The Christian's Legal Standing Text: 1 John 2:1-2
Introduction: The Courtroom of God
The Christian life is lived on a knife's edge. On one side is the chasm of licentiousness, the devil-may-care attitude that treats God's grace as a blank check for sin. On the other side is the abyss of a scrupulous and terrified conscience, the kind that lives in constant fear of losing God's favor with every misstep. The modern church, in its sentimental sloppiness, tends to fall into the first ditch. The older, more severe forms of piety, often tumbled into the second. But the Apostle John, writing as a wise old pastor, walks us straight down the middle of this glorious, narrow path.
He begins with a pastoral command that is utterly uncompromising: "I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin." The goal is holiness. The standard is perfection. God does not grade on a curve. But in the very next breath, he provides the bedrock foundation for our assurance when we inevitably fail to meet that standard. "And if anyone sins..." Notice, it is "if," not "when," which maintains the force of the command not to sin, but it is a pastoral "if" that anticipates the reality of our remaining corruption.
What happens when a Christian sins? Our therapeutic age has its answers. Feel guilty for a bit, then forgive yourself. Try to do better next time. God understands. But this is cheap grace, a counterfeit gospel that has no power because it does not grapple with the real problem. The real problem is not psychological but judicial. Our sin is not a therapeutic issue; it is a legal one. It is a crime committed against the infinite holiness of the sovereign God. And so the solution must also be a legal one. When we sin, a great transaction occurs in the courtroom of heaven. An accusation is leveled by the great prosecutor, Satan, the accuser of the brethren. But we are not left defenseless. John tells us that we have a defense attorney, an Advocate, and His argument before the Judge is not our sincerity or our good intentions, but His own blood.
This passage is therefore the foundation of all Christian assurance. Our standing before God does not depend on our performance, but on Christ's performance. It is not subjective, based on our feelings, but entirely objective, based on the finished work of Jesus Christ the righteous. If you do not grasp this, you will either become an arrogant antinomian or a despairing legalist. But if you do grasp it, you will be set free to pursue holiness out of love and gratitude, knowing that your legal standing is eternally secure.
The Text
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
(1 John 2:1-2 LSB)
The Uncompromising Goal and the Gracious Provision (v. 1)
We begin with the tender address and the sharp command of the first verse:
"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;" (1 John 2:1)
John addresses his flock as "my little children." This is the language of pastoral affection, not condescension. He loves these people, and because he loves them, he wants them to be holy. The purpose of apostolic instruction, the purpose of all preaching and teaching, is not to make us comfortable in our sins, but to equip us to mortify them. "So that you may not sin." This is the goal. Not sin-management. Not sin-reduction. The goal is sinlessness. This is the standard of the new covenant. We are called to be holy as He is holy. To aim for anything less is to aim for something other than what God has commanded.
But the gospel is for sinners. And Christians, though positionally righteous in Christ, still sin. So what is the recourse? John immediately provides it. "And if anyone sins..." The moment a believer sins, the machinery of heaven whirs into action on our behalf. We do not have to go find a lawyer. We do not have to put Him on retainer. We already "have an Advocate with the Father." The word for Advocate is Paraclete, the same word Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit in John's gospel. It means one called alongside to help, a counselor, a defense attorney.
And who is this Advocate? It is "Jesus Christ the righteous." This is absolutely crucial. Our defense attorney is not some slick lawyer who knows how to bend the rules or find loopholes. His entire case is based on perfect, unbending righteousness. First, He is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one sent from God to save. Second, and this is the ground of His advocacy, He is "the righteous." He is the only human being who has ever lived a life of perfect, seamless obedience to the law of God. He is what we were supposed to be. Therefore, when Satan, the prosecuting attorney, brings a true charge against us before the Father, our Advocate does not deny the charge. He does not say, "My client didn't do it." He says, "The charge is true. My client is guilty. But I am righteous, and I have stood in his place. My righteousness has been credited to his account, and his sin has been paid for by my blood."
Notice also where this advocacy takes place. He is our Advocate "with the Father." The judge in our case is our Father. This is a family matter. God is not a hostile judge whom our Advocate must appease. He is the very one who appointed the Advocate in the first place because of His great love for us. The entire plan of salvation, including the ongoing advocacy of Christ, originates in the loving heart of the Father. This is not a case of a loving Son placating an angry Father. It is the triune Godhead working in perfect harmony to secure the salvation of the elect.
The Ground of Our Acquittal (v. 2)
Verse 2 explains the legal basis upon which our Advocate argues and wins His case for us. It is not based on a plea bargain, but on a payment.
"and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." (1 John 2:2 LSB)
Our Advocate wins our case because He Himself "is the propitiation for our sins." The word propitiation is a dense, weighty, theological term that our shallow generation has tried to discard, much to its peril. It means a wrath-averting sacrifice. It is not just that Christ's death makes forgiveness possible. It is that His death actually satisfies the righteous justice of God. God's wrath against our sin is real, holy, and just. It cannot be simply waved away. It must be absorbed, exhausted, satisfied. On the cross, Jesus Christ stood as our substitute and absorbed the full, undiluted fury of God's wrath against our sin. He drank the cup of divine judgment down to the dregs so that we would never have to taste a single drop of it.
He did not just make a propitiation. He is the propitiation. It is His very person, His identity as the God-man, that gives His sacrifice its infinite value. This is the objective ground of our salvation. It is a historical fact. Two thousand years ago, outside the city walls of Jerusalem, the justice of God was fully and finally satisfied for all the sins of all of God's people. Our assurance, therefore, does not rest on the tremor of our feelings, but on the granite reality of the empty tomb.
But then John adds a phrase that has been the source of much confusion: "and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." Does this mean that Christ died for every single person who has ever lived, head for head? Does this teach a universal atonement? Not at all. To read it that way is to rip it from its context and ignore the rest of Scripture. If Christ made a propitiation for the sins of every person, then the wrath of God against their sin has been satisfied. And if the wrath of God has been satisfied, then it would be unjust for God to punish them in hell. This would lead to universalism, the belief that everyone will ultimately be saved, a doctrine the Bible flatly denies on numerous occasions.
So what does it mean? John, a Jew, is writing to a mixed audience of Jews and Gentiles. The "ours" refers to the Jewish believers who were the first recipients of the gospel. The phrase "the whole world" is not meant to be taken individualistically, but ethnically and geographically. It means that Christ's sacrifice is not limited to one nation or one people group. It is for the elect from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Christ's death is sufficient to save the entire world, but it is efficient only for the elect. It is a salvation that is cosmic in its scope. The gospel is for the world, not just for Israel. This is a glorious, postmillennial promise. The kingdom of God, through the power of this gospel, will one day fill the entire earth as the waters cover the sea. Christ is not just the savior of a few scattered individuals; He is the Savior of the world, and He will have His inheritance.
Conclusion: Objective Reality, Subjective Assurance
So what is the takeaway? The Christian life is a constant return to this objective reality. When you sin, and your conscience accuses you, and Satan whispers his lies that you have finally gone too far, you must not look inward to your own heart. Your heart will condemn you. You must look outward, to the heavenly courtroom. You must look to your Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. You must point to the propitiation, to the blood-stained cross where the justice of God was satisfied for you.
This is not a license to sin. It is the very power to overcome it. The man who truly understands that his acquittal was purchased at the cost of the blood of the Son of God is the man who will hate his sin most fiercely. Grace does not make us soft on sin; it makes us warriors against it. It frees us from the paralyzing fear of condemnation so that we can get up, confess our sin, receive our cleansing, and get back into the fight, all for the glory of the Father who loved us, the Son who is our Advocate, and the Spirit who applies that glorious work to our hearts.
Your standing is secure. It is an objective fact, grounded in the righteousness and the blood of Jesus Christ. Live like it's true. Because it is.