It isn’t uncommon as an attorney, to go to bat hard for a client I believe should get a second chance. Someone with a record that doesn’t look good on paper, someone the system has all but written off, someone everyone else has already decided isn’t worth the effort. I’ve gone to the well more times than I can count, fighting to get my clients one more chance at help instead of a cell at the Department of Corrections. It’s exhausting work, and it isn’t always appreciated. Some of those clients take that second chance and run with it. Others walk right back into the very thing I fought so hard to keep them from falling into.
One morning, I woke up thinking about a case like that, and the Holy Spirit brought something to mind. He reminded me that I have two Advocates of my own—one before the Father, and one right here with me.
“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1)
Jesus is my Advocate before the Father. When I sin, He doesn’t plead my case on the strength of my track record—my record wouldn’t hold up any better than my clients’ records do. He pleads it on the strength of His righteousness, which covers my soul completely. As a born again believer, my standing before God is not my own performance. It is built on Christ’s, and He presents that righteousness to the Father on my behalf, every single time.
“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34)
But there’s a second Advocate, and His work happens down here, in the middle of the fight. Jesus told His disciples exactly who would take that role once He returned to the Father.
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” (John 14:16)
The word Jesus used there is the same word John used for Christ in 1 John 2:1—Advocate, Helper, One called alongside. Jesus is my Advocate in heaven and the Holy Spirit is my Advocate on earth. He’s the one in the trenches with me daily, convicting, strengthening, and interceding on my behalf even when I don’t have the words to pray.
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26)
I know what it feels like to fight for someone and then watch them choose the very thing I worked so hard to keep them from. It’s disheartening. It makes you wonder if the effort mattered at all. And this must be some small measure of what my two Advocates feel when I choose the sin I know is wrong, or refuse to do what I know is right. The Holy Spirit is right there with me in the moment of temptation, doing everything a good advocate does—warning, urging, strengthening—and I still sometimes walk away.
This struggle isn’t new.
Paul wrote about it in Romans 7—the war between the mind of the flesh and the mind of Christ which forms the desires of my born-again soul. My soul, the real me, redeemed and covered by Christ’s righteousness, doesn’t want to sin. But the flesh, the enemy within, is still in bed with my adversary who doesn’t want me walking closely with God.
It’s a real battle, and it’s one every believer knows.
But understanding, even a little, what it cost Jesus to be my Advocate makes me more determined than ever to choose to obey Him out of love. Can you imagine dying for someone in order to save them and then having them trample on your love by denying you sacrifice or besmirching your name and reputation? That’s exactly what I do to Jesus when I choose sin over loving obedience. I want to win the battle against sin in my life—don’t you? Not out of guilt, but because I know what it means to fight for someone and I don’t want the fight that Jesus won for me—to be wasted. I don’t want to hurt Jesus, who loves me more than anyone every has. More than anything, I want the kind of close, abiding relationship with Him where I can hear His voice and sense His presence clearly.
A close relationship with God is the best part of my life, and it’s worth more than anything else!
Prayer:
Lord, thank You for being my Advocate before the Father, pleading my case on the strength of Your righteousness and not my own. Thank You for the Holy Spirit, my Advocate here on earth, who never stops interceding for me even in my weakness. Forgive me for the times I’ve chosen the flesh over the Spirit, and let that cost sink in enough to change me. Give me strength to walk in obedience, not out of fear, but out of love for the One who never stops fighting for me. Draw me closer, Lord, so I can hear Your voice and know Your presence more and more. That is what I want most. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
