1 John 2:1–2: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, and He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins, but also for the whole world.”

So this is important: the word of God is so powerful. He’s saying, “I’m writing this to you.” Paying attention to what is written here will help you avoid sin. It’s going to help you to do the right thing. It’s going to be like a guide to you—to think the right way, then take the right action. And when you take the right action, you are not taking the wrong one. The word of God is so important, and I said that yesterday.

Another thing he’s saying here is that if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. An advocate is not somebody passive. An advocate is someone active. An advocate is a representative. An advocate is someone speaking on your behalf, speaking forth for you.

What we read in the book of Hebrews is that we have come to “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does” (Hebrews 12:24). God said the blood of Abel cried out to Him from the ground (Genesis 4:10), and we see God’s response—that tells you what that blood was crying out.

And we see Jesus Christ, who was killed, who was the sacrifice for our sin, who was purposely given as a sacrifice for our sin. John the Baptist said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And the same person who wrote that wrote this letter.

“He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins, but also for the whole world.”

John says that what Christ did on the cross is monumental in redemption. That’s what makes Him our advocate with the Father.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” He is the Righteous One, but there was a divine exchange on the cross, and we get to receive the gift of His righteousness.

But that doesn’t contradict the fact that we sin—that we don’t just need Him historically. We need Christ on an ongoing basis, and that need was in the mind of God when He was offered on the cross. God knows that we need Christ to bring us in, and we need Christ to continue to stand in for us even after we have come in.

Even after the fact that, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are made holy” (Hebrews 10:14)—what that means is there is no other sacrifice. There is nothing else that needs to be done. That is why He said, “It is finished,” on the cross (John 19:30). There’s nothing else that needs to be added.

But sin is still a thing with us. It’s not something we disregard and push under the rug. It’s something for which we have Christ as our advocate with the Father. It continues to be drummed into us that the only reason we have any standing with God is because of Jesus Christ.

So you don’t become born again and then, on an ongoing basis, try to create your own standing with God. It’s not going to happen. It will never happen. The writer of Hebrews says that we should “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16)—all in the context of what Christ has done.

Christ is being presented in these two verses of 1 John 2:1–2 as the Advocate.

God bless you. See you later.