Olsen Park Church of Christ


“An Advocate with the Father”
By Kyle Pope

We all have friends and family who lead very upright lives. They love their families. They pay their taxes. They are hard workers and do good to those around them. They are our neighbors and classmates.  We see them at the grocery store and pass them on the street. From everything we can see with our eyes they are the “cream of the crop” of what this world has to offer. Within them, however, unseen to the naked eye is a fatal flaw—they are spiritually separated from God! The invisible bullet of sin has penetrated their soul leaving a mortal wound that has rendered them spiritually dead. Although they appear to be alive and well, they are walking corpses awaiting their everlasting cremation.

Why don’t we see this fatal flaw? Perhaps because we are so used to superficial observation. We judge according to how healthy someone looks in the flesh. Often, however, it may be that a person with a broken failing body is one of the most spiritually healthy among us because he or she does not trust in the flesh. We prize intellect and power, but it is often only the humble and meek that see the importance of reaching outside of themselves. The spiritually dead don’t stand out from the crowd. We won’t see an arrow floating over them and pointing to them with the words “I am lost!” Yet, whether they realize it or not, the truth is that all souls separated from God because of sin are lost in sin.

The sad thing is that the Bible tells us that is the condition of most of the world! Jesus said of the gate leading to destruction “there are many who go in by it” (Matt. 7:13). While of the gate leading to life, He said, “there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:14). In fact, the Bible often uses the term world itself, not in reference to the pure and undefiled product of God’s work in creation, but of the corrupt results of what man has done to it. So John teaches, “If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

How are we to rationalize in our minds that a loving God can view those whom we consider so decent and upright as separated from Him? How can we see them as God does? We often try to tell ourselves that the “good person” we know in the world is somehow accepted by God, but it is only the “bad person” who is not. But, who defines what is good and what is bad? God sets the standard of man’s behavior. It is His right to judge man’s deeds. In reality, no accountable soul can stand before God as a “good person” because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Why is it that all who are outside of Christ are lost?—Because sin prevents man from coming into the presence of a sinless and righteous God. If any souls could honestly claim that they had never sinned they could come before God without guilt. But, the Holy Spirit frankly tells any accountable soul who might cling to such wishful thinking, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

How can the sinful soul approach God the Father? Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The insurmountable obstacle to the human soul is sin! The necessary remedy to conquer it is Jesus Christ. The fatal deficiency in the worldly soul outside of Christ is the lack of an Advocate with the Father on behalf of sin. The only One who can fill that role is Jesus—“There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The Bible declares to the Christian, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). Jesus Christ is the most over-worked public defender in human history! Yet, He only works for those who accept His service through faith and obedience to the gospel. While His caseload is full, He is always willing to take on more clients. May God help us to see those around us who need Him as desperately as we do, but have not yet come to realize it.

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