This week saw the satisfactorily conclusion of our building transactions which stretched back over the last couple of years and we give God thanks for his enabling grace to see us through the various contacts. We were also assisted by our lawyers who appear to have done a good job.

My first involvement with lawyers was at around the age of 7 or 8. The house which we lived in at that time was owned by a couple who were living and working in India and who, we thought, were planning to spend the rest of their lives there.
However WW2 had ended and they decided to return to Scotland and wished to repossess their house. As tenants we had a legal agreement enabling us to remain but the case went to law.
My mother had been looking after my grandparents but my grandfather had just died so there were four of us in the semi-detached house which had six rooms. The Judge decreed, rather like King Solomon, that we divide the house giving two rooms to the owners retaining four rooms for our use.
However good it might have looked on paper the verdict would have been unworkable in practice and, providentially, we were able to solve our housing crisis thanks to the assistance of other members of our extended family.
Why am I writing all this? It is to show that we were in the hands of our advocate. If he had been good we may have been able to see out the remainder of our lease. I remember him remarking, “I don’t think you are very pleased with me”, perhaps something of an understatement!

The point is that you are at the mercy of your lawyer. If he is good then you benefit. If he is bad then you suffer the consequences.

The Bible reveals salvation as a forensic matter. We are prone to sin and sin must be judged. We will have our day in court whether we like it or not! It is of crucial importance that we have a good advocate. Out eternal destiny depends on it.

In St John’s first letter he first proclaims that the light of the Gospel shows up our sins and then goes on to commend Jesus’s death as the remedy. John realises that in reality believers are not immune from sin. He then takes up the courtroom theme and tells us that we have Jesus as our Advocate to plead our case before the Father.
In fact Jesus work of atonement is offered and is made available to cover the sins of the whole world not just St John and his readers.

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us…I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John Chapter 1 verses 7 to Chapter 2 verses 1 – 2.

Trust Jesus as your saviour and your advocate.