The Sinner’s Advocate (1 John 2:1–2 from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Think about this logically. People stand in line in the hot sun in order to be strapped into a metal seat with someone else to slowly move toward a precipice, and then suddenly tip over the edge, falling at incredible speed, rising, dropping, twisting, and jerking from side to side until the final rush to the end. That’s a roller coaster ride. It makes you wonder why we pay to lose our stomachs and kick in our adrenalin. But we do it, smiling all the way.

A roller coaster in a theme park is one thing. But a roller coaster spiritual life is quite another. Up and down, twisting and turning, falling and rising, anguishing and struggling seems to be the mainstay of many Christians. If it were only in the first days of faith in Christ then it would be somewhat understandable. Yet it seems that some who have known Christ for many years still regularly ride the roller coaster.

Then First John is the right book. It helps us learn how to move from the roller coaster drop and twist of doubts, fears, and spiritual anxiety to walk in steadiness with the Lord. That doesn’t mean that seasoned believers never face dips or twists but it does mean that they’ve learned more about themselves and far more on how to depend upon Christ day-by-day so that they develop consistent walks with Christ.

How do we walk in fellowship with the Lord? That’s John’s theme in these opening verses. He proclaimed Jesus as the Life so that through union with Him, believers might join in fellowship with one another and with our Triune God. This fellowship is with the God that John calls “Light.” Fellowship with Him means walking in the Light. But that’s just where we may struggle. How do we keep walking in the Light? We have an Advocate with the Father so that we might walk in the Light and in fellowship with our God. What’s so critical about having an Advocate? Let’s consider that question with five questions regarding our text.

1. Why do we need an Advocate?

There’s not the least hint of scolding in John’s teaching. He addresses his audience as “My little children,” a term of affection and an indication of the way that the old apostle felt about this church at Ephesus. As a fatherly figure in the faith, he sets before them truths necessary to walk with God.

In the previous passage (1:5–10), John assures Christians that the blood of Jesus goes on cleansing us from all sin, and that the Father is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins when we confess them. But some could misconstrue what he meant. In all likelihood, the opponents that John hints at throughout the letter had the idea that sin was no big deal. With that kind of atmosphere, hearing of this teaching on confession of sin might lead some to think that evidently, sin was no big deal since God forgives it so readily.

But that’s not the case. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” Rather than sin at will and just offer a little confession, then go about your merry way, John stops us in our tracks. Since “God is Light” we are to learn to live in view of Him as Light, with no darkness in Him at all. All pure and holy and righteous, God doesn’t tolerate sin. It runs totally contrary to His nature and ways. He hates sin. His wrath, “a burning zeal for the right coupled with a perfect hatred for everything that is evil,” is bent against sin [Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 209]. So John reminds us that he writes so that we might recognize sin’s danger and darkness, that we might see every act of sin—however small in our eyes—as treason against God, defiance against His holiness, an act of rebellion, and the object of His wrath.

The problem is that we’re so familiar with our sin and the sin of those around us that we often don’t even notice sin. We have a natural bent toward sin. We find ourselves comfortable with it. But Light exposes the darkness. When we’re un[...]