Accordingly he says: "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." To those who are weighed down by consciousness of the sin still cleaving to them, and of defeat in conflict with it, John thus extends the cheering assurance of a mediator with the Father in Heaven. This mediator is Jesus Christ the Righteous, that is, the Holy; righteousness here being taken in its highest and absolute sense, namely, as what is right, what is as it should be, what corresponds to the idea of moral perfectness. He bids them, after having once attained to repentance for that still inhering sin, not to abandon themselves to the fruitless anguish of despair, not to consume themselves in a perpetual brooding over their sins; but on the contrary, to turn with full confidence to Him who is their everlasting advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Holy.

When man, having become conscious of the chasm, between himself in his sin and imperfection and the holy and perfect God, sinks under the feeling of separation and estrangement from that Being towards whom his higher nature strives to rise; there then awakens in him the want of a mediation, by which this chasm may be filled. Hence, in all religions, the founding of a priesthood, the recognition of a mediating agency between God and man, to whom he may address his prayers when he ventures not to turn immediately to God. There is, however, in every such human priesthood this inherent inconsistency, that they who are themselves sinful and in need of redemption like all other men, should undertake for others the mediation which they themselves need in common with them. Thus, the undeniable want which lies at the foundation of the priesthood universally, in connection with its insufficiency to meet that want, becomes a prophetic indication of Him who alone can truly satisfy it; of Him through whom the idea of a priesthood, so deeply grounded in the nature of man, found its realization, and with it all previous forms of priesthood their final end. This relation of Christ, to God and to humanity, is the especial object of the Epistle to the Hebrews. As man, he is in all respects akin to those who seek his aid, has partaken of their nature with all its necessities, all its infirmities, sin excepted; has himself experienced all their conflicts and temptations, and in all has approved himself as The Holy. Only as the Holy, as the realization of the holy archetype of humanity, can he stand as the substitute of sinners before the Father in Heaven.

This is not to be so understood, as if the forgiveness of the sins of believers were something yet to be obtained by the intercession of Christ. There is presupposed here, as appears from the immediately following connection, that redemption, that reconciliation of man with God, which was effected once for all through the holy life and the sufferings of Christ. Jesus Christ, as The Holy, is here contemplated in connection with his whole work accomplished on earth, wherein he manifested himself especially as The Holy One, -- in the connection of his present life with God and previous life on earth. There is also presupposed, as already existing, that entirely new relation to God into which those are brought who are reconciled to Him through Christ. It is not said: We have an advocate with God, but with the Father; indicating that filial relation of believers to God as their Father, whom they have first been taught through Christ to know and honor as such. In it is included the permanency of this once established relation, as something not again to be unsettled, so long as the believer abides in this fellowship with Christ, so long as his faith continues steadfast. Only where it has already suffered disturbance, must the direction of the eye to Christ, by whom it was established, revive again the living consciousness of this relation.

There is thus presupposed, in this perpetual advocacy of Christ, that which he has once for all wrought out for the human race. But this too, is represented as something which shall continue working in divine power, until it has accomplished its final aim, the complete redemption and purification of man already reconciled to God through Christ, -- until the consummation of the kingdom of God. It is clear that this divine agency in the ever-progressing work of redemption, is necessary even for those who have been thus reconciled to God through Christ, and who are conscious of a filial relation to Him as their Father. It is made necessary by the frequent disturbances of this relation, through the after-workings of that sin from which they have been made free. Their christian life can prosper, only when in a continued living connection with the original divine foundation on which it rests, that common foundation of all which belongs to the development of the kingdom of God on earth.

But when we speak of the still operative power of the work of redemption, Awe are not to understand by this, merely the influence exerted by some past transaction upon the development of humanity, and of individuals who yield themselves to it, irrespective of the personal influence of him by whom that work was wrought; as though the sacred writer, when speaking, of Christ as the perpetual intercessor, ascribed to him by a figure of speech the influences belonging to his once completed work. So the still operating influence of any great work, once wrought in human history by some master spirit, might be ascribed to his continued personal agency; a lively and graphic form of conception representing such an one, -- for a time at least, until the whole aim and purpose of the work shall reach its full completion, -- as still working on in that which had its origin in him. Thus it might be said of Luther, that he still lives and works in that Reformation which bears the impress of his own spirit. We might indeed, in such a sense as this, speak of Christ the Holy as the intercessor of believers, without knowing anything farther of his personality; and even though this personality had been a mere transient phenomenon, as regarded by a Sabellius, and as it is presented by a certain school, which, though totally opposed to Christianity, sometimes assumes its likeness.

But such a view is entirely at variance with the Apostle's meaning. Before his believing eye stands the Living Christ; approved by his victorious resurrection from the dead, as the Holy One, over whom death could have no power; risen and ascended to an eternal divine life in heaven, forever living with the Father in a glorified, divine-human personality. This living Christ he contemplates as still carrying on his work in person, and with the same holy love with which he labored on earth for the reconciliation of sinful man, still continuing to work in that glorified state with the Father. In his divine-human personality he forms the medium by which the human race, redeemed and reconciled to God through him, is brought into union with God as a Father. This connection between the living Christ and what he once wrought on earth, must therefore never be lost sight of. Thus Christ himself, in those last discourses transmitted to us by John, says on the one hand, that he will pray the Father in behalf of his disciples, and that in answer to his prayers the Father will bestow upon them what they need (John xiv.16); and on the other hand, that he need not pray for them, since, by virtue of their connection with him, they are themselves already the objects of God's paternal love, already stand in a filial relation to Him (John xvi.26, 27).

With special emphasis it is here said that Jesus, as The Holy, is the advocate of the redeemed, who under the sense of still remaining sill direct to him the eye of faith. Christ being the Holy One, having in his life on earth given once for all a complete realization of the perfect holiness required by the divine Law; this his holiness stands forever the offset for all that is still sinful in those who have been redeemed by him, and are in fellowship with him. It is in this connection with him, as one with him, that they are presented to the eye of God. Herein lies the pledge that they also, by virtue of this union with him, shall one day be wholly purified from sin; shall be like him in perfect holiness, to whom even now, turning away from sin, they direct the eye of faith; shall be made holy as he is holy.

What now is the practical significance of this truth, that Christ the Holy is our ever-abiding advocate with the Father? To this perpetual mediation through the living Christ, to his ever-abiding priesthood for those who are reconciled to God through him, corresponds the ever-remaining need of mediation in believers, their constant dependence upon the priesthood of Christ, in union with whom they are a generation consecrated to God. Under every feeling of sin and infirmity, in all their temptations and conflicts, they may securely trust in their indissoluble union with this divine-human Personage; who himself has felt all their necessities, and is near to them in the intimate sympathy of perfect love. Moreover, their whole inward and outward christian life, flowing as it does from this sense of continual need of redemption, will take its character from this ever-continuing mediation of Christ and their own conscious connection therewith.

The whole christian life, as ordained for the glory of God, must be governed by its relation to him; and this relation must everywhere show itself to be the fruit of Christ's abiding mediation. To the christian consciousness, this will be an ever-present reality. As Christ the Holy can alone be, in an absolute sense, the object of divine love and complacency; so no other of the human race can be its object, except in connection with Christ as the perpetual mediator. Only that wherein Christ is found, only that which appears under his glorified image, can truly promote the glory of God. The glory, beaming from this heavenly relation, will throw its radiance over all the darkness that yet remains. Christian piety and all its fruits, must have their root in this relation to Christ as mediator. Thus Christ, in that last discourse to his disciples of which John has given us the record, says that God will bestow upon them the Holy Spirit in answer to his prayer (John xiv.10); that the Father will send the Spirit in his name (John xiv.26); both pointing to this perpetual mediation through Christ. To this also refers the prayer in his name, which he so earnestly presses upon their hearts in this discourse; the expression "through Christ" being, in general, equivalent to "in Christ." All this is thus placed in its proper light. In many apostolic expressions, the whole life of the church, and of each individual Christian, is represented under the figure of a sacrifice well-pleasing to God; a sacrifice which Christ, the perpetual mediator, the eternal Priest, offers to his heavenly Father. From this connection of christian truth we can also deduce the inference, that since everything in the christian life is comprehended in this mediation by Christ, and through it receives its consecration; so everything human is in like manner to be thereby consecrated and sanctified, to be brought into connection with the life of Christ. Hence the distinction between worldly and spiritual, holy and profane, no longer exists; all this is clone away by the perpetual mediation of Christ.

History teaches us to estimate aright the deep significance of this christian truth, here developed from the words of the Apostle. The entire dependence of all Christians alike upon this one advocacy, to the exclusion of every other, being based upon this truth; we accordingly see that whenever it became obscured in the christian consciousness, that dependence was again, as in the ante-christian period, transferred to a human priesthood and to a multiplicity of mediations, and again the distinction between priests and laity, between spiritual and secular, found admission. And thus will it ever be, when this reference of the religious consciousness in all believers, to the one mediation through Christ, is cast into the background, is obscured or misunderstood.

The Apostle has thus shown, that at the basis of the ever-continuing mediation by Christ, there lies the reference to what he once wrought for the reconciliation of man with God, to that one all-sufficient offering of himself. He accordingly now directs attention specially to the fact, that He is "the reconciliation for our sins," -- referring to that once-accomplished and still abiding and operative work of redemption. For he it is through whom man has been made free from sin; through whom that sin which pressed down humanity, separating it from God and his fellowship, and intercepting the communications of divine love, has been taken away, has become as if it were not; so that henceforth, all mankind should appear before God as freed from sin by this self-offering of Christ, -- as in him pure in the sight of God. This, -- which according to the divine plan, the purposes of divine grace, the yearning love of Christ who bore all mankind upon his heart, should embrace all, -- is realized in those who open their hearts to its reception, who believingly appropriate the redeeming grace thus offered. It is so realized when they first enter into christian fellowship, renouncing the former standpoint of a life of worldliness and sin; it is this which marks the boundary between the old and the new life. But as John here shows, although this boundary has been once fixed, yet in the conflict with the remaining influence of that former state, there is still need of the ever-renewed appropriation of this reconciliation, which is Christ himself. When this reconciliation, as the all-sufficient agency for the progressive and ultimately complete sanctification of the redeemed, and the constant appropriation of it as such, have ceased to be recognized in their connection and become obscured in the christian consciousness, -- new methods of atonement and purification have then been resorted to, as necessary for sins committed after baptism.

But when John speaks of the reconciliation for our sins, he feels constrained to guard against every limitation of the universal reference of the work of redemption. He calls to mind such words of Christ as those respecting the one fold and the one shepherd, and his vision widens to embrace all humanity; to behold in Christ not alone the reconciliation for those who already believe, but for those also who as yet know nothing of Christ, who as yet belong to the world. The reconciliation of Christ has for its object all humanity in its estrangement from God; all which belongs to the world, as it stands opposed to the kingdom of God. Humanity as a whole is to be embraced in the reconciliation with Christ, is to be thereby separated from the world and incorporated into the kingdom of God. The reconciliation, once instituted by Christ, continues its uninterrupted work until it shall have achieved this its glorious consummation. [2]