Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.151

 

THE USE AND APPLICATION

3. As we should make use of this doctrine to strengthen faith and prayer, we should also make use of it to keep us humble; for the more offices Christ executes for us with the Father, the greater the sign that we are bad, and the more we see our badness, the more humble we should be. Christ gave for us the price of blood, but that is not all; Christ as a Captain has conquered death and the grave for us, but that is not all: Christ as a Priest intercedes for us in heaven, but that is not all. Sin is still in us and with us and mixes itself with whatever we do, whether what we do is religious or civil, for not only our prayers and our sermons, our hearings and preaching, and so on, but our houses, our shops, our trades, and our beds are all polluted with sin. Nor doth the devil, our night and day adversary, forbear to tell our bad deeds to our Father, urging that we might forever be disinherited for this. But what should we now do, if we had not an Aadvocate—yeah if we had not one who would plead in forma pauperis; yea, if we had not one that could prevail, and that would faithfully execute that office for us? Why, we must die. But since we are rescued by him, let us, as to ourselves, lay our hand upon our mouth, and be silent, and say, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." And, I say again, since the Lord Jesus is fain to run through so many offices for us before he can bring us to glory, oh! how low, how little, how vile and base in our own eyes should we be.

It is a shame for a Christian to think highly of himself since Christ is fain to do so much for him, and he again not at all able to make him amends; but some, whose riches consist in nothing but scabs and lice, will yet have lofty looks. But are not they much to blame who sit lifting up of lofty eyes in the house, and yet know not how to turn their hand to do anything so, but that another, their betters, must come and mend their work? I say, is it not more meet that those that are such, should look and speak, and act as such that declare their sense of their unhandiness, and their shame, and the like, for their unprofitableness? Yea, is it not clear that to everyone they should confess what sorry ones they are? I am sure it should be thus with Christians, and God is angry when it is otherwise. Nor doth it become these helpless ones to lift up themselves on high. Let Christ's advocateship therefore teach us to be humble.

4. As we should improve this doctrine to strengthen faith, encourage prayer, and keep us humble, so we should make use of it to encourage perseverance-that is, to hold on, to hold out to the end; for, for all those causes the apostle setteth Christ before us as an Advocate. There is nothing more that discourages the truly godly than the sense of their own infirmities, as has been hinted all along; consequently, nothing can more encourage them to go on than to think that Christ is an Advocate for them. The services, also, that Christ has for us to do in this world are full of difficulty, and so apt to discourage: but when a Christian shall come to understand that we do what we can, it is not a failing either in matter or manner that shall render it wholly unserviceable, or give the devil that advantage as to plead thereby to prevail for our condemnation and rejection; but that Christ, by being our Advocate, saves us from falling short, as also from the rage of hell. This will encourage us to hold on, though we do but hobble in all our goings, and fumble in all our doings, for we have Christ for an Advocate in case we sin in the management of any duty: If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Therefore, let us go on in all God's ways as well as we can for our hearts; when our foot slips, let us tell God of it, and his mercy in Christ shall hold us up (Psa 84:9-12).

Darkness, and being shut up in prison, are also a great discouragement to us; but our Advocate is for giving us light, and for fetching us out of our prison. True, he that Joseph chose to be his Advocate with Pharaoh remembered not Joseph but forget him (Gen 40:14, 23); but he that has Jesus Christ to be his Advocate shall be remembered before God, (Micah 7:8–10). -"He remembered us in our low estate; for his mercy endured forever" (Psa 136:23). Yea, he will say to the prisoners, Show yourselves, and to them in the prison house, Go forth. Satan sometimes gets the saints into prison when he has taken them captive by their lusts (Rom 7:23). But they shall not be always there, and this should encourage us to go on in godly ways, for "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."