I John 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
The book of I John is written for the purpose of encouraging Christians, especially new Christians, in what they have and what they are in Christ. In this specific passage in I John 2, God encourages the believer a reason not to sin, using a word picture of a court room. Several terms and words in these verses are legal terms and sets up a wonderful picture to help a believer be encouraged of their position in Christ.
In the second verse, God states that Christ is the propitiation for our sins. Now that is a big word, which some people might not understand what it means. Propitiation, however, is a very important word that helps clarify how and why salvation was made available towards us. There are four Biblical words that describe what is necessary for us to have salvation. Those words are: substitutionary atonement, propitiation, redemption and reconciliation.
Lots of people are looking forward to going to heaven. Heaven is a place where there is no more sickness, pain, death, a place that is perfect. What makes Heaven really worth going there is that God is there. One of the most pronounced attribute of God is that He is Holy. That means God is perfect. God is so perfect that He can not abide in the presence of sin. There lies our problem. We are no perfect. We have all told lies, we have all stolen something, and we have all had bad thoughts. We are not perfect.
So the picture that we have is God is one side and man is on the other side. In between is a huge gulf that separates us. God is perfect God and must protect His holiness, so no matter how much He would like to, He cannot allow something that is not perfect to live with Him. For man now matter how much we might desire to come to God, we can not do anything to make ourselves perfect. There is a stalemate.
Substitutionary Atonement
At this point, the Lord Jesus Christ steps in. Jesus left heaven and robed Himself in flesh. Jesus lived the same life that man lives, going through the same temptations, troubles and heartbreaks, but He lived His life never sinning. Then He was beaten, whipped, and then crucified. When He died on the cross, He became our substitutionary atonement. Substitution means in the place of. Atonement is the price owed to make something right. When Jesus died for us, He also died as us, and paid the price that man owed God for our sins. He was out substitutionary atonement.
Propitiation
After Jesus died, He was buried in a borrowed tomb. After three days, Jesus rose again. When He arose it proved two things: that Jesus God and that God was satisfied with the payment Jesus made. That is what propitiation means: the appeasement of God’s wrath. When Jesus died for us and as us, God was satisfied. God’s righteousness has been fulfilled. The payment was made at the cross and God accepted that payment. Jesus bled and died and it was enough to pay for the sins of the entire world. God was satisfied.
Redemption
When Jesus bled and died, it not only satisfied God’s wrath, but it was our redemption. That words means to buy back. With Jesus blood, He purchased our salvation. He paid our price and it was enough to buy us to Himself. He redeemed us. With Jesus blood, we are bought.
Reconciliation
All that is left is what is called reconciliation. That means that two parties are brought together. The Bible describes this in I Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Just like when people strike against a company, a mediator may come in to go in-between two parties and find a mutual agreement. After that both parties must agree with what was done.
The same thing is true about the payment Jesus made. When Jesus died for our sins, God accepted the payment and was satisfied. All that is left for each individual person to accept the payment Jesus made for us on our behalf. When that is done, we can then have access to God. This is called reconciliation.
As was stated before, there is a word picture of legal terms, a picture of a court room. The defendant would be the individual sinner. We all must stand and give an account to God. The prosecutor would be that ole liar the Devil. He constantly makes accusations against us before God. That is where the good news lies. We can hire an advocate. The word advocate carries with it the same meaning that lawyer does to us. He is our representative before the Judge and speaks on our behalf. So every time Satan accuses us, if we have hired our lawyer before the court, our Advocate, Jesus, objects and announces that sin has already been paid for. Every time Satan accuses us of anything, even if we are doing it right now, Jesus objects and says that sin is already paid.
Then we came to the Judge. Notice the name used for God in verse 1. It says the Father. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, God becomes our Heavenly Father. So not only does Jesus represent us, but the Judge is our Father. The Father will be compassionate upon His children.
All of this is done for the purpose of us sinning less. God desires that we do sin less. But if we do happen to sin, we are forgiven and we will never owe God a debt of punishment again. As long as we have personally accepted Jesus to be our Advocate, to accept Him to pay the price we owed God, God will forgive us. This doesn’t mean we can go and do any sin we want, but instead, because we are so grateful for what He has done, we would desire not to sin against Him.
