The Two Advocates

John the Apostle writes that we have a defender in Heaven: ”But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1). Jesus himself says according to the same John that when He has returned to His Father He shall send help to His disciples: ”And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth” (John. 14:16-17).

What a reader of the English translations of the Greek Bible text can´t see is that the same word, parakletos, is used in these verses to describe both Jesus (1 John 2:1) and the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17). According to classic Greek parakletos means a public defender, someone who supports an accused person with judicial help in court. Also in later Greek the basic meaning of the word has been maintained. A paraclete is a person who takes his stand for someone and speaks well about that person. In Latin translations of the Bible, as for example in Versio Vulgata, Jesus is said to be our advocate, advocatus, before the Father.

Jesus as our advocate

In the Bible God often is described as a judge (Psalm 9:5, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8 etc.). His judgements are always righteous (Psalm 119:137, Romans 1:32, 2 Thessalonians 1:5). All sin that is committed on earth arouse His wrath: ”God is a righteous judge, a God who displays His wrath every day” (Psalm 7:11). Today it is very common in the Christian world not to speak about the wrath and punishments of God. In a new, very popular and praised ”Christian” book it is said that God is not angry, He is ”always love” (Skytte, Stinissen, Ansikte mot ansikte, Artos&Libris 2010, p 340). But the wrath of God doesn´t disappear by people denying it or if we stop to talk about it. The wrath of God will never disappear since God is eternal and unchangable (Psalm 102:28, James 1:17).

Some people imagine hell as a place where the cursed is forever cut away from God. The wellknown Christian writer C.S. Lewis for example thought that God is completely absent in hell, that He has left the cursed ones alltogether to themselves (The Problem of Pain. Swedish translation Lidandets problem, Libris 1995, p 147). But Lewis could not be more wrong in respect to this. God is omnipresent. David sings: ”If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:8). In all eternity all human beings, the saved ones as well as the cursed ones, is in the immediate presence of God. God is the heaven of the Christians and the hell of the unbelievers at the same time. The former enjoy His love but the latter suffer from His wrath. Not away from God, but ”in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb” the cursed ones ”will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath” (Revelations 14:10). They will be tormented in fire and sulfur and ”the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever ” (Revelation 14:11). For the unbelievers it is indeed ”a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

The abandonment of God which still is a fact is the absence of God´s merciful, loving presence, where He blesses and turns His face towards the loved one as in the Aronitic blessing (Numbers 6:25-26) in our services. It was this kind of abandonment Jesus suffered on the cross when He cried: ”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The wrath of God was on the other hand surrounding Him on every side, it was like a dense, heavy burden all over Him. He complained: ”Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. [---] Why, LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? [---] Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me.  All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me” (Psalm 88:7, 14, 16-17). On judgement day men in vain will try to flee from this wrath (Revelations 6:15-16).

Because all human beings have sinned and done evil (Romans 3:10-12, 23 etc.), all deserve to be thrown in the eternal fire. In the heavenly court we all are guilty. Nobody has lived a holy and righteous life. God´s law accuses us because of our sins and demands recompene, retribution, repayment. It is nothing undignified or defective with God making Him demand judgement, punishment and vengeance. The incorruptible law is ”holy” and the commandment is ”holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12). It is the holiness and righteousness of God that demand punishment for the sin as well as for the sinner. Martin Luther describes the severe situation in this way in his great hymn about the atonement, Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice:

Fast bound in Satan's chains I lay.

Death brooded darkly o'er me.

Sin was my torment night and day.

In sin my mother bore me.

Yea, deep and deeper still I fell.

Life had become a living hell,

So firmly sin possessed me” (v 2).

Obviously we are all lost, condemned to eternal death and torments in hell – if not something happens that changes our situation. It is here Jesus Christ becomes our Helper. He is our sole advocate, who for our sake has died as an atoning sacrifice (1 Joh, 2:2, 1 Timothy 2:5-6).

Jesus is our advocate or counsel for the defence. He stands before the Father to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25). This is not accomplished by means of composing a skillful speach of defence, where He tries to dupe the Father. Instead He refer to His own merit – His perfect obedience and bottomless pains – by which He has satisfied God´s call for justice. He has bought us free (Romans 3:24). Luther describes it in the following way:

He spoke to His beloved Son:

'Tis time to have compassion.

Then go, bright Jewel of My crown,

And bring to man salvation;

From sin and sorrow set him free.

Slay bitter death for him that he

May live with Thee forever´. (v 5)

Because of this the Christian church´s enjoyment of God´s grace is set on a completely lawful and inviolable ground. ”Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness” (Isaiah 1:27). God declare us righteous for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. Paul writes:

”What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:31-34).

The Holy Spirit as our advocate

As we have seen Jesus is our parakletos, advocate, before the Father in Heaven. On Maundy Thursday Jesus said to His desciples that when He would return to His Father, He would ask His Father to send another advocate, parakletos, who always would be together with them (John 14:16). This Counselor, as parakletos is translated in this vers (NIV), is ”the Spirit of truth” which fifty days later in a visible manner in heavenly roar filled the desciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:2-4). Luther writes about this, Jesus saying:

Now to My Father I depart,

The Holy Spirit sending

And heavenly wisdom to impart

My help to thee extending.

He shall in trouble comfort thee,

Teach thee to know and follow Me,

And in all truth shall guide thee. (v 9).

What is the role of the Holy Spirit as a counselor? A parakletos is, as we have seen, an advocate, someone who is defending someone in court. He comforts, strenghtens and helps the accused ones. The Holy Spirit does exactly this in our consciences when the judgement of God´s law and also the accusations of satan torment us.

Those who have experiences of this testimony in our hearts by the Holy Spirit know the joy of having such an advocate. Before we take a closer look at this we will investigate the initial situation, natural man´s position without the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

All human beings are created with a conscience, i.e. they know (science) together (con) with God what is right and what is wrong, good and evil. The law is written also in the hearts of the Gentiles (Romans 2:15). All human beings also know deep inside that they will be accounted for their lives and that their sins deserve punishment (Romans 1:32). Their own consciences judge them guilty because they know they are guilty. This judgement by their consciences can be hideous and drive people into despair and even the desire to end their own lives. One heathen writer of antiquity wrote openly and honestly that there is no torment as painful as that of having a bad conscience.

Men don´t have just an interior testimony about their sins och guilt, but also an exterior. God sends disasters and punishments, big catastrophes, already within the present age. He does it often enough for people to realize that He is angry about the sin in the world, but He does it seldom enough for them to also realize that the full amount of His wrath is not poured out, that the full punishment is yet to come.

In what way may people get rid of these torments of their consciences? In ancient, heathen cultures mankind has brought the angry gods sacrifice after sacrifice, the one greater and bloodier than the other, in order to sooth their wrath. In modern culture mankind instead tries amusement, suppression and repudiation. People even try to eliminate punishments in society – punishment is prohibited in the upbringing of children and in school pedagogy, and even in the treatment of criminals punishment is replaced by care and attendence) – all this because people in general do not want to be reminded of ”the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). But it is very immature and in vain to hope the wrath of God will dissapear if we stop talking about it or if we eliminate punishments in society. God does not cease to punish sin just because we are doing it.

The only true cure against the affliction in our consciences is the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Even ”if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything” (1 John 3:20), i.e. God is greater in us and defends and comforts us with His promises to show mercy, even if our own hearts judge us guilty and unworthy. The Holy Spirit is a divine advocate who ”testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16). This is not carried out in a enthusiastic, ecstatic way but through the Word of God which comes to us from the Bible, from biblical preaching and from the sacraments. It is through the Word the Holy Spirit comes to us (John 6:63, Gal. 3:2 etc.). Therefore Jesus says that when the advocate, the paraclete, comes, He would remind the desciples about everything he had said to them (John 14:26).

But about what, more exactly, is it the Holy Spirit gives testimony when He in our hearts tells us we are the children of God? What does He refer to assuring us God being our loving Father? Jesus says: ”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father - the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father - He will testify about me” (John 15:26). Jesus also said about the paraclete: ”When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment [---] about righteousness, because I am going to the Father” (John 16:8, 10). The meaning with this is that Jesus, after His completed work of salvation, perfectly righteous returned to His Father and that His righteousness also is ours. Finally Jesus said about the paraclete: ”He will glorify me” (John 16:14).

As shown in the Bible verses above the Holy Spirit comforts and strengthen us, convinces us that we are the children of God, by telling us about Jesus and His completed work. Such is the testimony in our hearts by the second advocate. When our consciences condemn us no references to our own works or qualities are of any help. ”Jesus alone”, solus Christus, is the testimony the Holy Spirit gives in our hearts.

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We have now seen how God in His infinite love has provided us with two advocates. They are almighty, perfectly good and know everything. The first one, the Son of God, speaks in our defense in Heaven and the other one, the Holy Spirit, does the same in our hearts. So anxious is God in His care of us, so fervent in His desire to save us. Therefore we should always thank Him, forever and ever.

Amen.