ, though he hath the whole doctrine of the gospel in his memory. The word Παράκλητος signifies an advocate, comforter, or exhorter; it is only in this place used of Christ, but of the Spirit it is used, John 14:16, John 16:7, and in both places rendered
Comforter. And παράκλησις, a word of affinity to this from the same root, is rendered, 1 Thes. 2:3, exhortation. Some* tell us, that because the advocates among the Romans and Greeks were the most eloquent orators, therefore the Jews commonly called the most eminent doctors among them paracletes. The word is used by the Jews,† who derived it from the Greeks, for one that intercedes with a prince, either to introduce or restore a person
to his favour. The Syriac uses the same word פרקליטא, derived from the Greek word, though it seems to have some affinity with the word פרק, which signifies to redeem or deliver. The word is used to express an advocate by another author,‡ where he tells us, that it is necessary for him that would be consecrated to the Father of the world, to make use of his
Son, the most perfect advocate, both for the remission of our sins, and the communication of happiness to us; where the word παράκλητος cannot be taken for a comforter, but an advocate or solicitor, because the Son of God procures the not remembering of sins, as well as the supplying of us with all good. And the same author, in another place, ascribes the purging of sin to the λόγος θεοῦ, a term whereby Christ is signified in Scripture.§ The same word which, when serving to express the Holy Ghost, is translated comforter, is here, when used of Christ, translated advocate. The Spirit is a persuasive advocate for God among men, as Christ is an eloquent advocate by the rhetoric of his wounds with God for men. Christ is both an advocate and a comforter. He owns himself a comforter, as well as the Spirit: John
14:16, 'I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,' implying that he was a comforter as well as the Spirit. He is a comforter of man in the name of God, and advocate with God in the behalf of man.
Let us consider the words distinctly; we, we apostles, we believers.
1. Not only we apostles. The intercession of Christ is not so narrowed. He sits not in heaven only to plead the cause of twelve men; he doth indeed manage their concern; and if they which are specially commissioned by him, and are to judge the world, need him in this relation, much more do others.
2. But we believers. It is the same we he speaks of in the first chapter; we that have our sins pardoned, we that have fellowship with God, we, as
distinguished from all the world: ver. 2, 'Who is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world;' where the we (the apostle speaks of) that have an interest in this advocate, are differenced from the world. His propitiation belongs in some sort to the world, his intercession to his church, to those that are children new begotten by the Spirit. Upon the cross as a man he prayed for his murderers; but in his mediatory prayer, John 17:9, he prays 'not for the world,' but those given him out of it.
3. We in particular. Every one who hath the like precious faith hath the like powerful advocate; he means the children he writes to, and every one of them. It had not been any preservative against dejection, had not this advocate belonged to them, and every one of them. 'If any man sin,' let him be what he will, rich or poor, high or low, one as well as another belongs to this advocate. Every believer is his client; he makes intercession for them
'that come unto God by him,' Heb. 7:25, and therefore for every one of those comers.
We have, not had, as if it were only a thing past; nor shall have, as if it were a thing to come, and expected, but have, ἔχομεν, in the present tense, which notes duration and a continued act. We have an advocate, i.e. we constantly have; we have him as long as his life endures. And another apostle tell us, 'he ever lives to make intercession.' He is at present an advocate, always an advocate; and in particular, for every one that comes to God by him; and for every one of them, he is an advocate as long as he lives, which is for ever; we have him not to seek, but we have him this instant in the court, with the Judge, before the tribunal where we are to be tried.
An advocate. It is a metaphor taken from the Romans and Greeks. The proper office of an advocate is to defend the innocency of an accused person against his adversary.* In that notion doth the apostle take it here; he mentions Christ as an advocate in the cause of sin, which is a charge of the law. An advocate stands in opposition to an accuser, and his work is in opposition to the charge of the accuser. Satan is the accuser, sin the charge. stands by to answer the accusation, and wipe off the charge by way of plea, as the office of an advocate is to do.
Advocate. It is not advocates. It seems John was ignorant of the intersession of saints and angels. This was a doctrine unknown in the primitive time. John knew but one, but the Romanists have made a new discovery of many more. Multitudes of saints and angels in this office for them; and they never canonise a saint but they give him his commission for an advocate, as if they mistrusted themselves since their apostasy, or feared the affection or the skill of him the primitive Christians trusted their cause to. It had been as easy a matter for the apostle to have wrote advocates as advocate; it had been but the change of a letter or two, and the cause had been carried. This apostle, to whose care Christ bequeathed the blessed virgin when he was upon the cross, would not have waived her right had there been a just claim for her. We find them urging the distinction of mediators of redemption and mediators of intercession; they acknowledge the sole honour of the first to belong to Christ, but link colleagues with him in the second. The Holy Ghost here nulls any title but his to either, since the same person who is called our Advocate in the text is called our Propitiation in the next verse. As there is but one Redeemer, so there is but one
Intercessor; and the right of his intercessory power flows from the sufficiency of his propitiatory passion. The intercession of this one
advocate, Jesus Christ, brought all the glorified saints to heaven; and he can by the same office secure every believer to the end of the world, without needing the interposition of any that he hath introduced before them. He is not yet tired in his office, nor are the multitude of his clients too numerous for his memory to carry, so that he should need to turn any of them over to weaker heads.
With the Father. As the first person in order, and the conservator of the rights of the Deity, not only with God, where God is, but with God as the object of his intercession, and with God as a Father. 'With the Father.'
(1.) Not with an enemy. Little hopes then that he should succeed in his suit. An enemy may lay aside his anger, and he may retain it. The pressing an enemy with importunities many times makes his fury seven times hotter.
But it is with the Father, one reconciled to us by the price of the Redeemer's blood. No, nor with a judge, a term as affrighting as that of a father is refreshing. Thus Christ phrased it before his departure: John 16:16, 'I will pray the Father;' not I will pray the Judge. The apostle puts it in the same term Christ had done before him.
(2.) It is not said with his Father. It is no mean advantage for the son an offended prince to espouse the suit of a rebel. The affection of the father might encourage the solicitation of the son; but this had not been a sufficient cordial. The relation of a son might make him acceptable to his father for himself, but not for the criminal. Christ might have been dear to God in the place of a Son, but we might have still been hateful to him upon the account of our rebellions.
(3.) Nor is it said, with your Father. Had God been only our Father, and an angry Father, and standing in no such relation to the advocate, we might
have had reason to hang the wing. The title of a father is often without the bowels of a father.
(4.) But with the Father, a father both to the advocate and client. To the advocate, by an unspeakable generation; to the client, by an evangelical creation; a Father in all respects, not only by general creation, but special adoption and spiritual regeneration; one of paternal tenderness as well as title, and possessing the compassions as well as the relation of a father. The Father respects both. As Christ ascended to God as his Father and our
Father, John 20:17, so he intercedes with him as standing in such a capacity both to him and us. Christ treats not with him as a Judge only, but as a Father. As a Judge, God's justice was satisfied by the death of Christ; but the end of his advocacy is upon the account of this satisfaction, to excite the paternal bowels of God towards his people. The object of the oblation was
God as a judge or governor; the object of intercession is God as a Father, an advocate with the Father. The first was a payment to justice, and the other is the solicitation of mercy. This title of Father assures us of the success of his intercession.
Jesus Christ the righteous. Now he specifies this advocate, together with his necessary qualification. The words righteous and righteousness, both in the Hebrew and Greek (Δίκαιος, Δικαιοσύνη; צדיק, צדקה), are sometimes taken for mercy and charitableness. The words following may favour the interpretation of righteous in this sense, for it was the compassion of Chris that moved him to be our propitiation, and his charitable temper is not diminished by the things that he suffered; but I would rather take δικαιος in the proper sense, for just. Mercy without righteousness in the world is but a foolish pity, and may support a world of unrighteousness. The honesty and righteousness of an advocate upon earth is of more value and efficacy for
his client with a just judge than all his compassion. In this sense of holy or righteous doth Peter use the word: Acts 3:14, 'You have denied the Holy
One and the Just,' where just is opposite to an unrighteous murderer; and 1 Peter 3:18, 'Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust,' where the righteousness of the surety is opposed to the unrighteousness of the criminal for whom he suffered. This is the comfort, that he is as righteous for an advocate as the Father is for a judge, that he is as holy as we are unholy. Our sin rendered us hateful, but the righteousness of the advocate renders him such as it became him to be for us, whose advocate he is, Heb. 7:26.