1 John 2:1,2

Jesus, the Lawyer For the Christian's Defense

Having now proven sin to be a part of everyone's life, John hastened to show that it should not be counted as normal and therefore a thing in which one should indulge. John wrote as an aged man in the faith to those much younger. He used endearing words that a mother might use as she held and caressed one of her own children.

The Christian's goal should ever be sinlessness, that is, not even committing one act of sin. When a Christian does sin, he keeps on having (present tense) an advocate, which Thayer defines as "one who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor." The Holy Spirit is described by Jesus as "another advocate" (John 14:16; see also 14:26; 15:26; 16:7). Satan is the Christian's accuser and Jesus is the defense attorney (Revelation 12:10). The case is pled before God's divine bar of justice. Jesus is "with", or by the side of, the Father, thus ever ready to defend His saints (compare Luke 12:8; Acts 7:56).

Woods notes, "There is no article before the word 'righteousness' in the Greek text. The meaning is, Jesus, a Righteous One, pleads the cause of unrighteous ones. Only the pleading of such an Advocate could possibly avail." What good would come from one unrighteous one appealing to God in behalf of another?

Christ is the propitiation, or as Thayer says, "the means of appeasing", for the sins of individual Christians. God's wrath is directed at sin. Christ came to provide the means of the removal of that wrath. John says for "our sin", which includes him in the group needing that great sacrifice. Jesus' gift is available to the whole world if they will but accept it in believing faith (1 John 2:2; John 3:16-17; Romans 3:24-26).