Q -When does the Lord Jesus take the place of intercessor for His people, and when the place of Advocate, and what is the difference between intercession and advocacy?
A.-As to time, the Lord Jesus took the place of intercessor for His people, immediately upon His ascension to the right hand of God, and His first act as Intercessor, in this new place, was to ask for the Spirit for His people, in fulfillment of the promise in John 14:1616And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (John 14:16). Intercession raises no question of sin or failure, but looks to the wants and weaknesses of saints in their passage through the wilderness as opposed by the power of Satan. It is as beyond condemnation, and made free from the law of sin and death by the law of the stunt of life in Christ Jesus, according to the sovereign election of God, that Christ as Intercessor is set before us in the 8th of Romans. God being for us according to the counsels of His own will; "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Intercession connects itself with what God is for us aside from any question of responsibility in us. It is sovereign grace, and hence no question of government.
Christ became the Advocate of His people as soon as their sinning made His grace needful in that character. Supposing the church had, by faith walked in the power of the 8th of Romans, and as maintained there through Christ's intercession, had never sinned, an advocate would never have been required. " If any man sin," says John, " we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Sinning is looked at as an exceptional position for a saint to be in. A saint always requires Christ intercession, he should never require His advocacy. If he does sin, blessed be God, he has one, but this precious grace surely affords no ground for going on sinning,. "for these things," says the same apostle, "I write unto you that ye sin not." Advocacy connects itself with our responsibility, and thus with God's government as a Father; involves discipline, and not communion. In short, intercession looks to our being maintained above failure, in the enjoyment of divine grace; while advocacy looks to our restoration to that enjoyment, when, through failure, we have lost it. It is a blessed thought to carry in the heart, not only that as sinners Christ has died upon the cross for us, and thus set us beyond the possibility of condemnation, but that directly as saints, or more scripturally as men, we sin, Christ advocates for us, and thus restoration is as surely secured by advocacy, as salvation is already accomplished by the cross.
Q.-What is the meaning of Rom. 7:99For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (Romans 7:9), " For I was alive without law once; but when the commandment. came sin revived, and I died?"
A.-We must remember that the apostle is speaking-here of sin, not sins. The conscience of an unconverted person recognizes sins, but as alive in Adam, is unawakened as to sin. The law comes in power spiritually and forbids lust, and the quickened soul at once recognizes sin, as a living thing, and the condemnation that the law pronounces on it comes upon the conscience, and in conscience the person dies. It is when the law thus deals with the nature, calling it into conscious activity in the heart, and then condemns it in the conscience, that the true power of what it is to be under law is felt.