Monday: Advocate and Intercessor
Read Romans 8:31–34. What great hope and promise is offered us here?
Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com
The background of verses 31-24 is a courtroom scene in which we should visualize ourselves on trial. Questions are asked: Who is against us? Who will bring a charge against us? Who condemns us? Such a situation could easily send shivers down our spines. After all, are we not well aware of our human imperfection and sinfulness?
However, we do not need to fear. The promise that nothing and no one can separate us from God’s love centers on several important points: God is for us (vs. 31), God delivered His Son for us (vs. 32), God freely gives us all things (vs. 32), and God justifies us (vs. 33). Jesus Christ is on our side. Jesus is the answer to any fear of condemnation, for He died, was raised, and is now continuously interceding for us in the heavenly sanctuary at the right hand of God (vs. 34).
If someone goes so far as to die willingly for us, we should feel confident of His love. The assurance revealed in Romans 8:31–39 is really telling us about the kind of God we believe in. If we understand that our God loves us so much that nothing can thwart His purposes for us (vss. 35-39), the divine courtroom becomes a place of joy and jubilation.
This truth becomes even clearer in 1 John 2:1-2. The Greek parakletos designates a legal assistant or advocate, someone who appears in another’s behalf as “intercessor.” Jesus is our Advocate, and He defends us because otherwise we would have no hope.
Our Advocate is “righteous,” which gives us the assurance that the Father will hear Christ’s intercession, for Christ could do nothing that His righteous Father would reject. Christ intercedes for those who have sinned, presenting Himself—the One who has not sinned—as the Righteous One who stands in their stead.
How can you better experience the marvelous truth that nothing will separate you from God’s love? How can you use this assurance as a motivation to live as God would have you live, as opposed, perhaps, to how you are living now?
(33)
The immutable law of God demands perfection. Hence the perfect Life of Christ. The penalty for sin demands death. Hence the perfect Sacrifice of Christ. A place in Heaven demands character restoration. Hence the perfecting work of Christ, through the Holy Spirit to transform the surrendered and obedient heart. If this is not a free ride...? What more need Christ do?
Here is an Advocate we can trust with our case. He pleads with us while He pleads for us. What assurance!
The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? He said, seek My face, His face will I seek. He said, seek My face, His face am I seeking. Psalms 27:1,8
We talked about assurance last Thursday, in light of slipping away then returning to God. Even though we lose hold of Him because of sin in our lives, we come back to Him with just a feeble grip, He then holds onto us with a grip so tight, it allows no slipping as long as we choose to stay with Him. That's the advocate I picture beside me in the court of heaven.
Looking at Christ's sacrifice and the efficacy of his spilled blood has brought a question to my mind: What qualifies Jesus' blood to be so powerful to cleanse all sin? Is it because He is God OR a perfect man?
I now realize that I always thought that it was because He was God but I cannot find any Scripture or EGW quote that indicates this.
Reading Romans 5, Paul seems to indicate that Christ, the Second Adam (man) undid what the first Adam did. So if the first Adam's sin was powerful enough to corrupt the human line why wouldn't a man's righteousness be powerful enough to "uncorrupt" humanity?
So my reasoning would tell me that the only reason why we needed the "God part of Jesus" for our redemption was the necessity of the resurrection. Any "perfect man" who had redeemed the race would have to remain dead. Only Jesus could pay the price and still be resurrected.
Your thoughts ...
Our redemption required a perfect man.......since no man is sinless this redemption required divine man.....the only perfect one......
This then shows me that no man can atone.....hence no man should judge me....
Only Jesus knows and understands
Ray, without the death of Christ we would not have the resurection of Christ, nither would we have the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us. Jesus made it clear in the gospels that He had to die for our sins and raise in three days to make the water and the Spirit effective. What about all those before His death and resurection? They were baptized before He died. They are covered by His blood also. We will we be studing this for eternity. The angles of God did not even begain to understand the plan of salvation untill Christ died on the cross and was resurected in three days. I would like you to read John chapter 1.
John,
My question is did GOD have to die or just a perfect human?
Ray, since the Law of God is the foundation of God's government, for any sin to be "forgiven," only the Creator of the universe Himself could satisfy the demands of the law. If any transgression of the law were just passed over without penalty (i.e. "forgiven" without any penalty), it would demonstrate that the Law was either not necessary or imperfect.
Christ died to demonstrate that the Law could not be transgressed without impunity, because it is the very foundation of His government. He demonstrated the terrible result of transgression, and as Creator, He bought the right to forgive sin, so to speak.
Not even the self-sacrifice of an angel could satisfy the demands of the law. It would simply be an unfair substitution. In a way we cannot fully understand, Christ could and did obtain the right to forgive sin while still upholding the Law. (For more on this subject, see Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 64 )
No man is qualified to redeem us from the penalty of death because all of us are facing a death sentence as a wage of our sins. My death for example cannot be a payment for your death because my death will only be a payment for my sin.
The only one who can die in behalf of us is someone who has not sinned so that his death can be a payment for other's sin.
Christ has not sinned. He has not sinned because he has fulfilled and satisfied the law. In other words the one who is worthy to pay the price is someone who has fulfilled and satisfied the law and no one in the universe can fulfill the law away from God. Therefore it needed a God, (not a perfect man and not even unfallen angels because even angels are dependent on God to fulfill the law) to come to be sacrificed as a payment for our sins.
What we learn in this lesson - Jesus is our midiator who bring about our sins on the cross of Calvary. Hallelujah oh Jesus.
Wow! What a wonderful savour? When satan accused before the father, Jesus will say father remember that this man (I) have not commited whatever allegation satan has brought but even if truly i had falter Christ will said father, Look at my nail piersed hand it is because of this allegation and God will tell satan that his allegation is null and void. Thanks to Jesus.
How can you better experience the marvelous truth that nothing will separate you from God’s love? How can you use this assurance as a motivation to live as God would have you live, as opposed, perhaps, to how you are living now?
By receiving this gift of God's love by faith, we can experience this truth. God has freely offered us this gift and we refuse to reach out our hands and receive it. Once we believe we become free from the bondage of sin and are able to whitstand whatever trouble or suffering which comes and proclaim God as Lord. We are free to behave like kingdom folk.
The word "Advocate" is court language. It pre-supposes a prosecutor and a judge. And "advocate" or defense lawyer is optional but, in this case absolutely necessary.
To understand the situation, I think it is very important to understand the various roles. The role of the judge in the Hebrew economy was to find the defendant innocent if at all possible. Thus it is God's aim to find us "innocent" so that we may spend eternity with Him.
The prosecutor in this legal scenario is the great accuser, Satan himself, who brings up all sorts of reasons why God cannot both be just and save the sinner.
Christ, as our Advocate, is for us. In fact He puts Himself in our place. And since He lived a perfectly righteous life, and He covers us with His righteousness, we stand before God as though we had never sinned. He defeats the accusations of Satan on the basis that His children have accepted His perfect life instead of their own and are living their lives "in Him."
The Father is for us. Christ is for us. Satan is against us. The majority is for us, but the final judgment depends very much on our choice. Will we accept Christ as our Advocate and Lord? (To do so, means we have to admit that we are helpless and have no righteousness of our own. Are we willing to do that?)