Two men were looking at the epitaph on a tombstone which
read, "Here lies an honest man and a good lawyer." One looked at
the other and said, "I wonder why they put two men in the same
grave?" Lawyers have not gained the best reputation for being
honest men. One doctor asked another how his lawyer patient was
doing, and he replied, "Not well, he is lying at deaths door." "Well,
that's a lawyer for you, "responded the other, " At deaths door and
still lying." It is reported that a lawyer should be a good sleeper
since he can easily lie on either side.
The very nature of the profession leads one to be tempted to bend
the truth by manipulating words. Thomas Jefferson referring to
congress said, "How can expedition be expected from a body which
we have saddled with an hundred lawyers, whose trade is talking."
When one does a great deal of talking and debating he learns how to
convey a message in such a way that you get the opposite impression
of what you would if you knew the truth. For example, a lawyer out
West did not want to admit that his first client was hung, so he
reported to his friends back East that he got him a suspended
sentence.
Like every profession, that of the lawyer is the object of many
slams and jokes, but in spite of them we know it is a necessary and
valuable profession. It is essential to our sense of justice that every
man have a right to defense, and that he have a defender skilled in
the law. Our Constitution guarantees this, and that is why even the
worst criminals are provided with a lawyer if they cannot obtain
one. It may bother us that known criminals, who are obviously
guilty, have such skilled defense that they often escape the penalty of
the law. But let us not forget that everyone of us who have received
Christ as Savior are in that same boat. We are guilty of breaking
God's law, yet, because of our adequate advocate and divine
defender we gain a pardon and escape punishment.
The difference of course is infinite in quality, for an earthly
lawyer by immoral and unethical means, or through weaknesses of
the law, gets his client off, but as we shall see, Jesus fulfills the
demands of justice in gaining our pardon. The fact that Jesus is our
advocate raises this profession to the highest possible level. Jesus
was a carpenter for a few years on earth, but ever since His
ascension He has been the believers lawyer in the court of heaven,
and He will remain in that ministry until He comes again and takes
the throne of judgment. This means that all who do not have Jesus
as their defense attorney now will have Him as their judge when He
comes again. This shows that Christ's present ministry is
exceedingly important for every person to consider, and our purpose
in this message is to gain a better understanding of His present
ministry by examining the three factors of it brought out in John's
statement: "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous."
I. HIS CLIENTS.
A big burly man called at the house of a woman known for her
charitable impulses, and when she came to the door he addressed
her in a broken voice, "Madam, I wish to draw your attention to the
terrible plight of a poor family in this district. The father has been
fired; the mother is too ill to work, and the nine children are
starving. They are about to be turned out into the cold streets unless
someone pays their arrears in rent which amounts to fifty dollars."
The woman exclaimed, "How terrible! May I ask who you are?"
The sympathetic pleader applied his handkerchief to his eyes as he
said, "I am the landlord." Here is a case where the advocate
obviously had only one client, and that was himself. His pleading
was not for there need, but for his greed. But we have in Jesus and
Advocate who is ours-literally ours, in that His purpose in the court
of heaven is not for His own defense, but for our pardon.
John says, "We have Him." That is, He is always available, and
is never too busy, or tied up on another case, or on vacation.
Hebrews tells us the same thing by saying, "He ever lives to make
intercession for us." In earthly courts there are cases backed up for
months and years, but we who are clients of the eternal Advocate
have immediate defense when we sin. It is tragic when Christians let
their sin go unconfessed and suffer needless pain and guilt when
they could have immediate pardon before the court of God.
It is important that we recognize, however, that Jesus is not the
Advocate of every sinner. The "we" here includes only those who
believe and have trusted in Christ as their Savior. One must be a
child of God before he can be a client of Christ's and be a
beneficiary of Christ's present ministry. The unbeliever will have to
face God alone, and with no advocate, and the result will be, he will
loose his case and suffer the full penalty for breaking God's law.
Someone has said, "He who appears as his own advocate has a
fool for a client." This may not always hold true in an earthly court,
but it is certainly true concerning the court of heaven, for only a fool
could hope to defend himself before God and expect to prove himself
righteous, and thereby escape judgment. One does not need to be
rich to be a client of Jesus. Barton Holyday said, "A man may as
well open an oyster without a knife as a lawyers mouth without a
fee." A pelican, it is said, would make a good lawyer, for he knows
how to stretch his bill. These things do not apply to the ministry of
Christ, for it is free to all who claim it.
John says in verse 2 that Jesus has already paid for our sins, and
the sins of the whole world. Every sin in the world then can be
freely pardoned though the ministry of Christ. The poorest can
benefit fully from His services. One does not even need to be right to
be His client. Sometimes mothers say to their children when they
are naughty, "If you do that, Jesus won't love you anymore." This
is the world's worst theology, for if Jesus only loved us when we are
good, like everyone else, who is to our helper when we most need it,
when we are not good? It is when we are guilty that we need an
advocate, and not when we are innocent. When the Greek lawyer
Phacian was criticized for appearing on behalf of an unworthy client
he said, "The good have no need of an advocate." Jesus said, "It is
the sick who need the physician and not those who are well." We
conclude this point by making it clear, there is only one requirement
to be a client of Christ. You need not be rich or right, but you must
be redeemed. You must be one who has Christ as personal Savior.
Only then are you in this, "We have an advocate." Jesus is a
specialist, and thus, and advocate only of believers.
II. HIS CALLING.
He is an advocate with the Father. We have here His profession
and the place where He practices that profession-with the Father.
The place of His service is important, for it is that which makes His
ministry distinct from that of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also
our Advocate, but His ministry is within us. When Jesus said to His
disciples in His last discourse before He went to the cross, "I will
pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter," He used
the same word that is used here-paraclete. It is used four times of
the Holy Spirit and just once of Christ. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit
our Advocate, and the Holy Spirit through John calls Jesus our
Advocate. Jesus, however, says He will send another advocate, and
by saying another He claims also to be one, even when He was with
the disciples. The terms comforter, counselor, advocate, are all
descriptive of the one Greek word paraclete. It means one who is
called to one's side to help and give aid. When summoned to court
the paraclete is at your side to aid you. The Christian than needs
two advocates, for he needs aid in two realms and in two ways. He
needs earthly and heavenly aid, and he needs subjective and
objective aid.
In the last part of the first century, not long after John wrote this
letter, the Roman Emperor Adrian in a letter to Minucine Fundanus
said, "If, therefore, the people of the province will appear publicly
and in a legal way charge the Christians, that they may answer for
themselves in court, let them take that course, and not proceed by
importunate demands and local clamors only. For it is much the
best method." Here was an earthly court situation, and Christian
lives were at stake, but they were given the right to defend
themselves. Here is where the Holy Spirit's ministry came in. Jesus
said they would be taken before courts, but they need not worry, for
the Holy Spirit would teach them what to say. Time does not permit
us to examine the great Christian defenses of the early Christians,
but we do want to refer to one more modern example of how the
Word of God has made great victories through Christians being
tried before men.
F. O. Nilsson, the first Baptist preacher in Sweden, was
summoned to the supreme court of Southern Sweden in 1850 on the
charge of heresy. He was found guilty and sentenced to banishment.
The news media, however, carried the minutes of the trial and the
convictions of Nilsson were spread over the land. Nilsson reported,
"From this day the Baptists and their doctrines were no longer
confined to an obscure corner of the land, and to a few poor
despised laborers. The truth was with trumpet voices proclaimed on
the housetops, and the sound thereof re-echoed from cottage to
palace, throughout the length and breadth of the land. Thus my
appearance before the High Court at Jonkoping was the public
introduction of Baptist principles into Sweden." In 9 years there
were 95 churches; 4,000 members, and it all began in court. This is
of additional interest because the banishment of Nilsson was even a
blessing, for he came to America and became one of the founders of
the Swedish Baptist Conference which is now the Baptist General
Conference.
The point of all this in relation to our subject of advocates is that
it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to give guidance and counsel here
on earth as we defend the faith before courts or elsewhere. It is he
who aids Christians in bringing good out of evil situations. It is also
the ministry of the Holy Spirit to defend us before the court of our
own conscience, and to help us experience the pardon and peace of
God. It is not enough that we are pardoned objectively through the
ministry of Christ, for we need to sense its reality within also. We
need to know we are free from condemnation, and this is the calling
of our other advocate the Holy Spirit.
Christ is our Advocate on high,
Thou art our Advocate within;
O plead the truth and make reply
To every argument of sin.
The statement of Christ being our Advocate with the Father is
not incidental and insignificant, for it designates his specific calling
and sphere of ministry, for it is with the Father. Jesus does not
plead for us in the state court, or the supreme court of the nation,
nor in the international courts of the world, but rather, in the
highest court in the universe. It is there where, not just a man's
rights or property, or even his life is at stake, but his eternal
destiny. This is the high calling and present ministry of Christ. It is
said that three Philadelphia lawyers are a match for the very devil
himself. But all the Philadelphia lawyers combined would be of no
benefit to us before the judgment seat of God. Our need there is not
to outwit the devil, but to satisfy the demands of God's holiness, and
that is impossible unless we have an Advocate who is not just
brilliant, but who can also satisfy God's holiness. That is why John
writes to believers and says if you sin you need not despair, for you
have an Advocate whose calling is to gain your pardon in the court
of heaven. If this truth alone does not add to our Christian joy and
fulfill one of John's purposes for writing this letter, then we must be
deaf to the Holy Spirit. We who love Christ are His clients and
benefit daily because of His ministry before the throne of God.
III. HIS CHARACTER.
Jesus is called the righteous. It is not just incidental either that
John adds this word of description of Christ's character as our
Advocate. Unless He was righteous, it would be of little comfort to
be His client, for it is His righteousness alone that enables Him to
gain our pardon. On earth and advocate need not be righteous to
win his clients case. In fact, he may be more guilty than the man he
is defending. None of the cleverness of men and loop-holes in the
law, however, can help the guilty sinner before God. If there is no
just way for God to grant pardon, than he cannot and will not do it.
And the only way He can justly pardon the guilty is, if there is a
compelling cause such as a substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of the
guilty. Even God's mercy must be in harmony with His holiness.
Jesus Christ the righteous is the only being in the universe who can
meet the need at the throne of God. He is not just the best, He is the
only lawyer that can win our case.
Jesus died for our sins and took the wages of sin on Himself, and
since He was righteous and, therefore, totally undeserving of any
punishment, His sacrifice makes it possible for God to pardon all for
whom He pleads. Justice demands mercy since is would be unjust to
punish again for the same sin. This would be to deny the value of
Christ's sacrifice. It would be unjust to deny the substitute his right
to suffer for another. If I take ten lashes that you deserve, because
out of love I do not want you to suffer, that should be my right to so
express my love, and it would be an injustice to me, and a denial of
my right to so love, if the punishment were also then given to you.
That would make my suffering be for nothing, and it would be
injustice. Justice demands that the penalty be inflicted only once.
How much greater wrong it would be to take the suffering of
Christ the righteous, and count it of no value. God's justice
demands that He hear and grant every plea of Christ for pardon.
Jesus can never loose a case, for since He died for all sin, there is no
sin that cannot be pardoned if He is the sinners Advocate. Sir
Walter Raleigh sat in prison waiting for his trial for high treason,
for which he was to be condemned to be executed. He felt all was
unjust in the courts of earth, but he looked to the court of heaven
and wrote,
From thence to heaven's bribeless call,
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No conscience molten into gold,
No forged accuser bought or sold;
No cause deferred, no vain-spent journey,
For Christ is there, the King's Attorney.
And when the grand twelve-million jury,
Of our sins with direful fury,
Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads His death, and then we live.
Be thou my Speaker, Taintless Pleader,
Unblotted Lawyer, True Proceeder!
Thou giv'est salvation even for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer's palms.
This then is my eternal plea,
To Him that made heaven, earth, and sea.
If Christ is your Advocate, this too is your hope.
