Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 174

June 26;   I John 2:1;   232/260(I);   ‘Jesus Our Defense Attorney’

1 John 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.    NIV

God’s Word is written so that we will not sin.  How does that happen?  As we read the Word of God, we see very clearly how much we are loved and what the Lord Jesus willingly went through in order to save us.  God the Father made us rational beings and He is a God of faith.  He believes that once we know the truth, as taught by the Word of God, of our own volition we will not desire to sin any longer.  As we walk closely with the Lord, His lifestyle is so much better than the way we used to live, that we will say no to things we previously did.  This does not mean that we will never sin again, but when we do sin, we have a ‘Lawyer’ in heaven, named Jesus and He is always on our side, defending us against satan, who is a prosecutor (literally, our adversary).  The Lord Jesus, when He lived on this earth was tempted in all ways, yet He did not sin, but understands what we experience (Hebrews 4:15).  The Lord Jesus, when we sin speaks to the Father in our defense, against the devil who is called the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10).  The second verse of I John 2 tells us Jesus is the ‘propitiation for our sins.’  That means that the divine wrath we were to experience because of sin was satisfied by the Lord Jesus’ sacrificial offering on our behalf.  As we read all of these amazing truths about what our Lord Jesus did for us, it strengthens our resolve to live our lives in a manner pleasing to our wonderful Lord.  Jesus loves us, understands what we go through, never condemns us and is always on our side.  Since He is that committed to us, how could we not be committed to Him?