Jesus Is Our Advocate!

My little children, these things I write 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 the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

John uses the address “dear children” in a warm, fatherly way.  He is not talking down to his readers but is showing affection for them.  At this writing, John was a very old man.  He had spent almost all his life in ministry, and many of his readers were indeed his spiritual children.

Are you Righteous before God?

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:21-23)

In these verses we see two functions of God's law.  First, it shows us where we go wrong.  Because of the law, we know that we are helpless sinners and that we must come to Jesus Christ for mercy.  Second, the moral code revealed in the law can serve to guide our actions by holding up God's moral standards.  We do not earn salvation by keeping the law (no one except Christ ever kept or could keep God's law perfectly), but we do please God when our lives conform to His revealed will for us.