“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”

1 John 2:1

God has revealed himself gradually through the years. “1. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son …” (Hebrews 1:1-2a). From these verses, we can understand the incremental and progressive manner in which God disclosed Himself up until the appearance of His Son, Jesus. This revealing was fragmentary and piece-by-piece, sort of like pieces of a puzzle. You must see all of the pieces put together in order to see the complete picture.

At first, we see Him as the God of creation in Genesis 1. We then find that He is a God who cannot look upon sinful man in Genesis 3. It is here that we recognize a separation between God and man. We then realize that there is a limit to His tolerance of sinful man in Genesis 6 (the flood that destroyed the world), yet we also recognize that God showed grace to those who continually seek him (Noah; Genesis 6:8). God then revealed himself to an individual man (Abraham, in Genesis 12) and extended that revelation to his descendants (see Exodus 3:15). God showed Himself mightily to His people in the ten plagues and the exodus of His people from bondage (Exodus 7–14). He then showed Himself as their provider (in the wilderness, Exodus 15–17). We discover that He is a God who expects His people to hear His voice and obey Him (Exodus 19–20). Once the people accomplish the great task of building a tabernacle where God’s presence can dwell among His people (Exodus 40), He then reveals just what it takes to become a “clean and forgiven” people in the presence of a sinless, perfect God (Leviticus). These are only the beginnings of the revealing of God.

A very important thing to acknowledge is that God has mandated a blood sacrifice for man’s sin since the garden (because of sin that separated man from God). When man sinned, God shed the blood of an animal to make a covering for man (for he was naked before God; his sins were exposed). When God made the clothes to “cover” Adam and Eve, it was a great picture of what the Old Testament sacrifices did for man. They covered mankind’s sin for a season. Throughout the Old Testament, we see the shedding of blood (from an animal) to cover mankind’s sin (until the perfect one-time sacrifice would be made). It is not until we come to Leviticus that God reveals the intricacies and details of the way it is required. The ritualistic sacrifices (explained in Leviticus) that had to be fulfilled, completely and perfectly, were to show to us the great sacrifice it would take (one day) to cleanse sinful man from his sin. These sacrifices were to reveal to mankind, the impossibility of entering into God’s presence without the perfect sacrifice, only found in Jesus. All throughout the books of the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) we recognize God gradually reveal Himself to mankind, only a piece at a time, through revelation—only as much as we could handle.

The final piece was disclosed in Jesus. Jesus is the Advocate before God for any sinner who will believe. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). This was accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross for the sin of man. “And he (Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). The word propitiation means “the means of putting away sin and establishing righteousness not by man’s ability to appease God with any of his offerings, (for man is unable to offer anything to placate God), Jesus is presented as the righteous One; … reconciling us to God, allowing us to be acceptable for fellowship with God (see also Romans 3:25). The propitiation of Christ is very personal – the propitiation for a believer’s sin.” This makes Jesus the Advocate for anyone who will believe.

Have you asked Jesus to be your Advocate with God, the Father?