We Have an Advocate

Tuesday, April 15, 2014   We Have an Advocate

1 John 1: 5 - 2:2

Bernard of Clairvaux said that the highest form of love, or spiritual maturity, is when we love ourselves for God’s sake. This means we fully accept and embrace the life in Christ as our way of life. Our focus is centered on what we get to do, not what we have to do. With this perspective, we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind as we learn to see things from God’s perspective. This new perspective is the essence of John’s message in today’s passage.

John doesn’t shrink from the reality of sin and darkness because he knows Jesus defeated them both on the cross. His message is that we don’t want to avoid the issue of sin. He encourages us to face the realities of sin and darkness because Jesus has an expectation that we will follow him on the road less taken, the road where “we are living in the light, as God is in the light” (1 John 1:7). John offers us the perspective of grace, where our motivation is not fear of hell if we sin. Rather, our motivation is driven by our vision of rushing into the loving embrace of Jesus:

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).

“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world” (1 John 2:1-2).

I can’t imagine you will encounter any better Good News today, or all the tomorrows of your life.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

• Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.