“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1)

This verse was written by the apostle John. In it, he offers a powerful word of encouragement. But to see the full scope of his reassurance, we need to keep something in mind.

Picture a legal setting, a heavenly court with God as Judge. Satan is accusing you. The word Satan in Hebrew literally means “adversary.” Satan is also called the accuser (Revelation 12:10). 

Now picture yourself standing before the Judge’s bench. Your adversary is accusing you. ‘Not good enough! Too much of a sinner! Not a real believer! A mistake! A waste of time and flesh!’

Next, picture Jesus coming to your side and putting his arm around you. That’s when we see Romans 8:34 coming to life: “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Interceding for us.

I can picture Jesus putting his arm around you, and around me, holding his other hand up against the face of our accuser, and then saying to God, ‘He’s with me’ or ‘She’s with me.’

Many years ago Charles Hodge preached these words: “His advocacy is uninterrupted and will never fail. He never can be absent from the court in which our case is to be decided. He is always accessible.”*

When the accuser yells at you—or when he whispers in your ear in those moments when you feel incredibly low—push back with truth. You have an “advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” the one who died and was raised for you. He “is at the right hand of God… interceding for us.”

Notes:

-“The pressure to fit in when my faith makes me different.” Click here. Sermon. 

-* Princeton Sermons, “The Presence of Christ with His Church” in: The Church History Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2023), 1927.

-Bible quotes are from the NIV.