EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2024 11:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Divine Defense Attorney”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 2:1b
Message of the verse: “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
I want to begin by keeping with the imagery; God
appears as the supreme Judge of the universe, as He is seated at the heavenly
bench and judging all people according to the absolute perfection of His holy
law. He is the author (Lev. 26:46),
interpreter (Ps. 119:34), and applier (Jer. 31:33) of the law. Believers must view the reality of divine
justice with great sobriety and respect as seen in 1 Peter 1:17, and we can
compare with that Acts 17:31; Col. 3:25), since God possesses the power and
authority to condemn to hell every sinner who ever lived. Jesus gave this sober admonition: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are
unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). Now the
Old Testament prophets also gave clear warning about the kind of divine judgment
as seen in Amos 5:18-20; Zeph.; 1:14-18).
John MacArthur concludes this section by writing “Those
who are saved, however, need not fear diving justice because they have an
Advocate with the Father, none other than Jesus Christ the righteous. Here Advocate translates parakletos (‘one who comes alongside’) and denotes in legal
settings the defender or counselor who comes to aid his client. (In his gospel, John used the same term,
translated there as ‘Helper’ or ‘Comforter’ [14:16, 26; 16:7] to refer to the
support given to each believer by the Holy Spirit.) Christ is the perfect Advocate, since the
Judge is His Father and they are always in perfect harmony (cf. Matt. 26:39;
John 4:34). Further, the Son completely
understands the saints’ human weaknesses because He came to earth as the fully
human Son of Man (Heb. 4:14-15; cf. Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:5-8). He accepts as clients only those who confess
their guilt and their desperate need to receive Him as Savior and Lord )cf.
Matt. 7:21-23; 25:31-46; John 6:37; 10:3, 14-15); and He becomes for them the
incomparable intercessor who always gains acquittal for those who trust in
Him. In Old Testament language, He is
their great High Priest (Heb. 7:25-28).”
Next we will be looking at “The Perfect Propitiation”
from 1 John 2:2.
9/15/2024 11:35 PM
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