Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Nichole Nordeman singing her song … Finally Free … poignantly declaring the reality of what Jesus has earned for us as our Advocate before His Father … FREEDOM from our sin debt.
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Highlight Verse[s]: 1st John 2:1 [NLT] …
1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.
… We, who have received God’s saving grace in faith and freedom from our sin debt, have an eternal advocate before the Father in Heaven.
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Highlight Passage [context]: 1st John 1:8-2:2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God thru the Apostle declares the reality of His advocacy on behalf of sinful believers whom He has saved by His atoning grace.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … Ecclesiastes 7:20 [NKJV] …
20 Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.
… Solomon learned - and declares before God - his need, along with everyone’s, of a Messiah.
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … Romans 3:10-13, 23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, proclaims that we are ALL sinners, deserving death and in desperate need of an advocate in Heaven Who has covered our sin with His atoning blood.
Reference Passage #3 [NKJV] : … Romans 10:9 [NLT] …
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
… God’s promise of Jesus’ propitiation for our sins and His saving grace when/if we believe in Christ’s atoning sacrifice and we sinners repent and declare openly that Jesus is LORD.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Mart DeHaan, uses an historical reference to illustrate how Jesus is our advocate before the Law of God which condemns all sinners to death. The ODB author wrote: From a Florida prison cell in June 1962, Clarence Earl Gideon wrote a note asking the United States Supreme Court to review his conviction for a crime he said he didn’t commit. He added that he didn’t have the means to hire a lawyer.
One year later, in the historic case of Gideon v. Wainright, the Supreme Court ruled that people who cannot afford the cost of their own defense must be given a public defender—an advocate—provided by the state. With this decision, and with the help of a court-appointed lawyer, Clarence Gideon was retried and acquitted.
However, as author DeHaan, brings out, we sinners are not innocent before our Heavenly Judge (see the reference passages above). Even those of us who have believed, confessed, and repented of our sin nature are guilty before God’s Law and His throne of grace. And that is where/why our Advocate, Jesus, pleads our case in Heaven (see photo). God the Father doesn’t see my sin nature because my Advocate, King Jesus, paid my sin debt, and He has covered my sin with His blood and His Robes of Righteousness so that His Father in Heaven sees not my sin.
And for all reading here who have similarly so declared (see Rom. 10:9), do I sense a robust “HALLELUJAH?!!”
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … I stand in awe of my Lord’s propitiation for my sin and His advocacy on my behalf of me in Heaven which will one day bring me to be His heir. … HALLELUJAH!!! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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