Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.136

 

THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE.

 But all these points must be managed by Christ for us, against Satan, as a lawyer, an advocate, who to that end now appears in the presence of God for us, and wisely handleth the very crisis of the word and of the failings of his people, together with all those nice and critical juggles by which our adversary labored to bring us down, to the confusion of his face.

3. There are also the threats that are annexed to the gospel, and they fall now under our consideration. They are of two sorts-such as respect those who altogether neglect and reject the gospel or those who profess it, yet fall in or from the profession thereof.

The first sort of threatening cannot be pleaded against the professors of the gospel as against those that never professed it; wherefore he betakes himself to manage those threatenings against us that belong to those that have professed, and that have fallen from it (Psa 109:1-6). Joshua fell in it (Zech 3:1, 2). Judas fell from it, and the accuser stands at the right hand of them before the judgment of God, to resist them, by pleading the threatenings against them wit, that God's soul should have no pleasure in them. "If any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Here is a plea for Satan, both against the one and the other; they are both apostatized, both drawn back, and he is subtle enough to manage it.

Ay, but Satan, here is also matter sufficient for a plea for our Advocate against thee, forasmuch as the next words distinguish between drawing back, and drawing back "unto perdition"; every one that draws back does not draw back unto perdition (Heb 10:38, 39). Some of them draw back from, and some are in the profession of, the gospel. Judas drew back from, and Peter in the profession of his faith; wherefore Judas perishes, but Peter turns again, because Judas drew back unto perdition, but Peter yet believed to the saving of the soul. Nor doth Jesus Christ, when he sees it is to no boot, at any time step in to endeavor to save the soul. Therefore, as for Judas, for his backsliding from the faith, Christ turns him up to Satan, and leaves him in his hand, saying, "When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin." (Psa 109:7) But he will not serve Peter, so "The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged" (Psa 37:33). He will pray for him before and plead for him after he has been in temptation, and so secure him, by virtue of his advocation, from the sting and lash of the threatening that is made against final apostasy. But,