Jesus Christ Is Our Advocate

1. We are never encouraged to sin.

“The knowledge of such a great love and of such undeserved forgiveness makes the Christian earnestly desirous not to sin.” —James Montgomery Boice

“This may be illustrated with a blank sheet of paper, a pencil, and dot marks on the page. If your sins are disconnected dots on the paper, the remedy is confession of them. If the dots are so interconnected by reccurring repetition accompanied with a lack of repentance over a considerable period of time so as to become a line, it is indicative of an abiding principle. If such a state exists, John would raise the possibility that we are devoid of the life of God.” —John Hannah

2. If we do sin, we have an advocate with God the Father.

“The resurrected, living Savior now stands in heaven for us as our defense attorney, our advocate, and our comforter. The judge, who has been judged for us, stands before the Judge for us, claiming the efficacy of His self-imposed judgment as the remedy for all our transgressions.” —John Hannah

3. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.

“God’s wrath is not like our wrath. His wrath is steady, unrelenting, unremitting, uncompromising antagonism to evil in all its forms and manifestation. In short, God’s anger is poles apart from ours. What provokes our anger never provokes his; what provokes his anger seldom provokes ours.” —John Stott

“The Christian religion is the religion for sinners, of such as have sinned, and in whom sin in some measure still dwells. The Christian life is a life of continued repentance, humiliation for and mortification of sin, of continual faith in, thankful for, and love to the Redeemer, and hopeful joyful expectation of a day of glorious redemption in which the believer shall be fully and finally acquitted, and sin abolished forever.” —Matthew Henry