II. I come now to show you how Jesus Christ manages this office of an Advocate for us. And that I may do this to your edification, I shall choose this method for the opening of it. First. Show you how he manages this office with his Father. Second. I shall show you how he manages it before him against our adversary.
First. how does he manage his office as an Advocate with His Father?
1. He doth it by himself, by no other as deputy under him, no angel, no saint; no work has a place here but Jesus, and Jesus only. This is what the text implies: "We have an Advocate"; speaking of one, but one alone, without an equal or an inferior. We have but one, and he is Jesus Christ. Nor is it for Christ's honor, nor for the honor of the law or of the justice of God, that anyone but Jesus Christ should be an Advocate for a sinning saint. Besides, to assert the contrary, what doth it but lessen sin and make the advocateship of Jesus Christ superfluous? It would lessen sin should it be removed by a saint or angel; it would make the advocateship of Jesus Christ superfluous, yea, needless, should it be possible that sin could be removed from us by either saint or angel.
Again, if God should admit more advocates than one and yet make mention of never one but Jesus Christ, or if John should allow another and yet speak nothing but of Jesus only, yea, that an advocate under that title should be mentioned but once, but once only in all the book of God, and yet that divers should be admitted, stands neither with the wisdom or love of God nor with the faithfulness of the apostle. But saints have but one Advocate, if they will use him, or improve their faith in that office for their help; if not, they must take what follows. This I thought good to hint at, because the times are corrupt, and because ignorance and superstition always wait for a countenance with us, and these things have a natural tendency to darken all truth, so especially this, which bringeth to Jesus Christ so much glory, and yieldeth to the godly so much help and relief.
2. As Jesus Christ alone is Advocate, so is God's bar, and that alone is that before which he pleads, for God is to judge himself (Deut 32:36; Heb 12:23). Nor can the cause for which he is now pleading be removed from any other court, either by appeals or otherwise.
If Satan could remove us from heaven to another court, he would certainly be too hard for us, because there we should want our Jesus, our Advocate, to plead our cause. Indeed, sometimes he impleads us before men, and they are glad of the occasion, for they and he are often one; but then we have leave to remove our cause and to pray for a trial in the highest court, saying, "Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal" (Psa 17:2). This wicked world does sentence us for our good deeds, but how then would they sentence us for our bad ones? But we will never appeal from heaven to earth for right, for here we have no Advocate; "our advocate is with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
3. As he pleadeth by himself alone, and nowhere else but in the court of heaven with the Father, so as he pleadeth with the Father for us, he observed this rule. He granteth and confesseth whatever can rightly be charged upon us, yet so as that he taketh the whole charge upon himself, acknowledging the crimes to be his own. "O God," says he, "thou knowest my foolishness and my sins"; my guiltiness "is not hid from thee" (Psa 69:5). And this he must do, or else he can do nothing. If he hides the sin or lessens it, he is faulty; if he leaves it still upon us, we die. He must, then, take our iniquity to himself, make it his own, and so deliver us; for having thus taken the sin upon himself, as lawfully he may, and lovingly doth, "for we are members of his body" ('tis his hand, 'tis his foot, 'tis his ear hath sinned), it followeth that we live if he lives; and who can desire more? This, then, must be thoroughly considered, if ever we will have comfort in a day of trouble and distress for sin.
