Our Case and Our Advocate by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 27, 1911

Our Case and Our Advocate

By C. M. S.

As the Word of God is true and can not fail, we are nearing the time when every one must render account for the life he has led upon this earth.

In the beginning, man was placed upon the earth with a code of morals essential to his existence,—a code of morals in whose spirit rested the government of the whole universe. Man broke that law, that moral code, that principle of eternal right-doing, and brought upon himself the penalty which the breaking involved. But before that penalty fell upon the race, the life of Christ was interposed, and the possibility of eternal life was again held out to man.

Then the eternal Son of God became the Advocate of the prisoner at the bar, and the Father and Ruler of the universe became the Judge upon the bench of ultimate justice. Now what is man's case? and what is his hope of acquittal or pardon? Is his case safe in the hands of his Advocate? And what is the standing of his Advocate in the court of last resort?

Speaking of those who had professed his name, the Lord declares, “They have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.” Hosea 8:1. The prophet of the Lord declares, in Ezra 9:6, “Our iniquities have increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.” Inspiration declares that we were “dead in trespasses and sins.”

Although that is our condition in God's sight, yet the record that is kept of all our doings is not a prejudiced nor partial one. Faithful are they who write it down, and faithful is he that must pass upon the records. “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” Ps. 56:8. Along with the record of the wanderings goes the record of our sorrow for sin. We can not change the record by anything that we can do; for “though thou wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord.” Jer. 2:22.

As soon as man sinned, he made necessary a salvation that must come through another; for his own misdeeds

merited death. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. “And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12.

In such a condition, with such a penalty hanging over his head, unable to save himself (to say nothing of saving others), what foundation has man for hoping to escape that death from which there is no awakening?—Ah, there comes in that glorious provision voluntarily made by the self-sacrificing Son of God. He might have stayed in heaven, refused the humility of the human, escaped the torturing death of the cross, and still have retained the glory which he had with the Father “before the world was.” But he did not choose thus to do. Speaking of him, the Word says: “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb. 12:2. In fact, he emptied himself of his own glory, that he might restore man to the glory which he had lost. He “became obedient unto death,” that he might provide a way whereby man could triumph over death. He died, the Just for the unjust; rose again, because he could not be holden of death; and thus became the “Captain of our salvation.” Because man had sinned,—because we had sinned,—Christ, to bear the penalty which we deserved, was made “to be sin for us,” while he himself was sinless, that we might appear, in the eyes of the law, blameless as he. He did all this while we were yet in sin, yet in rebellion against the authority of Heaven.

He has even engaged to present man's case in the court of last resort. That blessed fact is announced in the following unmistakable language: “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” That Advocate is able to save to the uttermost all who will come unto God by him. “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.” The awful earnestness of that work is shown in the following: “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered.”

The only thing that now stands between man and life everlasting in the kingdom of God is man's refusal to repent of sin and accept the proffered pardon, putting his case in the hands of One who is at once his Friend, his Brother, his Redeemer, and his Advocate at the bar of eternity.

Our case is now at that bar. Our crucified and risen Lord is the only One who is able to carry it through. The all-important question for each of us is this: Is my case in the hands of the one Advocate who has a right to plead for me there? C. M. S.