My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
| 24 |
| ADVOCATE |
| 1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. |
| An advocate is an old term we don’t use often in our society, as we commonly think of one who argues in our favor as a defense attorney, a lawyer that we pay to defend us in front of a judge. The lawyer performs his duties being motivated by a paycheck at the end of the week, as one who stands before a condemning judge, physically apart from us, pleading before the judge, seeking to the judge of our innocence, sometimes by revealing a partial truth, or by exposing only some of the facts. Of course, I may be a bit jaded towards lawyers, for I am sure there are some who seek to do right, speak the truth and desire justice to be performed. Our Advocate in heaven is quite different. He is the truth, and will not shy away from expressing the “guilt” of our actions, for John notes that “if anyone sins”. Jesus is our advocate, and John reminds us that He is righteous, not us! He is in relation with us, and not simply seeking a paycheck. He is not motivated by “filthy lucre”, as the old KJV sometimes refers to money. He is beside us, associating with one of God’s children that has sinned, standing beside me, representing me as the Righteous One before the Father. No – let’s reread that passage once more – the passage says we have an advocate with the Father. Our advocate in not merely standing in front of the judge, representing his client, but is an advocate with the Father. Am I pressing this too much to think that the personnel relationship Jesus has with the Father, that this relationship also bears weight in our representation before the Father? Not only has He died for our sins, and out of that tremendous gift of grace towards us, have the right to defend us before a judge, but on top of that advantage, Our Advocate is with the Father. One final thought to consider in this passage is that John does not refer to our Father as a judge in this passage. Our advocate is with His Father. Truly, I am sure that as we consider the descriptions of the Lord, we will find more than we expect, as we slow down and consider the ramifications of the passages we sometimes gloss over. Our Advocate is much more that a legal representative before a judge due to our sin. So much more! |
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
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