THE CROWNED
CHRIST
CHAPTER IX
The
Advocate
The High Priest that becomes us is, then, as the apostle
has declared, One "separate from sinners," those sanctified by His blood being
"perfected in perpetuity" by it, so as being "once purged," they might have "no
more conscience of sins." But this, as we know well, does not mean, "no more
consciousness of sins," (that is, of committing them,) but that we have
awareness of the efficacy of that work abiding ever before God for us. There is
never a moments intermission as to this.
But then, what about
the sins which are committed after conversion? Is there simply no notice taken
of them? That, we are sure, is impossible: both Scripture and our own
experience would refute the unholy thought. That the people of God have often
to suffer greatly because of their sins is known to all; and Scripture is full
of examples of this, and asserts it doctrinally in the clearest way. Thus, "if
ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to
every mans work," says the apostle Peter, "pass the time of your
sojourning here with fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as with silver and gold... but with the precious blood of
Christ" (1 Pet. i.17 - 19). And again he says: "For the time is come that
judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what
shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? and if the righteous
scarcely" - or rather, "with difficulty" - "be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear?" (ch. iv. 17, 18.)
Thus there is even a special
judgment going on of the people of God at the present time; a judgment so
necessary that on account of it, the righteous are said to be with difficulty
saved: not, of course, because of any uncertainty about it, but simply because
so much has to be done in this way to maintain the holiness of God. And the
apostle Paul also speaks in even stronger language to the Corinthians: "For if
we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged; but when we are judged, we
are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (1
Cor. xi. 31, 32).
This is indeed strong language as to those for whom
the work of Christ avails in so full and absolute a manner as we have just seen
it does. This work, then, does not set aside the need of such judgment. Nay,
rather it secures it. Let us notice well that it is the Fathers judgment:
"if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth." In the final
judgment of wrath it is not the Father who judges: as to that the "Father
judgeth no man, but bath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men
should honour the Son, even as they honor the Father" (John v. 22, 23). The
Fathers judgment is "of every son whom He receiveth;" so that "if ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with Sons; for what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not?" (Heb. xii. 6, 7).
How blessed it is to
know, and at the same time how solemn to realize, that the sin of a child of
God is against his Father, and that it is the love of relationship that is
called into exercise about it - love which acts towards us "for our profit,
that we might be made partakers of His holiness"(Heb. xii. 10). It is
impossible that He should treat it lightly; and it will be impossible in the
end for any one of His own to treat it lightly either. Grace abides toward us;
and because grace abides, sin cannot be permitted to have sway over the objects
of it.
But because this whole matter of a believers sin is
between the Father and His child, we are not to imagine that Christ has not to
do with it. His priestly work has indeed been so fully done that in this
character He has nothing more to do: He sits down, because His work is
accomplished. But as Son over the house of God, priesthood is not His whole
work. The children of God are put into His hand, who is the First-born among
brethren; and in every thing that concerns them He has His necessary place and
part. So then it is here: "if any one sin, we have an Advocate" - a Paraclete -
"with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for
our sins" (1 John ii. 1,2).
The last is the ground and justification
of the grace expressed in the former. Suited advocate is He indeed who has been
Himself this propitiation for us; and here "Jesus Christ the righteous" is
fully manifest, love and righteousness alike displayed in Him. Here is the very
character of the Advocate or Paraclete - the One "called to our side," "to our
assistance" as both words mean; and this is in natural relation with the fact
that we are given to Him. We being in His charge, He stands forth in our behalf
pledged and proved on both sides, Gods and ours, and who has made both
one. On earth, the Spirit of God is our Paraclete, and makes intercession for
us, though perhaps, as far as we are concerned, in a groan that we cannot
utter. In heaven, Christ our Paraclete is, as it were, similarly our voice
uttering itself, but infinitely better than any utterance of our own could be.
How well are we provided! Here are two Witnesses in our behalf, each perfect
absolutely, and having perfectly the ear of Him with whom they plead. How
certainly effectual must be such intercession as this!
How good also it
is to know that it is "if any one sin," not, if any one repent, "we have an
Advocate." In Peters case, which is surely intended as a typical one, it
is before the sin that Christ intercedes for him, and how tender is the
intercession, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Having need to
learn himself, and to have the spirit of self-confidence broken in him, he
cannot be spared the needful experience. Satan is permitted to sift him, but
the Lords gracious eye, as Peter at the critical moment was given to see
it, was watching the result with unwearying care, and guiding all to the
predicted issue. The knowledge of ourselves - the needful exercise as to good
and evil - He cannot ask that we shall be spared; but the end is sure, and we
are invited to realize the strength and tenderness upon which we may lean at
all times without a shadow of fear.
The maintenance of communion is
that which our Advocate continually is occupied with. For this the knowledge of
ourselves is a necessity. Whether this shall be acquired as Simon Peter
acquired it, it depends upon ourselves to say. I suppose we have all of us had
to learn a good deal by such painful experiences; but there is surely a better
way. Peter, we may remember, had resisted, if but for a moment that washing of
his feet, for him and for us all so needful; and it is still the independency
which under whatever fair appearance resists His way with us, that condemns us
to such a painful discipline. The Lord is still and ever our one necessity.
Wisdom is with Him and we must find it in Him; if it be in the way of the
Cross, we need not wonder, though He Himself has borne all the burden there.
The Cross is indeed the fulness of all wisdom for us. It is the
judgment of man; it is the manifestation and glory of God. If we accept it as
the setting aside for us of self and all that self can glory in, we shall find
that it has set aside at the same time all that would hinder safe and steady
progress. Christ is then ours with all His fulness, to draw from for every need
that can possibly arise. Take it as the apostle puts it, that "in Him dwelleth
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him we are complete" - filled up.
Here is the one daily provision to carry with us, but for it the judgment of
the Cross must be accepted in its entirety. Then in this Cross Christ is
entirely for us, - all that God is as manifested here in Him.
This
lesson is the lesson for all of us. The Advocate is with the Father, that our
very failure may make for the learning of it, though it be in shame and bitter
tears of repentance that we have to learn it. His advocacy is not to spare us
what is needful for this, but that His end in us may be fully attained, and God
glorified. Tenderest love there is in it, assuredly, and divine comfort, -
tenderness, but no laxity; and no way of blessing for us except in complete
surrender into His hands. We cannot but remember that they are hands that were
pierced for us, and that for Him there was no way but that of the Cross.
Go To Chapter Ten
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