{"id":24766,"date":"2025-04-20T23:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=24766"},"modified":"2025-04-20T23:18:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T23:18:00","slug":"we-have-an-advocate-with-the-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2025\/04\/we-have-an-advocate-with-the-father\/","title":{"rendered":"We Have An Advocate With The Father"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.\u201d\u20141 John 2:1<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the glass of God\u2019s holy and righteous law we see what an unholy and unrighteous thing sin is; it is hateful in the eyes of a pure God; it has separated between God and the sinner, and tends to his eternal destruction. The gospel in no wise renders sin less odious to God, less heinous in his sight; far from it. Yea rather, it paints sin in the blackest colours, and shews its deepest malignancy, by the gracious method of its atonement. View the holy Lamb suffering for sin on the cross, see the streaming blood, and hear the direful agonies of the Son of God on account of sin; and say, oh believer, is sin a little matter, a trifling thing? Learn daily sin\u2019s evil by its remedy, sin\u2019s poison by its antidote, the hell it deserved by the person who redeems; and ever, oh my soul, hold fast this as a sacred truth, though God loves thy person in Christ Jesus, yet he hates thy sins; though reconciled to thy soul through the Son of his love, yet he never can be reconciled to sin; though at peace with thee through the blood of the cross, yet ever at enmity against thy sins. Hence the beloved disciple declares, \u2018These things write I unto you, little children, that ye sin not.\u2019 Beware of sin as the worst evil, watch against sin as a deadly foe, strive against it, oppose, resist it in the power of the Spirit, as your worst enemy, as most hateful and displeasing to your best friend.<\/p>\n

But \u2018if any man sin\u2019 (for none are perfectly free from sin in their nature, nor wholly exempt from it in their practice) what then? Must he lie down and despair? No: \u2018We have an advocate with the Father.\u2019 Jesus Christ pleads the cause of sinners, though he is not an advocate for sin; for he is \u2018the righteous.\u2019 Therefore he doth not deny the charge that we are sinners, guilty in ourselves; he extenuates none of our us, but owns every accusation brought into court against us by a perfect law and strict justice, with every aggravating circumstance which can be urged. Against all that law and justice can charge upon us, he pleads his own undertaking, his work, his life and death, his blood and righteousness. His people have sinned; his blood hath atoned. They have contracted guilt; he hath suffered the punishment. They have deserved the curse of the law; he has borne it for them. They have deserved hell; he has opened the kingdom of heaven. They are unrighteous in themselves; Jesus hath fulfilled the law for them, and clothes them with his perfect righteousness. Therefore he pleads that sin may not be imputed to them; but that pardon of sin and peace of conscience may be bestowed upon them by the Word and Spirit; and that they may be sanctified in him, and glorified with him. Thus saith our dear Lord to us, \u2018I will not leave you comfortless.\u2019 John 14:18<\/p>\n

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In the glass of God\u2019s holy and righteous law we see what an unholy and unrighteous thing sin is; it is hateful in the eyes of a pure God; it has separated between God and the sinner, and tends to his eternal destruction. The gospel in no wise renders sin less odious to God, less heinous in his sight; far from it. Yea rather, it paints sin in the blackest colours, and shews its deepest malignancy, by the gracious method of its atonement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":20656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1571],"tags":[1197],"class_list":["post-24766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-william-mason","tag-spiritual-growth"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24776,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24766\/revisions\/24776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}