JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS!
"We
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
-I
JOHN
2:1 [KJV]
This
advocacy is here called, as elsewhere, "pleading the cause"
of the believer, and is connected with deliverance, for such an
advocate can never fail: "O
Lord, Thou
hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou
hast redeemed my life"
[LAMENTATIONS
3:58].
The figure is taken from a lawyer pleading the cause of a criminal,
and using his best endeavours to bring him off uninjured. But such
advocacy may fail for two reasons: 1. the incompetency of the
advocate; or 2. the badness of the cause. But there are no such
hindrances to the success of the advocacy of Christ.
How
He can plead His
own sufferings, blood, and obedience. His very Person as the Son of
God, and yet son of man, gives unspeakable value and validity to
every plea of the great Intercessor. What validity, then, has His
intercession in the court of heaven! It is true that He
cannot deny the truth of the charge brought by the accuser of the
brethren against His
client; but He
can present His
own meritorious sufferings, and the sorrows He
endured for the culprit. On this ground He
can stand up as His
surety and representative, and plead with the Father that He
has suffered in his place and stead. On the firm, solid ground, then,
of justice and equity, He
can plead on his behalf, "Let him
go, for I endured the penalty due to him."
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
JANUARY
10th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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