Evening, October 4

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
   righteous."

  1 John 2:1

   "If any man sin, we have an advocate." Yes, though we sin, we have him
   still. John does not say, "If any man sin he has forfeited his
   advocate," but "we have an advocate," sinners though we are. All the
   sin that a believer ever did, or can be allowed to commit, cannot
   destroy his interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, as his advocate. The
   name here given to our Lord is suggestive. "Jesus." Ah! then he is an
   advocate such as we need, for Jesus is the name of one whose business
   and delight it is to save. "They shall call his name Jesus, for he
   shall save his people from their sins." His sweetest name implies his
   success. Next, it is "Jesus Christ"--Christos, the anointed. This shows
   his authority to plead. The Christ has a right to plead, for he is the
   Father's own appointed advocate and elected priest. If he were of our
   choosing he might fail, but if God hath laid help upon one that is
   mighty, we may safely lay our trouble where God has laid his help. He
   is Christ, and therefore authorized; he is Christ, and therefore
   qualified, for the anointing has fully fitted him for his work. He can
   plead so as to move the heart of God and prevail. What words of
   tenderness, what sentences of persuasion will the anointed use when he
   stands up to plead for me! One more letter of his name remains, "Jesus
   Christ the righteous." This is not only his character but his plea. It
   is his character, and if the Righteous One be my advocate, then my
   cause is good, or he would not have espoused it. It is his plea, for he
   meets the charge of unrighteousness against me by the plea that he is
   righteous. He declares himself my substitute and puts his obedience to
   my account. My soul, thou hast a friend well fitted to be thine
   advocate, he cannot but succeed; leave thyself entirely in his hands.