Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.139

 

THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE.

Sixth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ for us further appears in this wit, for that our evidence, which declares that we have a right to the eternal inheritance, is often out of our own hand, yea, and also sometimes kept long from us, the which we come not at the sight or comfort of again but by our Advocate, especially when our evidence is taken from us, because of a present forfeiture of this inheritance to God by this or that most foul offense. Evidence, when they are thus taken away, as in David's case they were (Psa 51:12), why then they our God's hand, laid up, I say, from the sight of them to whom they belong, till they even forget the contents thereof (II Peter 1:5–9)? 30

Now when writings and evidence are out of the hands of the owners and laid up in the court, where in justice they ought to be kept, they are not ordinarily obtained again but by the help of a lawyer, an Advocate. Thus it is with the children of God. We do often forfeit our interest in eternal life, but the mercy is that the forfeit falls into the hand of God, not of the law nor of Satan, wherefore he taketh away also our evidence if not all, yet some of them, as he saith, I have taken away my peace from these people, even loving kindness and mercies" (Jer 16:5). This he took from David, and he entreats for the restoration of it, saying, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit" (I Chron 17:13; Psa 51:12). And, "Lord, turn us again, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved" (Psa 80:3, 7, 19.)

Satan now also hath an opportunity to plead against us, and to help forward the affliction, as his servants did of old when God was but a little angry (Zech 1:15); but Jesus Christ, our Advocate is ready to appear against him, and to send us from heaven our old evidence again, or to signify to us that they are yet good and authentic and cannot be gainsaid. "Gabriel," saith he, "make this man understand the vision" (Dan 8:16). And again, saith he to another, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls" (Zech 2:4). Jerusalem had been in captivity, had lost many evidences of God's favor and love because of her sin, and her enemy stepped in to augment her sin and sorrow; but there was a man [the angel of the Lord] "among the myrtle trees" that were in the bottom that did prevail with God to say, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies, and then commands it to be proclaimed that his "cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad" (Zech 1:11–17).

Thus, by our Advocate, we are either made to receive our old evidence for heaven again, or else are made to understand that they yet are good, and stand valid in the court of heaven; nor can they be made ineffectual, but shall abide the test at last, because our Advocate is also concerned with the inheritance of the saints in light. Christians know what it is to lose their evidence for heaven, and to receive them again, or to hear that they hold their title by them, but perhaps they know not how they come at this privilege; therefore the apostle tells them "They have an Advocate," and that by him, as Advocate, they enjoy all these manifest advantages because his Advocate's office is appointed for our help when we sin—that is, commit sins that are great and heinous-"If any man sin, we have an Advocate."

By him, the justice of God is vindicated, the law is answered, the threats taken off, the measure of affliction that we undergo for sin determined, our titles to eternal life preserved, and our comfort in them restored, notwithstanding the wit, rage, and envy of hell. So, then, Christ gave himself for us as a priest, died for us as a sacrifice, but pleaded justice and righteousness in a way of justice and righteousness; for such is his sacrifice, for our salvation from the death that is due to our foul or high transgressions—as an Advocate. Thus have I given you thus far an account of the nature, end, and necessity of the Advocateship of Jesus Christ, and should now come to the use and application, only I must first remove an objection or two.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.138

 

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684

THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE

Fifth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ is also manifest in this, for there is a need for one to plead the efficacy of old titles to our eternal inheritance when our interest thereunto seems questionable because of new transgressions. That God's people may, by their new and repeated sins, as to reason at least, endanger their interest in the eternal inheritance, is manifest by such groanings of theirs as these-"Why dost thou cast me off?" (Psa 43:2). "Cast me not away from thy presence" (Psa 51:11). And, "O God, why hast thou cast us off forever?" (Psa 74:1). Yet I find in the book of Leviticus, that though any of the children of Israel should have sold, mortgaged, or made away with their inheritance, they did not thereby utterly make void their title to an interest therein, but it should again return to them, and they again enjoy the possession of it, in the year of jubilee. In the year of jubilee, saith God, you shall return every man to his possession; "the land shall not be sold forever," nor be quite cut off, "for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a redemption for the land" (Lev 25:23,24).

The man in Israel who, by waxing poor, did sell his land in Canaan, was surely a type of Christian who, by sin and decays in grace, has forfeited his place and inheritance in heaven; but as the ceremonial law provided that the poor man in Canaan should not, by his poverty, lose his portion in Canaan forever, but that it should return to him in the year of jubilee; so the law of grace has provided that the children shall not, for their sin, lose their inheritance in heaven forever, but that it shall return to them in the world to come (I Cor 11:32)

All therefore that happeneth in this case is, they may live without the comfort of it here, as he that had sold his house in Canaan might live without the enjoyment of it till the jubilee. They may also seem to come short of it when they die, as he in Canaan did that deceased before the year of jubilee; but as certainly as he that died in Canaan before the jubilee did yet receive again his inheritance by the hand of his relative survivor when the jubilee came, so certainly shall he that dieth, and that seemeth in his dying to come short of the celestial inheritance now, be yet admitted, at his rising again, to the repossession of his old inheritance at the day of judgment. But now here is room for a caviler to object, and to plead against the children, saying, They have forfeited their part of paradise by their sin; what right, then, shall they have to the kingdom of heaven? Now let the Lord stand up to plead, for he is Advocate for the children; yea, let them plead the sufficiency of their first title to the kingdom, and that it is not their doings that can sell the land forever.

The reason why the children of Israel could not sell the land forever was, that the Lord, their head, reserved to himself a right therein-"The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine." Suppose two or three children have a lawful title to such an estate, but they are all profuse and prodigal, and there is a brother also that has by law a chief right to the same estate: this brother may hinder the estate from being sold forever because it is his inheritance, and he may, when the limited time that his brethren had sold their share therein is out, if he will, restore it to them again. And in the meantime, if any that is unjust should go about utterly and forever to deprive his brethren, he may stand up and plead for them; that in law the land cannot be sold forever, for that it is his as well as theirs, he being resolved not to part with his right.

O my brethren! Christ will not part with his right of the inheritance unto which you are also born; your profuseness and prodigality shall not make him let go his hold that he hath for you of heaven; nor can you, according to law, sell the land forever, since it is his, and he hath the principal and chief title thereto. This also gives him ground to stand up to plead for you against all those that would hold the kingdom from you forever; for let Satan say what he can against you, yet Christ can say, "The land is mine," and consequently that his brethren could not sell it. Yes, says Satan, if the inheritance is divided.

O but, says Christ, the land is undivided; no man has his part set out and turned over to himself; besides, my brethren yet are under age, and I am made their guardian; they have not power to sell the land forever; the land is mine; also my Father has made me feoffee in trust for my brethren, that they may have what is allotted them when they are all come to a perfect man, "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). And not before, and I will reserve it for them till then; and thus to do is the will of my Father, the law of the Judge, and also my unchangeable resolution.

And what can Satan say against this plea? Can he prove that Christ has no interest in the saints' inheritance? Can he prove that we are at age, or that our several parts of the heavenly house are already delivered into our own power? And if he goes about to do this, is not the law of the land against him? Doth it not say that our Advocate is "Lord of all," (Acts 10:36), that the kingdom is Christ's, that it is laid up in heaven for us, (Eph 5:5, Col 1:5); yea, that the "inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, is reserved in heaven for us, who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation" (I Peter 1:4, 5).

Thus therefore is our heavenly inheritance made good by our Advocate against the thwartings and branglings of the devil; nor can our new sins make it invalid, but it abideth safe to us at last, notwithstanding our weaknesses; though, if we sin, we may have but little comfort of it, or but little of its present profits, while we live in this present world. A spendthrift, though he loses not his title, may yet lose the present benefit, but the principal will come again at last; for "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.137

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684

THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE.

Fourth. The necessity of the Advocate's office in Jesus Christ appears plainly in this plead about the judgments, distresses, afflictions, and troubles that we meet withal in this life for our sins. For though, under this office, Christ fully takes us off from the condemnation that the unbelievers go down to for their sins, yet he doth not thereby exempt us from temporal punishments, for we see and feel that they daily overtake us; but for the proportioning of the punishment, or affliction for transgression, seeing that comes under the sentence of the law, it is fit that we should have an Advocate that understands both law and judgment, to plead for equal distribution of chastisement, according, I say, to the law of grace; and this the Lord Jesus doth.

Suppose a man for transgression be indicted at the assizes; his adversary is full of malice, and would have him punished sorely beyond what by the law is provided for such offense; and he pleads that the judge will so afflict and punish as he in his malicious mind desireth. But the man has an advocate there, and he enters his plea against the cruelty of his client's accuser, saying, My lord, it cannot be as our enemy would have it; the punishment for these transgressions is prescribed by that law that we here ground our plea upon; nor may it be declined to satisfy his envy; we stand here upon matters of law, and appeal to the law. And this is the work of our Advocate in heaven. Punishments for the children's sin come not headlong, not without measure, as our accuser would have them, nor yet as they fall upon those who have none to plead their cause. Had He smote the children according to the stroke wherewith he hath smitten others? No; "in measure when it shooteth forth," or seeks to exceed due bounds, "thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind" (Isa 27:8).

"Thou wilt debate with it," inquiring and reasoning by the law, whether the shootings forth of the affliction (now going out for the offense committed) be not too strong, too heavy, too hot, and of too long a time admitted to distress and break the spirit of this Christian; and if it be, he applies himself to the rule to measure it by, he fetches forth his plumb line, and sets it among his people, (Amos 7:8; Isa 28:17), and lays righteousness to that, and will not suffer it to go further; but according to the quality of the transgression, and according to the terms, bounds, limits, and measures which the law of grace admits, so shall the punishment be. Satan often says of us when we have sinned, as Abishai said of Shimei after he had cursed David, Shall not this man die for this? (II Sam 19:21).

But Jesus, our Advocate, answers as David, What have I to do with thee, O Satan? Thou this day art an enemy to me; thou seekest for a punishment for the transgressions of my people above what is allotted to them by the law of grace, under which they are, and beyond what their relation that they stand into my Father and myself will admit. Wherefore, as Advocate, he pleadeth against Satan when he brings in against us a charge for sins committed, for the regulating of punishments, both as to the nature, degree, and continuation of punishment; and this is the reason why, when we are judged, we are not condemned, but chastened, "that we should not be condemned with the world" (I Cor 11:32). Hence king David says, the Lord hath not given him over to the will of his enemy (Psa 27:12).

And again, "The Lord hath chastened me sore; but he hath not given me over unto death" (Psa 118:18). Satan's plea was, that the Lord would give David over to his will, and to the tyranny of death. No, says our Advocate, that must not be; to do so would be an affront to the covenant under which grace has put them; that would be to deal with them by a covenant of works, under which they are not. There is a rod for children; and stripes for those that transgress. This rod is in the hand of a Father and must be used according to the law of that relation, not for the destruction, but correction of the children; not to satisfy the rage of Satan, but to vindicate the holiness of my Father; not to drive them further from, but to bring them nearer to their God. But,

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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,

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THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE

Third. There are many things relating to the promise, to our lives, and to the threats, that minister matter of question and doubt, and give the advantage of objections unto him that so eagerly desireth to be putting in cavils against our salvation, all which it hath pleased God to repel by Jesus Christ our Advocate.

1. There are many things relating to the promises, as to the largeness and straitness of words, as to the freeness and conditionality of them, which we are not able so well to understand; and, therefore, when Satan dealeth with us about them, we quickly fall to the ground before him; we often conclude that the words of the promise are too narrow and strait to comprehend us; we also think, verily, that the conditions of some promises do utterly shut us out from hope of justification and life; but our Advocate, who is for us with the Father, he is better acquainted with, and learned in, this law than to be baffled out with a bold word or two, or with a subtle piece of hellish sophistication (Isa 50:4). He knows the true purport, intent, meaning, and sense of every promise, and piece of promise that is in the whole Bible, and can tell how to plead it for advantage against our accuser, and doth so.

And I gather it not only from his contest with Satan for Joshua (Zech 3), and from his conflict with him in the wilderness (Matt 4), and in heaven (Rev 14) but also from the practice of Satan's emissaries here; for what his angels do, that doth he. Now there is here nothing more apparent than that the instruments of Satan do plead against the church, from the pretended intricacy, ambiguity, and difficulty of the promise; whence I gather, so doth Satan before the tribunal of God; but there we have one to match him; "we have an Advocate with the Father," that knows law and judgment better than Satan, and statute and commandment better than all his angels; and by the verdict of our Advocate, all the words, limits, and extensions of words, with all conditions of the promises, are expounded and applied! And hence it is that it sometimes so falls out that the very promise we have thought could not reach us, to comfort us by any means, has at another time swallowed us up with joy unspeakable. Christ, the true Prophet, has the right understanding of the Word as an Advocate, has pleaded it before God against Satan, and having overcome him at the common law, he hath sent to let us know it by his good Spirit, to our comfort and the confusion of our enemy. Again,

2. There are many things relating to our lives that minister to our accuser occasions of many objections against our salvation; for, besides our daily infirmities, there are in our lives gross sins, many horrible backslidings; also we ofttimes suck and drink in many abominable errors and deceitful opinions, of all which Satan accuseth us before the judgment-seat of God, and pleadeth hard that we may be damned forever for them. Besides, some of these things are done after the light is received, against present convictions and dissuasions to the contrary, against solemn engagements to amendment, when the bonds of love were upon us (Jer 2:20). These are crying sins; they have a loud voice in themselves against us, and give to Satan great advantage and boldness to sue for our destruction before the bar of God; nor doth he want skill to aggravate and to comment profoundly upon all occasions and circumstances that did attend us in these our miscarriages-to wit, that we did it without a cause, also, when we had, had we had the grace to have used them, many things to have helped us against such sins, and to have kept us clean and upright.

"There is also a sin unto death," (I John 5:16), and he can tell how to labor, by argument and sleight of speech, to make our transgressions, not only to border upon, but to appear in the hue, shape, and figure of that, and thereto make his objection against our salvation. He often argueth thus with us, and fastens the weight of his reasons upon our consciences, to the almost utter destruction of us, and the bringing of us down to the gates of despair and utter destruction; the same sins, with their aggravating circumstances, as I said, he pleaded against us at the bar of God. But there he meets with Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Advocate, who enters his plea against him, unravels all his reasons and arguments against us, and shows the guile and falsehood of them.

He also pleadeth as to the nature of sin, as also to all those high aggravations, and proveth that neither the sin in itself, nor yet as joined with all its advantageous circumstances, can be the sin unto death, (Col 2:19), because we hold the head, and have not "made shipwreck of faith," (I Tim 1:19), but still, as David and Solomon, we confess, and are sorry for our sins. Thus, though we seem, through our falls, to come short of the promise, with Peter, (Heb 4:1-3), and leave our transgressions as stumbling blocks to the world, with Solomon, and minister occasion of a question of our salvation among the godly, yet our Advocate fetches us off before God, and we shall be found safe and in heaven at last, by them in the next world, who were afraid they had lost us in this.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.134

 

THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE

Second. There is a a matter of law to be objected to, and that is both against God and us; at least, there seems to be so, because of the sanction that God has put upon the law and also because we have sinned against it. God has said, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die"; and, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." God also stands still upon the vindication of his justice, he also saves sinners. Now, in comes our accuser, and chargeth us of sin, of being guilty of sin, because we have transgressed the law. God also will not be put out of his way, or steps of grace, to save us he will say, he is just and righteous still. Ay, but these are but say-so's.

How shall this be proved? Why, now, here is room for an advocate that can plead to matter of law, that can preserve the sanction of the law in the salvation of the sinner-"He will magnify the law and make it honorable" (Isa 42:21). The margin saith, "and make him honorable"—that is, he shall save the sinner, and preserve the holiness of the law, and the honor of his God. But who is this that can do this? "It is the servant of God," saith the prophet (Isa 42:1, 13), "the Lord, a man of war."

But how can this be done by him? The answer is, It shall be done, "for God is well pleased for his righteousness' sake"; for it is by that he magnifies the law and makes his Father honourable-that is, he, as a public person, comes into the world under the law, fulfills it, and having so done, he gives that righteousness away, for he, as to his own person, never had need thereof; I say, he gives that righteousness to those that have need, to those that have none of their own, that righteousness might be imputed to them.

This righteousness, then, he presenteth to God for us, and God, for this righteousness' sake, is well pleased that we should be saved, and for it can save us, and secure his honor, and preserve the law in its sanction. And this Christ pleaded against Satan as an Advocate with the Father for us, by which he vindicates his Father's justice, holds the child of God, notwithstanding his sins, in a state of justification, and utterly overthrows and confounds the devil.

For Christ, in pleading thus, appeals to the law itself if he has not done it justice, saying, "Most mighty law, what command of thine have I not fulfilled? What demand of yours have I not fully answered? Where is that jot or title of the law that can object against my doings for want of satisfaction?" Here the law is mute; it speaker speaks word by way of the least complaint but rather testifies of this righteousness that it is good and holy (Rom 3:22, 23; 5:15–19). Now, then, since Christ did this as a public person, it follows that others must be justified thereby, for that was the end and reason of Christ's taking on him to do the righteousness of the law. Nor can the law object against the equity of this dispensation of heaven; for why might not God, who gave the law his being and his sanction, dispose as he pleases of the righteousness which it commends? Besides, if men be made righteous, they are so; and if by a righteousness which the law commendeth, how can fault be found with them by the law? Nay, it is "witnessed by the law and the prophets," who consent that it should be unto all, and upon all them that believe, for their justification (Rom 3:20,21).

And that the mighty God suffereth the prince of the devils to do with the law what he can, against this most wholesome and godly doctrine; it is to show the truth, goodness, and permanency thereof; for this is as who should say, Devil, do thy worst! When the law is in the hand of an easy pleader, though the cause that he pleadeth be good, a crafty opposer may overthrow the right; but here is the salvation of the children in debate, whether it can stand with law and justice; the opposer of this is the devil, his argument against it is the law; he that defends the doctrine is Christ the Advocate, who, in his plea, must justify the justice of God, defend the holiness of the law, and save the sinner from all the arguments, pleas, stops and demurs that Satan can put in against it. And this he must do fairly, righteously, simply, pleading the voice of the self-same law for the justification of what he stands for, which Satan pleads against it; for though it is by the new law that our salvation comes, yet by the old law is the new law approved of and the way of salvation thereby by it consented to.

This shows, therefore, that Christ is not ashamed to own the way of our justification and salvation—no, not before men and devils. It also shows that he is resolved to dispute and plead for the same, though the devil himself will oppose it. And since our adversary pretends a plea in law against it, there should indeed be an open hearing before the Judge of all about it; but, forasmuch as we neither can nor dare appear to plead for ourselves, our good God has thought fit we should do it by an advocate: "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." This, therefore, is the second thing that shows the need that we have for an Advocate-to wit, our adversary pretends that he has a plea in law against us and that by law we should be otherwise disposed of than to be made possessors of the heavenly kingdom. But,

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.133

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684

THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE.

Fifthly, I come now to the fifth thing, which is, to show you what necessity there is that Christ should be our Advocate.

That Christ should be a Priest to offer sacrifice, a King to rule, and a Prophet to teach, all-seeing men acknowledge is of necessity; but that he should be an Advocate, a pleader for his people, few see the reason of it. But he is an Advocate, and as an Advocate has a work and employ distinct from his priestly, kingly, or prophetical offices. John says, "He is our Advocate," and signifieth also the nature of his work as such, in that very place where he asserteth his office; as also I have showed you in that which goes before. But having already shown you the nature, I will now show you the necessity of this office.

First. It is necessary for the full and ample vindication of the justice of God against all the cavils of the infernal spirits. Christ died on earth to declare the justice of God to men in his justifying the ungodly. God standeth upon the vindication of his justice, as well as upon the act thereof. Hence the Holy Ghost, by the prophets and apostles, so largely disputeth for the vindication thereof, while it asserteth the reality of the pardon of sin, the justification of the unworthy, and their glorification with God (Rom 3:24; Isa, Jer, Mal; Rom 3, 4, 8; Gal 3,4). I say while it disputeth the justness of this high act of God against the cavils of implacable sinners. Now the prophets and apostles, in those disputes by which they seek to vindicate the justice of God in the salvation of sinners, are not only ministers of God to us, but advocates for him; since, as Elihu has it, they "speak on God's behalf," or, as the margin has it, "I will show thee that there are yet words for God," words to be spoken and pleaded against his enemies for the justification of his actions (Job 36:2). Now, as there must be advocates for God on earth to plead for his justice and holiness, while he saveth sinners, against the cavils of an ungodly people, so there must be an Advocate also in heaven, that may there vindicate the same justice and holiness of God from all those charges that the fallen angels are apt to charge it with, while it consenteth that we, though ungodly, should be saved.

That the fallen angels are bold enough to charge God to his face with unjustness of language, is evident in the 1st and 2nd of Job; and that they should not be as bold to charge him with unjustness of actions, nothing can be showed to the contrary. Further, that God seeks to clear himself of this unjust charge of Satan is as manifest; for all the troubles of his servant Job were chiefly for that purpose. And why he should have one also in heaven to plead for the justness of his doing in the forgiveness and salvation of sinners appears also as necessary, even because there is one, even an Advocate with the Father, or on the Father's side, seeking to vindicate his justice, while he pleadeth with him for us, against the devil and his objections. God is wonderfully pleased with his design in saving sinners; it pleases him at the heart. And since he also is infinitely just, there is a need that an Advocate should be appointed to show how, in a way of justice as well as mercy, a sinner may be saved.

The good angels did not at first see so far into the mysteries of the gospel of the grace of God, but that they needed further light therein for the vindication of their Lord as servants. Wherefore they yet did pry and look narrowly into it further, and also bowed their heads and hearts to learn yet more, by the church, of "the manifold wisdom of God" (I Peter 1:12; Eph 3:9,10). And if the standing angels were not yet, to the utmost, perfect in the knowledge of this mystery, and yet surely they must know more thereof than those that fell could do, no wonder if those devils, whose enmity could not but animate their ignorance, made, and do make, their cavils against justice, insinuating that it is not impartial and exact, because it, as it is just, justifieth the ungodly.

That Satan will quarrel with God I have showed you, and that he will also dispute against his works with the holy angels, is more than intimated by the apostle Jude, verse 9, and why not quarrel with, and accuse the justice of God as unrighteous, for consenting to the salvation of sinners, since his best qualifications are most profound and prodigious attempts to dethrone the Lord God of his power and glory.

Nay, all this is evident, since "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." And again, I say, it is evident that one part of his work as an Advocate is to vindicate the justice of God while he pleadeth for our salvation because he pleadeth a propitiation; for a propitiation respects God as well as us; the appeasing his wrath, and the reconciling of his justice to us, as well as the redeeming us from death and hell; yea, it therefore doth the one, because it doth the other. Now, if Christ, as an Advocate, pleadeth a propitiation with God, for whose conviction doth he plead it? Not for God's; for he has ordained it, allows it, and gloriously acquiesces therein, because he knows the whole virtue thereof. It is therefore for the conviction of the fallen angels, and for the confounding of all those cavils that can be invented and objected against our salvation by those most subtle and envious ones. But,

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.132

 

THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN ADVOCATE

Eleventh Privilege. The advantage that he has in having the Lord Jesus as his Advocate is very great. Thy Advocate has the cause, has the law, has the judge, has the purse, and so consequently has all that is requisite for an Advocate to have since together with these he has heart, he has wisdom, he has courage, and loves to make the best improvement of his advantages for the benefit of his client; and that which adds to all is that he can prove the debt paid, about which Satan makes such ado—a price given for the ransom of my soul and for the pardon of my sins. Lawyers do make a great deal of it when they can prove that that debt is paid for and their client is sued at law. Now this Christ Jesus himself is witness to; yea, he has paid it, and that out of his own purse, for us, with his own hands, before and upon the mercy seat, according as the law requireth (Lev 16:13–15; Heb 9:11–24).

What then can accrue to our enemy? or what advantage can he get from his thus vexing and troubling the children of the Most High? Certainly nothing, but, as has been said already, to be cast down; for the kingdom of our God is a kingdom of grace, and the power of his Christ will prevail. Samson's power lay in his hair, but Christ's power to deliver us from the accusation and charge of Satan lies in the worth of his undertakings. And hence it is repeated, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb," and he was cast out and down (Rev 12:10–12). And thus much for the privileges that those are made partakers of, who have Jesus Christ as their Advocate.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.131

 

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684

THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN ADVOCATE

Tenth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus Christ to be their Advocate, is this, the Father has made him, even him that is thine Advocate, the umpire and judge in all matters that have, do, or shall fall out betwixt him and us. Mark this well; for when the judge himself, before whom I am accused, shall make mine Advocate, the judge of the nature of the crime for which I am accused and of matter of law by which I am accused—to wit, whether it is in force against me to condemnation or whether by the law of grace I am set free—especially since my Advocate has espoused my cause, promised me deliverance, and pleaded my right to the state of eternal life—must it not go well with me?

Yes, verily. The judge, then, making thine Advocate the judge, for he "hath committed all judgment unto the Son," has done it also for thy sake who hast chosen him to be thine Advocate (John 5:22) It was a great thing that happened to Israel when Joseph became their advocate, and when Pharaoh had made him a judge. "Thou," says he, "shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt—and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt—only in the throne will I be greater than thou" (Gen 41:40, 44). Joseph in this was a type of Christ, and his government here is the government of Christ for his church. Kings seldom make a man's judge his advocate; they seldom leave the issue of the whole affair to the arbitration of the poor man's lawyer; but when they do, they think it should even go to the heart's desire of the client whose advocate it is, especially when, as I said before, the cause of the client has become the concern of the advocate, and they are both wrapped up in the self-same interest; yea, when the judge himself is also therein concerned; and yet thus it is with that soul who has Jesus Christ as his Advocate.

What sayest thou, poor heart, to this? The judge-to-wit, the God of heaven, has made thy Advocate, arbitrator in thy business; he is to judge; God has referred the matter to him, and he has a concern in thy concern, an interest in thy good speed. Christian man, dost thou hear? Thou hast put thy cause into the hand of Jesus Christ and has chosen him to be thy Advocate to plead for thee before God and against thy adversary; and God has referred the judgment of that matter to thy Advocate, so that he has the power to determine the matter. I know Satan is not pleased with this. He had rather things should have been referred to himself, and then we had been to the child of God; but, I say, God has referred the business to Jesus Christ, has made him umpire and judge in thine affair. Art thou also willing that he should decide the matter? Canst thou say unto him as David, "Judge me, O God, and plead my cause" (Psa 43:1)? Oh, the care of God towards his people and the desire for their welfare! He has provided them an Advocate, and he has referred all causes and things that may by Satan be objected and brought in against us, to the judgment and sentence of Christ our Advocate. But to come to a conclusion for this; and therefore,

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.130

 

THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN ADVOCATE

Ninth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus Christ as their Advocate is this, he is such one that will not, by bribes, by flattery, or fair pretenses, be turned aside from pursuing his client's business. This was the fault of lawyers in old times—that they would wrest judgment for a bribe. Hence the Holy One complained, that a bribe was used to blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the judgment of the righteous (I Sam 12:3; Amos 5:12; Deut 16:19).

There are three things in judgment that a lawyer must take heed of: one is the nature of the offense, the other is the meaning and intendment of the law-makers, and a third is to plead for them in danger, without respect to affection or reward; and this is the excellency of our Advocate, he will not, cannot be biased to turn aside from doing judgment. And this the apostle intends when he calls our Advocate "Jesus Christ the righteous." "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," or, as another prophet calls him, "the just Lord—one that will not do iniquity"—that is, no unrighteousness in judgment (Zeph 3:5). He will not be provoked to do it, neither by the continual solicitations of your enemy nor by your continual provocations, whereby, because of your infirm condition, you often tempt him to do it. And remember that thy Advocate pleads by the new covenant, and thine adversary accuses by the old; and again, remember that the new covenant is better and more richly provided with grounds of pleading for our pardon and salvation than the old can be with grounds for a charge to be brought in by the devil against us, suppose our sin be never so heinous. It is a better covenant, established upon better promises.

Now, put these two together: namely, that Jesus Christ is righteous, and will not swerve in judgment; also, that he pleads for us by the new law, with which Satan hath nothing to do, nor, had he, can he by it bring in a plea against us, because that law, in the very body of it, consists in free promises of giving grace unto us, and of everlasting forgiveness of our sin (Jer 31:31–34; Eze 36:25–30; Heb 8:8–13) O children, your Advocate will stick to the law, to the new law, to the new and everlasting covenant, and will not admit that anything should be pleaded by our foe that is inconsistent with the promise of the gift of grace and of the remission of all sin. Therefore, this is another privilege that they are made partakers of who have Jesus Christ as their Advocate. He is just, righteous, and "Jesus Christ the righteous"; he will not be turned aside to judge awry, either of the crime or the law, for favor or affection. Nor is there any sin but what is pardonable committed by those who have chosen Jesus Christ to be their Advocate.