He is also our " Advocate with the Father" — [The office of an advocate is to appear for his client in a court of justice, and to plead his cause. Now this office also the Lord Jesus Christ executes in behalf of his people: He is gone up to the Court of Heaven, where " he appears in the presence of God for usV The Holy Spirit also is our
Advocate :
* 1 Pet. ii. 24. ^ 1 Pet.iii. !S. ' Lev. i. 2, 4. •! Heb. ix. 26.
* Eph. V. 2. Rom. iii.25. In this latter passage, as also in the text, the word which we translate " propitiation," is the same as is else- where translated, "mercy-seat." Compare Heb. ix. 5. But the illus- tration above given, is that which the scope of the passage evidently requires ; and to explain the word in reference to the mercy-seat, would, in this place, only, embarrass and obscure the sense.
' Job. xxxiii. 24.
Advocate : but there is a very wide difference between the advocacy of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit: the Spirit inter- cedes /« us at the throne of grace; Christ intercedes >r us at the throne of ij/ori/: the Spirit assists us to pray according to the will of God ; Christ presents those prayers unto the Father, and renders them acceptable in his sight.
Now it was this advocacy of Christ which the Apostle had primarily in his view; and what he added respecting him as a Propitiation for sin, was a subordinate subject, introduced to shew the ground of his intercession, and the reason of its efficacy. It will be proper therefore to notice more parti- cularly the connexion between these offices, and the dependence of the one upon the other.
If we could conceive that Jesus had undertaken to be our advocate, and yet had made no atonement for sin, his advo- cacy would have been altogether in vain : for, what plea could he have found ? he could not have denied, or extenuated, our guilt : nor could he have promised that we should ever make compensation for what we had done amiss. His mouth there- fore must have been shut as well as ours. But, having offered himself a sacrifice for our sins, he has an adequate and effec- tual plea for all who trust in him. Are they accused by their great adversary ? yea, does God himself testify against them? "True, He will say, they are sinners, that deserve thy wrathful indignation : but behold the wounds in my hands, my feet, my side ; these I endured for them ; by these I ex- piated their guilt; yea, I gave my own life a ransom for them ; and therefore deliver them from going down into the pit: I have satisfied the demands both of law and justice on their behalf, and on this account I look, not to thy mercy only, but to thy justice and thy faithfulness to forgive them § : Out of respect to me, thou mayest be just, and yet the justifier of all them that believe \"]
This view of his offices will naturally lead us to consider —
II. The comfort to be derived from them under every fresh-contracted guilt —
That we may speak more perspicuously on this subject, we shall notice,
1 . The sensations which a view of those offices will produce —
{Hope, joy, and peace arise in succession to crown the exercise of "faith. Till we are enabled to behold die crucified and exalted Saviour, we droop, and question die possibiUty of our acceptance with God; but when we are enabled to
believe ' 1 John i. 9. ^ Rom. iii. 2(5.
1178] Christ's ADVOCACT AND ATONEMENT. 219
believe in him, our fears are dissipated; our sorrows are turned into joy and exultation; and, after a season, the live- lier motion of our affections, which was occasioned by the greatness and suddenness of the change, subsides into a solid and abiding peace. This is the order marked out both by prophets' and apostles ^ and experienced by all who live by faith on the Son of God.]