1 John 2:1 - Meaning and Application

These verses continue the thought from the end of the previous chapter, where John assumes that true Christians still do sin. Here he gives them both a warning and comfort.

He first gives a warning so that no one will take sin lightly: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin” (1 John 2:1). John speaks with warmth and tenderness. He calls them “my little children” because they were likely brought to faith through his preaching, because they were younger in age and experience, and because they were dear to him in the bond of the gospel. The gospel has usually spread most fully where this kind of loving care has been strongest.

The point may also be read this way: “I am writing these things to you, not so that you may sin.” If so, John is looking back to what he said earlier about God’s sure forgiveness of confessed sin, especially that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (1 John 1:9). He wants to make sure no one twists that promise into an excuse for sin. Or he may be looking ahead to what he is about to say about Christ as the believer’s helper before the Father. Then his words mean, “I am writing this not to lead you into sin, but to show you your remedy when you do sin.”

That brings us to the believer’s help when sin does happen: “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Even believers, those who live in the blessed state of the gospel, still have sins. So there is a clear difference between people who sin in general. Some are Christ’s people, brought into the saving privileges of his spiritual body, while others remain outside him. Some believers, compared with others, are spoken of as not sinning in the same way (1 John 3:9), because sin does not rule over them as it does over the unconverted.

Believers, then, have an atonement applied to them when they come into a state of pardon and justification, that is, being counted right with God. But they also have an Advocate in heaven who continues to maintain that pardoned standing and seeks their ongoing forgiveness. That is the great support, comfort, and refuge of real Christians when they fall into sin: “We have an Advocate.” The same Greek word is sometimes used for the Holy Spirit, where it is translated “Comforter.” He works within us, putting pleas and arguments into our hearts and mouths, and so teaches us to pray for ourselves. But here John speaks of One outside us, in heaven, with the Father.

An advocate’s work is to appear before the judge and plead the client’s case. The Judge before whom Christ pleads is the Father, his Father and ours. The same God who stands as Judge in the court of broken law is our Father in the gospel court, the court of heaven and grace. His throne is now a mercy seat. Yet he is still our Judge, the highest ruler over our life, death, time, and eternity. We come “to God, the Judge of all” (Hebrews 12:23). So believers may be encouraged to expect a good outcome, because their Judge is also their Father.

John also points to Christ’s qualifications as our Advocate. First, he is “Jesus Christ,” the Son of the Father, the one the Father appointed for the whole work of mediation, that is, of standing between God and sinners to bring salvation. That makes him fit to plead for us. Second, he is “the righteous.” This matters greatly because our case cannot be built on our own innocence. We are guilty, and our sin must be owned. Christ pleads his own righteousness on behalf of guilty people. He was righteous even to death, righteous for us, and he has brought in everlasting righteousness. The Father will not reject such a plea. On that basis, Christ asks that our sins not be counted against us.

John adds the ground of that advocacy: “He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). A propitiation is a sacrifice that turns away anger and removes guilt. Christ is the sin offering presented to God for all our offenses against his majesty, law, and rule. It is wrong to split Christ into two separate roles, one for redemption and another for intercession, as if these were different kinds of mediators. The same Mediator who intercedes for us is the one who redeemed us by his sacrifice. His plea is based on his own atoning death.

We should not think Christ’s blood has lost its value because it is no longer on earth. Its worth is honored in heaven, where the great Advocate continually presents it for God’s people. He always lives to intercede for those who come to God through him. And John makes clear how wide that propitiation reaches. It is not limited to one nation, not even to Israel alone. Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, meaning not only for Jewish believers, the children of Abraham according to the flesh, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). That includes all tribes, nations, and countries, and all who will later believe in him and come to God through him. Christ is the only atonement, and he is the universal atonement, for all who are saved and brought back to God and his forgiveness.