Demetrics and Pauline Roscoe

An Advocate

Believers in the Holy Bible today face serious opposition in the way of constant changing of laws, atheist groups, and some readers might find passages in the Bible too challenging to understand. One must have a heart for God to study and learn the textual flow.
In some places, the Bible reader has to trust his heart in what is regarded to be the character of our Redeemer. He is a Holy God; His ways are higher than ours, and His thoughts are much higher than ours. Thus, what we might believe is acceptable behavior and okay with Him might be positioning us in a precarious unGodly relationship. Furthermore, God does not agree with everything we present to Him as a prayer request. We must seek His Will and purpose instead of our selfish desires. Neither should we expect a quick “now, lay me down to sleep…” to be an appropriate prayer for a mature believer before retiring to bed. Our God requires more of us, but He has not left us empty-handed. He has given us His Holy Spirit to guide us, teach us, and to reveal Christ, the Messiah to those who have an understanding heart.

Therefore, no matter how challenging the Scriptures might seem, the Word of God will always open up to a humble and teachable student. Thanks to historical research, we have found that Adonai is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and He had a plan to preserve the best-known collection of ancient manuscripts. Archeology and scientific findings both prove the historical Yeshua as the long-awaited Savior of the world.

Nonetheless, there are troublesome places in the Bible where individuals who started walking on the right path of faith ended up going down a slippery slope of compromise and began contradicting the teachings of the Prophets. Such behavior is happening again today when we see churchgoers insisting on returning to their previous bondage, and they reject the cleansing process of the Holy Spirit.

In Roman 1:28 it is quite clear that no believer has to be afraid of being associated with the Romans 1:28 assembly because new converts have a heart for the Grace and Mercy established by the Lamb of God.

Perhaps, these unfortunate souls never sought a life-changing experience through the Blood-washed existence in Christ. The difference is that because we are born-again, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, Who is attached to Yeshua, which causes “Unitedness” with Adonai, we become “One with God” Hallelujah!
Unfortunately, those reprobate individuals were only interested in seeking the Hand of God rather than seeking the Face of God, the Almighty;
consequently, they became susceptible to the doctrine of demon spirits.

Romans 1:28-32 (NLT Study Bible Text)
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

Was the fall of these groups the result of a faith crisis? Was it the lack of understanding on the part of an ill-advised person whose influence left them with a ship-wrecked faith?

First and foremost, as long as a person is humble and teachable, he or she will have the Holy Spirit accompanying them in their spiritual maturity growth.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NLT Study Bible Text)
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

Galatians 1:8 (CWSB)
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

“Yeshua,” is the Hebrew name of the Anointed Messiah, and that name means “Salvation.”
(New Living Translation (NLT) Study Bible Notes)
Jesus emphasized the importance of understanding the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27), and Paul was speaking primarily of the Old Testament when he wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives” (2 Tim 3:16). The Old Testament provides us with a profound knowledge of God, ourselves, and the world.

(New Living Translation (NLT) Study Bible Notes)
Jesus said that the whole OT anticipated his coming, suffering, and glory (Luke 24:25-27). Jesus is the center of biblical revelation. The Old Testament anticipates Him, and the New Testament describes Him.
New Testament authors recognized this, so they frequently cited the OT to explain that the glorious events happening in their day were foreshadowed and foretold by the OT. Christians, too, should read the OT from the perspective of the death and resurrection of Christ. While it is crucial first to interpret each OT passage or book in the context of its original audience, we understand the OT better when we read it in light of its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Authors, such as the Apostle Paul, understood the significance of maintaining the integrity between the Old Testament and the New Testament and its stories held a profound sacredness about the promised Messiah. Paul was conscious of the danger of misconceived concepts or speculations could undermine the continuity of the narrative.

“Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you,” the Apostle Paul announced in his Epistle sent to the churches in Galatia. Apostle Paul urgingly, warning the Galatians, that the only way to obtaining the inheritance of our Heavenly Father, is by submitting to the Holy Spirit guidance and jurisdiction over the story; Galatians 5:21kind of fruit in our lives. Galatians 5:16 (NLT Study Bible Text)

The Spirit’s Power
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Thousands of years of history reveal God’s approach towards the proper handling of how “sin” and “rebellion” was destroying the souls of humanity. The only Salvation for man was a covenant that guaranteed safety for those under its agreement, of the first Covenant and the performance of the items (keeping The Law). The Old Testament was an exceptional rendering of a Divine and Holy God accompany sinful man, as Humanity’s teacher. The New Testament presents Salvation as sinful man is represented by a “Paraclete,” Greek word for the English “Advocate,” sometimes applied to Christ other times referred to the Holy Spirit.

Nonetheless, great opposition exists over the application of the English word “Advocate” in the second phrase in first John 2:1 “If any man sins,” we have an Advocate with the Father. While this statement is a true statement, there is a doctrinal disagreement based on what a believer could take away as an article their faith.
Some teachings are saying that anytime a believer sins, Christ automatically pleads their cause to the Father. Alternatively, 1st John understanding should include sin in the believer’s life as an isolated incident rather than an open policy of insurance against damnation.”

Here is the problem:
The word, Advocate concludes the idea that whenever someone sins, the Advocate automatically works out a deal and that individual continues in life without changes. This group continues as rebellious, indulging Children, only because of what they were taught. But, our suffering Messiah has sent His Advocate into the World to teach the human heart spiritual lessons. Jesus is able to locate the seekers with His truth.

We have pulled three separate scholarly commentaries surrounding the role of Advocate in John 2:1. Advocate and all three remarks point to the narrative as maintaining a life avoiding sin and shunning the doctrine of devils.

1 John 1:10 – 2:8 (New Living Translation (NLT) Study Bible Notes)
permeating and penetrating nature of sin (see note on 1:8).
2:1: In order to live “in the light” (1:5-7), one must confess sin (1:9) and stop sinning. John emphasized sin in ch 1 in order to make believers despise their sin and avoid it. • if anyone does sin: Believers should repudiate sin, but they should not fear to confess sins to God. • advocate (Greek paraklētos, “one who is called to our side” as comforter or Advocate): Christ is our defense attorney, representing us before the Father in heaven (see Rom 8:26-34; cp. John 14:16). • Jesus Christ, the . . . righteous: We, in contrast, are sinful. Because Christ fulfilled the law and paid sin’s penalty for us, he can plead for us on the basis of justice as well as mercy. When God raised Christ from the dead, he accepted once for all Christ’s plea for our acquittal (see Rom 4:23-25). “The righteousness of Christ stands on our side; for God’s righteousness is, in Jesus Christ, ours” (Martin Luther).
2:1: dparaklētos (3875) John 14:16
2:1: cf: Rom 8:34; 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 7:25; 9:24
2:2: sacrifice that atones: The Greek hilasmos means “appeasement by means of sacrifice” (cp. 4:10). Christ satisfied God’s justice by dying in our place (Rom 3:25).
2:2: ehilasmos (2434) 1 Jn 4:10
2:2: cf: John 1:29; Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 4:10
2:3-6: Obedience is one clear indication that we know Christ and belong to him. If we do not obey Christ, it is obvious that we do not belong to him or love him. • As we obey Christ and his commandments, our love for God and our knowledge of him will grow toward completeness and maturity. We will live . . . as Jesus did, in union with God and showing love for others.
2:3: cf: 1 Jn 3:22, 24
2:5: cf: John 14:21, 23; 1 Jn 3:24; 4:13; 5:2
2:6: cf: Matt 11:29; John 13:15; 1 Pet 2:21
2:7-11: The disciples had the old commandment (to love one another) from the very beginning, from Jesus himself (John 13:34-35) and from the OT (Lev 19:18, 33-34).
2:7: cf: John 13:34; 1 Jn 2:24; 3:11; 2 Jn 1:5-6
2:8: Yet it is also new: Jesus’ command provided the new basis for their love in his own demonstration of love to the disciples (John 13:1-17). • the darkness is disappearing and the true light is already shining: The light of the Good News expels darkness. Darkness cannot overcome it, especially where believers are living out the love that is in Christ.

(International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

1. As Applied to Christ
   It remains to notice the passage in 1 Jn 2:1 where the term “Paraclete” is applied to Christ: “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”; 2:2 reads: “and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” Here the meaning is quite clear and specific. Jesus Christ the righteous is represented as our Advocate or Intercessor with the Father. His righteousness is set over against our sin. Here the Paraclete, Christ, is He who, on the basis of His propitiatory offering for the sins of men, intercedes for them with God and thus averts from them the penal consequences of their transgressions. The sense in which Paraclete is here applied to Christ is found nowhere in the passages we have cited from the Gospel. The Holy Spirit as Paraclete is Intercessor or Advocate, but not in the sense here indicated. The Spirit as Paraclete convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment. Jesus Christ as Paraclete vindicates believers before God.
   LITERATURE
   Grimm-Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT; Cremer, Biblico-Theol. Lexicon; HDB, article “Paraclete”; DCG, article “Paraclete”; EB, article “Paraclete”; JE, article “Paraclete”; Hare, Mission of the Comforter; Pearson, On the Creed; Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers; various comms., Westcott, Godet and others.

“There Is Only One Good News,” The Living Translation.
6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.
8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.
10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

An Advocate
(International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

1. CHRIST’S USE OF THE WORD
   We look next at the contents of the word as employed by Jesus in reference to the Holy Spirit. In Jn 14:16 the Paraclete is promised as one who is to take the place of Jesus. It is declared elsewhere by Jesus that it is expedient that He go away, for unless He go away the Paraclete will not come (Jn 16:7). Is the Paraclete, then, the successor or the substitute for Christ as He is sometimes called? The answer is that He is both and neither. He is the successor of Christ historically, but not in the sense that Christ ceases to act in the church. He is the substitute for Christ’s physical presence, but only in order that He may make vital and actual Christ’s spiritual presence. As we have seen, the Paraclete moves only in the range of truths conveyed in and through Christ as the historical manifestation of God. A “Kingdom of the Spirit,” therefore, is impossible in the Christian sense, save as the historical Jesus is made the basis of the Spirit’s action in history. The promise of Jesus in 14:18, “I come unto,” is parallel and equivalent in meaning with the preceding promise of the Paraclete. The following are given as the specific forms of activity of the Holy Spirit:
   (1) to show them the things of Christ,
   (2) to teach them things to come,
   (3) to teach them all things,
   (4) to quicken their memories for past teaching,
   (5) to bear witness to Christ,
   (6) to dwell in believers,
   (7) other things shown in the context such as “greater works” than those of Christ (see Jn 14:16,17),
   (8) to convict of sin, of righteousness and judgment. It is possible to range the shades of meaning outlined above under these various forms of the Spirit’s activity.

As Comforter, His work would come under (1), (2), (3) and (6); as Advocate and Intercessor under (6), (7), (8); as Helper and Teacher under (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8).

1 John 2:1-6 (CJB)
​1 My children, I am writing you these things so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have Yeshua the Messiah, the Tzaddik, who pleads our cause with the Father. 2 Also, he is the kapparah for our sins—and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
3 The way we can be sure we know him is if we are obeying his commands. 4 Anyone who says, “I know him,” but isn’t obeying his commands is a liar—the truth is not in him. 5 But if someone keeps doing what he says, then truly love for God has been brought to its goal in him. This is how we are sure that we are united with him. 6 A person who claims to be continuing in union with him ought to conduct his life the way he did.

(CWSB Dictionary)

1. παράκλητος paráklētos; gen. paraklḗtou, masc. noun from parakaléō (G3870), to comfort, encourage or exhort. It is properly a verbal adj. referring to aid of any kind. In the Greek writers, use of a legal advisor, pleader, proxy, or Advocate, one who comes forward in behalf of and as the representative of another.
2. Thus, in 1 John 2:1, Christ is termed our substitutionary, intercessory Advocate. Christ designates the Holy Spirit as Paraclete (John 14:16) and calls Him állos (G0243), another, which means another of equal quality and not héteros (G2087), another of a different quality. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is designated by Jesus Christ as equal with Himself, i.e., God (1 John 2:1). This new Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, was to witness concerning Jesus Christ (John 14:26; 16:7, 14) and to glorify Him.
3. The Holy Spirit is called a Paraclete because He undertakes Christ’s office in the world while Christ is not in the world as the God-Man in bodily form. In addition, the Holy Spirit is also called the Paraclete because He acts as Christ’s substitute on earth. When Christ in John 14:16 designates Himself as a Paraclete, the same as the Holy Spirit, the word must not be understood as applying to Christ in the same sense as in 1 John 2:1 where it refers to our substitutionary Advocate who pleads our cause with the Father. It should rather be taken as He who pleads God’s cause with us (see John 14:7-9).
4. The words parakaléō (G3870) and paráklēsis (G3874), the act or process of comforting or advocating, do not occur at all in the writings of John.