It is of the very last importance that the reader should be established in the knowledge and practical sense of what the Atonement of Christ has accomplished for all who simply trust in Him. It is, we need hardly say, the only basis of peace. He has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; and He has borne our sins, in His own body, on the tree. It is, therefore, impossible that any question as to sin or guilt can ever arise. All has been ‘once and forever’ settled by the atoning death of the Lamb of God. True it is—alas! how true—we have sin in us; and we have, daily and hourly, to judge ourselves and judge our ways. It will ever hold good of us, so long as we are in a body of sin and death, that “in us, that is in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” But then nothing can ever touch the question of our soul’s perfect and eternal acceptance. The conscience of the believer is as completely purged from every soil and stain, as will be the whole creation, by and by. If it were not so, Christ could not be where He now is. He has entered into the presence of God, there to appear for us. This leads us, in the second place, to consider the advocacy.
Very many souls are apt to confound two things which, though inseparably connected, are perfectly distinct, namely, Advocacy and Atonement. Not seeing the divine completeness of the Atonement, they are, in a certain way, looking to the Advocacy to do for them what the Atonement has done. We must remember that though, as to our standing, we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; yet, as to the actual fact of our condition, we are in the body. We are, in spirit and by faith, seated in heavenly places in Christ; but yet we are actually in the wilderness, subject to all sorts of infirmities, liable to fail and err in a thousand ways. Now it is to meet our present actual state and wants that the Advocacy or Priesthood of Christ is designed. God be praised for the blessed provision! As those who are in the body, passing through the wilderness, we need a great High Priest to maintain the link of communion, or to restore it when broken. Such a One we have, ever living to make intercession for us; nor could we get on for a single moment without Him. The work of Atonement is never repeated; the work of the Advocate is never interrupted. When once the blood of Christ is applied to the soul, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the application is never repeated. To think of a repetition is to deny its efficacy, and to reduce it to the level of the blood of bulls and goats. No doubt people do not see this; and, most assuredly, they do not mean it: but such is the real tendency of the thought of a fresh application of the blood of sprinkling. It may be that persons who speak in this way, really mean to put honor upon the blood of Christ, and to give expression to their own felt unworthiness; but, in good truth, the best way to put honor upon the blood of Christ is to rejoice in what it has done for our souls: and the best way to set forth our own unworthiness is to feel and remember that we were so vile, that nothing but the death of Christ could avail to meet our case. So vile were we that nothing but His blood could cleanse us. So precious is His blood that not a trace of our guilt remains. “The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Thus it stands in reference to the very feeblest child of God whose eye scans these lines. “All sin’s forgiven.” Not a trace of guilt remains. Jesus is in the presence of God for us. He is there as a High Priest before God—as an Advocate with the Father. He has, by His atoning death, rent the veil—put away sin—brought us nigh to God, in all the credit and virtue of His sacrifice; and now He lives to maintain us by His Advocacy, in the enjoyment of the place and privileges into which His blood has introduced us.
Hence the apostle says, “If any man sin we have”—what? the blood? Nay; but— “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” The blood has done its work, and is ever before God according to its full value in His sight. Its efficacy is ever the same. But we have sinned; it may be only in thought; but even that thought is quite enough to interrupt our communion. Here is where Advocacy comes in. If it were not that Jesus Christ is ever acting for us in the sanctuary above, our faith would most assuredly fail in moments in the which we have, in any measure, yielded to the voice of our sinful nature. Thus it was with Peter, in that terrible hour of his temptation and fall: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith foil not; and when thou art converted [or restored] strengthen thy brethren.” Luke 22:31, 3231And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. (Luke 22:31‑32).
Let the reader note this. “I have prayed for thee that”—what? Was it that he might not fail? Nay, but that, having failed, his faith might not give way. Had Christ not prayed for His poor feeble servant, he would have gone from bad to worse, and from worse to worst. But the intercession of Christ procured for Peter the grace of true repentance, self-judgment, and bitter sorrow for his grievous sin; and, finally, complete restoration of his heart and conscience, so that the current of his communion—interrupted by sin, but restored by advocacy—might flow on as before.
Thus it is with us, when, through lack of that holy vigilance which we should ever exercise, we commit sin. Jesus goes to the Father for us. He prays for us; and it is through the efficacy of His priestly intercession that we are convicted, and brought to self-judgment, confession and restoration. All is founded on the Advocacy; and the Advocacy is founded on the Atonement.
And here it may be well to assert, in the clearest and strongest manner possible, that it is the sweet privilege of every believer not to commit sin. There is no necessity whatever why he should. “My little children,” says the apostle, “these things write I unto you that ye sin not.” This is a most precious truth for every lover of holiness. We need not sin. Let us remember this. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:99Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3:9).
This is the divine idea of a Christian. Alas! we do not always realize it; but that does not, and cannot, touch the precious truth. The divine nature, the new man, the life of Christ in the believer cannot possibly sin; and it is the privilege of every believer so to walk as that nothing but the life of Christ may be seen. The Holy Ghost dwells in the believer, on the ground of redemption, in order to give effect to the desires of the new nature, so that the flesh may be as though it did not exist, and nothing but Christ be seen in the believer’s life.
It is of the utmost importance that this divine idea of christian life should be seized and maintained. People sometimes ask the question, “Is it possible for a Christian to live without committing sin?” We reply in the language of the inspired apostle, “My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not.” (1 John 2:11My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (1 John 2:1).) And again, quoting the language of another inspired apostle, “How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6) The Christian is viewed by God as, “dead to sin;” and hence, if he yields to it, he is practically denying his standing in a risen Christ. Alas! alas! we do sin; and hence the apostle adds; “If any mm sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”
This gives wonderful completeness to the work on which our souls repose. Such is the perfect efficacy of the Atonement of Christ that we have one Advocate with us, in order that we may not sin; and we have another Advocate with the Father if we do sin. The word rendered “Comforter” 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), is the same as is rendered “Advocate” in 1 John 2:11My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (1 John 2:1). We have one divine Person managing for us here; and we have another divine Person managing for us in heaven; and all this on the ground of the atoning death of Christ.
Will it be said that, in writing thus, we furnish a license for committing sin? God forbid! We have already declared, and would insist upon, the blessed possibility of living in such unbroken communion with God—of walking so in the Spirit—of being so filled and occupied with Christ, as that the flesh or the old man may not appear. This we know is not always the case. “In many things we offend all,” as James tells us. But no right-minded person, no lover of holiness, no spiritual Christian, could have any sympathy with those who say that we must commit sin. Thank God it is not so. But what a mercy it is, beloved christian reader, to know that, when we do fail, there is One at the right hand of God, to restore the broken link of communion! This He does by producing in our souls, by. His Spirit who dwells in us—that “other Advocate”—the sense of failure and leading us into self-judgment and true confession of the wrong, whatever it be.
We say “true confession,” for it must be this if it be the fruit of the Spirit’s work in the heart. It is not lightly and flippantly saying we have sinned; and then as lightly and flippantly sinning again. This is most sorrowful, and most dangerous. We know nothing more hardening and demoralizing than this sort of thing. It is sure to lead to the most disastrous consequences. We have known cases of persons living in sin, and satisfying themselves by a mere lip confession of their sin, and then going and committing the sin again and again; and this has gone on for months and years; until God in His faithfulness caused the whole thing to come out openly before others.
All this is most dreadful. It is Satan’s way of hardening and deceiving the heart. Oh! that we may watch against it, and ever keep a tender conscience. We may rest assured that when a truehearted child of God is betrayed into sin, the Holy Ghost will produce in him such a sense of it—will lead him into such intense self-loathing—such an abhorrence of the evil—such thorough self-judgment in the presence of God, as that he cannot lightly go and commit the sin again. This we may learn from the words of the apostle, when he says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and”—mark this weighty clause—“tο cleanse us from all unrighteousness! Here we have the precious fruit of the double Advocacy. It is all presented in its fullness, in this part of the first epistle of John. If any man sin, the blessed Paraclete on high intercedes with the Father—pleads the full merits of His atoning work—prays for the erring one, on the ground of His having borne the judgment of that very sin. Then the other Paraclete acts in the conscience, produces repentance and confession, and brings the soul back into the light, in the sweet sense that the sin is forgiven, the unrighteousness cleansed, and the communion perfectly restored. “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Psalm 23:33He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. (Psalm 23:3).
We trust the reader will be enabled to understand this great fundamental truth. Many, we are aware, find it difficult to reconcile the idea of intercession with the truth of a perfect atonement. “If,” say they, “the atonement is perfect, what need is there of intercession? If the believer is made as white as snow by the blood of Christ—so white that God the Spirit can dwell in his heart—then what does he want of a priest? If by one offering Christ has perfected forever all them that are sanctified, then what need have these perfected and sanctified ones of an Advocate? Surely we must either admit the thought of an imperfect Atonement or deny the need of Advocacy.”
Such is the reasoning of the human mind; but such is not the faith of Christians. Scripture does most surely teach us that the believer is washed as white as snow; that he is accepted in the Beloved—complete in Christ—perfectly forgiven and perfectly justified through the death and resurrection of Christ; that he can never come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life; that he is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit—not in the old creation, but in the new—not a member of the first Adam, but of the last; that he is dead to sin, dead to the world, dead to the law, because Christ has died, and the believer died in Him. All this is largely unfolded and constantly insisted upon by the inspired writers. Scores of passages might easily be quoted in proof, were it needful.
But, then, there is another aspect of the Christian which must be taken into account. He is not in the flesh as to the ground of his standing; but he is in the body as to the fact of his condition. He is in Christ as to his standing; but he is also in the world as to the fact of his existence. He is surrounded by all sorts of temptations and difficulties; and he is, in himself, a poor, feeble creature, full of infirmities, not sufficient even to think anything as of himself. Nor is this all. Each true Christian is ever ready to acknowledge that in him, that is in his flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. He is saved, thank God, and all is eternally settled; but then he has, as a saved one, to get through the wilderness; he has to labor to enter into God’s rest; and here it is that priesthood comes in. The object of priesthood is not to complete the work of atonement, inasmuch as that work is as perfect as the One who accomplished it. But we have to be carried through the wilderness, and brought into the rest that remains for the people of God, and for this end we have a great High Priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. His sympathy and succor are ours, and we could not get on, for one moment, without them. He ever liveth to make intercession for us; and by His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, He sustains us, day by day, in the full credit and value of His atoning work. He lifts us up when we fall; restores us when we wander; repairs the link of communion when snapped by our carelessness. In a word, He appears in the presence of God for us, and there carries on an uninterrupted service on our behalf, in virtue of which we are maintained in the integrity of the relationship into which His atoning death has introduced us.
Thus much as to Atonement and Advocacy. It only remains for us to treat of the Advent; but this we must reserve for our next issue. We deeply feel the meagerness and poverty of all that has been advanced, on both the points which have occupied us; and we wish specially to remind the reader that, in treating of the death of Christ, we have left wholly untouched one grand point therein, namely, our death in Him. This we may, if God permit, go into on another occasion. It is immensely important as the power of deliverance from indwelling sin, as well as from this present evil world, and from the law. There are many who merely look to the death of Christ for pardon and justification, but they do not see the precious and emancipating truth of their having died in Him, and their deliverance, in consequence, from the power of sin in them. This latter is the secret of victory over self and the world, and of deliverance from every form of legality and mere fleshly pietism.
(To be continued, if the Lord will.)