1st John 2: 1-2

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an

advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  2  He is the atoning sacrifice for our

sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” – 1st John 2: 1-2

 

1st John 1:8 ( 8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”) makes it clear that

sin is a fact in the life of the Christian. John wants it also to be clear that the believer should be concerned

about sin. One reason in writing this letter was that you may not sin. John wants to make it clear that we do

not have to sin. God does not make the believer sin.

 

But, if and when we do have the occasional slip up, we have an Advocate, Someone with a lot of pull with the

Father, who publicly pleads our case to Him. Jesus is our defender, even when we sin now. God is not

shocked by our behavior. He has seen it all in advance. He didn’t forgive us at one time to say at a later time in

our lives, “Look what they did now! If I would have known they would go and do that, I would have never

forgiven them.” His forgiveness is available to us now.

 

We may think that our sin sets God against us. But God’s love is so great for us, that He went to the ultimate

measure to make us able to stand in the face of His holy righteousness. Through Jesus, God can be for us

even when we are guilty sinners.

 

Jesus Christ the Righteous One is our helper! He alone has the right to plead our case to the Father, because

He Himself is sinlessly perfect. We need Jesus as our Advocate because Satan accuses us before God. We

need to be able to tell the difference between the condemning accusation of Satan and the loving conviction of

the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus is our atoning sacrifice for our sins. This means that He fixes our wrongs in the eyes of God. He paid our

fines for the crimes we have committed against God. He redeemed our souls to once again have value in the

kingdom of heaven. Not only our sins, but also the sins of the whole world.

 

What should we learn from Jesus’ sacrifice and from John’s teaching?

· A Christian no longer loves sin as he once did.

· A Christian no longer brags about his sin as he once did.

· A Christian no longer plans to sin as he once did.

· A Christian no longer fondly remembers his sin as he once did.

· A Christian never fully enjoys his sin as he once did.

· A Christian no longer is comfortable in habitual sin as he once was.