Many questions come to bear as we consider Christ as advocate. First of all, what is an advocate? According to several dictionaries, it is "a person who pleads for or on behalf of another; an intercessor; a champion or proponent; a lawyer; counselor; spokesman who speaks in favor of a person or cause."
A lawyer eh? I find this one interesting as my sister just finished her second year studying law and I wonder how much of what she has been taught would reflect Christ. To be truthful, lawyers have never been particularly respected in our family for their ethics or character. So, Christ as advocate must mean something different than I envision when I think of a lawyer.
So, let's consider Christ as our advocate...
1. Where does Christ plead?
Christ pleads before God the Father and the heavenly host at the throne of judgment (pictured in 1 Kings 22: 19)
2. How and what does He plead?
First of all, in Christ's plea, he never pleads the innocence of the accused. Everyone He has ever defended throughout history has been guilty. Instead, He pleads His own merit, his own obedience to the Father; the blood He poured out at Calvary that covers the sins of His followers and the victorious resurrection that He had over death and sin. He also pleads God's love for His people and Christ's own interest in His bride. Despite our American cultural belief that we are good and worthwhile and we deserve God's love, the truth is that God's interest in us has nothing to do with our worth. It has everything to do with His.
3. When does He plead?
To be quite honest, I'm not sure of the answer to this question, so I'm going to take a guess. Feel free to comment on this or anything else I've mentioned! Because Scripture says in Revelations 12: 10-12 that Satan accuses us night and day, I believe there is a case that Christ pleads for us night and day. Hebrews 7: 25 states that Christ "ever liveth to make intercession for us [them]".
4. With whom does He plead?
Christ pleads with His own Father, the holy and just Judge over all peoples and nations. It is an interesting thought for me to picture a court room scene and know that the defense is the Son of the judge. It seems to me that the Judge must account the accuser His enemy because His own son is the pleader of the accused, and the accuser is, in essence, asserting that His Son's sacrifice is incomplete for the salvation of sinners.
5. For whom does He plead?
According to the above passage , Christ pleads for the children of God; those who have been redeemed by His blood and yet still continue to fall into the sins of the flesh. If we were to go on in 1 John, we'd find the distinction made between the redeemed who struggle with sin and the wicked who still belong to the devil and whose deeds illuminate their captivity to his will. In truth, Christ is a public defender, pleadly without payment on behalf of the poor who can never repay Him.
6. Why do we need an advocate?
Stated simply in the above verse, because we still sin and we know the grievousness of sin before a holy God! As John Bunyan states in his treatise on Jesus Christ as advocate, "Wherefore, it is evident that saints neither can nor dare adventure to plead their cause. Alas! the Judge is the almighty and eternal God; the law broken is the holy and perfect rule of God, in itself a consuming fire. The sin is so odious, and a thing so abominable, that it is enough to make all the angels blush to hear it but so much as once mentioned in so holy a place as that is where this great God doth sit to judge. This sin now hangs about the neck of him that hath committed it; yea, it covereth him as doth a mantle. The adversary is bold, cunning, and audacious, and can word a thousand of us into an utter silence in less than half a quarter of an hour. What, then, should the sinner, if he could come there, do at this bar to plead? Nothing; nothing for his own advantage. But now comes in his mercy-he has an Advocate to plead his cause..."
7. What happens without an advocate?
Note that Jesus never pleads our innocence before His Father, the Judge. He pleads His.
Even Old Testament Job understood His need for an advocate as observed in Job 16: 21. The filthy rags of our good deeds that we so often boast in will not lead to an acquittal on the judgment day. Excuses will not work. And not just any advocate will do. Buddha will not lead to acquittal. Neither will Muhammad or Ghandi. Only Christ will. Without Him, we will be convicted and we will be condemned.
8. Who is our accuser/prosecution?
The accuser is Satan, known Scripturally as the "accuser of the breathren" and the "tempter". Though he himself incites the believing and unbelieving into sin, he quickly turns against his victim and stands before them to condemn them before what he already knew was a holy God.
9. How should a defendent respond to his/her advocate?
First of all, if a defendent has a trustworthy advocate as Christ Himself is, He should observe His direction and trust in His ability to defend. It is a rare thing that we forget our sin, our guilt, or the accusations of Satan, but an altogether common truth that we forget that we, as children of God, have an advocate who will plead for us and WILL win on our behalf no matter how black the stain of our sin is. It has nothing to do with us deserving it. In fact, we deserve to be found guilty and condemned. But Christ has the ability to defend his people to the utmost because He paid the utmost price to ransom us.
10. So, where does all of this leave me in terms of treasuring Christ more?
I am reminded today that when (not if, but when) I stand before the throne of judgment, the evidence that Christ will use to acquit me will bear no mention of loving things I have said or done, sacrifices I have made for His kingdom, the number of hours I have spent praying, reading the Word, evangelizing the lost, or caring for the poor. If I am found in Him- which does not mean I was baptized, prayed a prayer, or go to church, but instead that I have believed and trusted on Him and been given the grace and deposit of the Holy Spirit to live the transformed life of a follower- the evidence He will use on my behalf will be the testimony of His own life substituted for the testimony of mine.
If you'd like to join in with this study of Christ's titles in Scripture, tomorrow's study will be on "Christ is all, and in all" from Colossians 3: 11.
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