1 John 2:1-2

The Third Inference.—Reconciliation and Redemption

1 John 2:1-2

1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man 2sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he1 is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins2 of the whole world.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Connection.—Luther is prepared to call him a theologian who is able to show the consistency and agreement of this passage. He agrees however with Augustine, who says: “Et ne forte impunitatem videretur dedisse peccatis, quia dixit: fidelis est et Justus, qui mundet nos ab omni iniquitate, et dicerent jam sibi homines: peccemus, securi faciamus, quod volumus, purgat nos Christus,—tollit tibi malam securitatem et inserit utilem timorem. Male vis esse securus, solicitus esto; fidelis enim est et justus, ut dimittat nobis delicta nostra, si semper tibi displiceas et muteris, donec perficiaris. Ideo quod sequitur? filioli.—Sed forte surrepit de vita humana peccatum, Quid ergo fiet? Jam desperatio erit? Audi. Si quis, inquit, peccaverit, etc.” So Bede, Calvin, Calov, Düsterdieck. [Alford thinks that there is more in the connection than this: “It is not corrective only of a possible mistake, but it is progressive—a further step taken in the direction of unfolding the great theme of this part of the Epistle, enounced in 1 John 1:5. The first step for those walking in the light of God was, that they should confess their sins: the next and consequent one, that they should forsake them, and agreeably to their new nature, keep His commandments. This verse introduces that further unfolding of our subject, which is continued, and especially pressed as regards the one great commandment of love, in our 1 John 2:3-11.”—M.]. The difficulty lies not so much in the sequence of ideas as in the ethical relation and agreement of the points under consideration, viz.: the grace of God and reconciliation through Christ, the universality and power of sin and man’s wrestling with it. On the one hand, the aid of God and Christ must neither make us disheartened in the struggle with sin, nor render us confident that we are sure to have it, and, on the other, the power of sin must not terrify us as if all were in vain.

1 John 2:1 a. Call to the contest. My little children.—Thus “tum propter ætatem suam, turn propter paternam curam et affectum” (Hornejus), and because he was their spiritual father (Galatians 4:9), and as John called out to the lapsed youth (Euseb. H. E. III, 23); τὶ με φεύγεις, τέκνον τὸν σαυτοῦ πατέρα; Lorinus (“Diminutiva nomina teneri ac blandientis sunt amoris signa”). So 1 John 2:12; 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21, only μου is certain, but in 1 John 3:18, it is uncertain. Here, just in view of the danger, the most tender and heartfelt love is awake.

These things write I.—The Plural ταῦτα (not τοῦτο), has respect, not to a particular point, but to the whole in its vital harmony. We should be eager for the contest with sin, because God is light; because walking in the light is the preservative of our fellowship with God, and the means of deriving the benefits of the blood of Christ; because we must not deny having sin, and because God will gladly rid us of it.

That ye sin not.—This is the design of his writing. Sinning applies to particular sins, not to small faults and inadvertencies only which would properly be no sins; they might, gradually fall even into mortal sin (1 John 5:16). It is neither = peccatis manere (Socinus, Episcopius), still less = to continue unbaptized (Löffler).

1 John 2:1 b. The aid. And if any man sin [better: and if any one sin.—M.].—Not an antithesis (Vulg. δὲ), but simple copulation (καὶ); since even in zeal against sin there ever recurs the indubitable case of sinning (ἐάν τις cf. the note on 1 John 1:6). [ἐὰν simply admits the possibility of sinning—M.]. Both fighting against sin and sinning, go always together. The reference is general, and hence the apostle continues in the Plural. But the apostle does not affirm an inward necessity, that it must be so, as Calvin supposes: nam fieri non potest, quin peccemus; it may be so in fact, but the conditional particle must not be turned into a causal. Socinus also disfigures the thought; “si quis peccat, i.e., post Christum agnitum, et professionem nominis ipsius adhuc in peccatis manet, necdum resipuit.” The note of time and the intensification of the thought, are purely arbitrary; “for, on the one hand, a true Christian may sin, but he cannot remain in sins, and on the other, to one remaining in sins Christ is not the παράκλητος” (Huther). “If any one sin—not with the wilfulness of sin, but in spite of the will of his mind, which says no when sin is present.” (Besser).

We have an advocate with the Father.—On παράκλητος see Lange on John 14:16 Vol. IV. p. 311 sq. [German edition.—M.]. The word has here undoubtedly a Passive sense, viz.: advocatus, orator, causæ patronus (Luther, Vormund), intercessor. Its application to Christ, although its application in the Gospel, is limited to the Holy Spirit (John 14:16; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7), is anticipated in the first of these passages by the words ἄλλος παράκλητος; Christ is also Paraclete, the Holy Ghost only another Paraclete; this is clear from the context. [“Christ is the real παράκλητος, the Holy Ghost His substitute” Huther.—M.]. Here Christ is παράκλητος πρὸς τὸν πατέρα (cf. on 1 John 1:2), there the Holy Ghost is μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. The Holy Ghost carries on the work of Christ in His followers, the world with its threatenings notwithstanding, but Christ pleads the cause of His followers before God the Father, interceding for them with Him, even as Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 7:25-28; Hebrews 8:1 sqq.; Col. 9:24, relate to a transaction between the Father and the Son. The ὑπερεντυγχάνειν of the Holy Ghost, Romans 8:26, is a different matter, and does not affect the difference marked by John. The apostle says Father, not God, because the new relation into which those who are reconciled through Christ have been translated, is assumed as already existing; hence not only because the Son intercedes with Him, but because He intercedes for believers who, through Him, have become τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ (1 John 3:1-2). The activity of the Paraclete is ἐντυγχάνειν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).—Ἔχομεν indicates two things. 1. The Plural, as in 1 John 1:6 sqq., denotes the general character of the intercession and the universal want of Christians of such an intercessor. Augustine’s note is capital: “Non dixit: habetis, nec: me habetis dixit, sed et Christum posuit, non se, et habemus dixit, non habetis. Maluit se ponere in numero peccatorum, ut haberet advocatium Christum, quam ponere se pro Christo, advocatum et inveniri inter damnandos superbos.” [The same Father says in the same connection after the words cited at the head of this section under Connection: “Ille est ergo advocatus: da operam tu ne pecces: si de infirmitate vitæ subrepserit peccatum, continuo vide, continuo displiceat, continuo damna; et cum damnaveris, securus ad judicem venies. Ibi habes Advocatum: noli timere ne perdas causam confessionis tuæ. Si enim aliquando in hac vita committet se homo disertæ linguæ et non perit: committis te verbo et periturus est?”—M.]. 2. The Present indicates that the intercession is continued and permanent in its operation.

Jesus Christ the Righteous.—Δίκαιος is evidently put in antithesis to the still sinning children of God, and is not=ἅγιος, innocens et sanctus (a Lapide), but His sinlessness and holiness as manifested in His life, “righteous, unblemished and sinless” (Luther). While the sense of bonus, lenis suggested by Grotius is too weak here, as also in 1 John 1:9, that given by Ebrard=δικαιῶν, says too much, and is incorrect, because it is not the province of the intercessor to δικαιοῦν, and that of Bede, who says, “justus advocatus, injustas causas non suscipit,” is equally inadmissible, because δίκαιος is not the adjective belonging to παράκλητον. Nor can it be taken in the sense of “fidelis et verax” (Socinus), like πίστος 1 John 1:9. It corresponds exactly with the description of the interceding High-priest, Hebrews 7:26; cf. 1 Peter 3:18. Moreover here, where we have neither χριστὸν alone, nor υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, but χριστὸν, preceded by ’Ιησοῦν, with emphatic force, the reference is not to the λόγος ἄεαρκος, but to the λόγος ἔνσαρκος, who has shed His blood (1 John 1:7). For both in Hebrews 7:25 sqq.; 1 John 4:14 sqq., and Romans 8:34, the intercession of Christ is connected with His suffering on the Cross, as part of His high-priestly work and office. If Grotius supplies, and on the strength of 1 John 5:16; Gal 6:1; 2 Corinthians 2:6, puts after ἐάν τις ἁμάρτῃ “Et se ecclesiæ regendæ sanandæque tradiderit” remarking, “non dicit: habet ille advocatum, sed ecclesia habet, quæ pro lapso precatur,” and “preces ecclesiæ Christus more advocati deo patri commendat,” (John 16:26,) it is not a Spiritu Sancto, sed a Grotiana audacia, as Calov expresses himself. The Plural ἔχομεν does not involve the idea of the Church, but designates rather every individual, even the most advanced Christian, for every one is the object of our holy Saviour’s intercession. And this very thing is the comfortable help vouchsafed to those who fight against sin.—All this shows that Christ, who died for us and is now at the right hand of the Father, is our Advocate pleading the cause of every Christian with the Father, provided that, clearly and profoundly conscious of his guilt, he appear before God as a penitent, and fight manfully against the sin in his heart. Christ, as the Sinless and Righteous One, lays before the Father the supplication of the penitent sinner, supported by His intercession, and as He has died for him on the cross, as He has wooed and drawn him to Himself to walk in light, so He desires to preserve him therein, and to aid him towards the attainment of sanctification, in the continued activity of an advocate in glory, even as He did intercede for His followers in the days of His humiliation (John 17:9; Luke 22:32; Luke 23:34).

1 John 2:2. The assurance. And He is the Propitiation, for our sins.—Καὶ is here the simple copula, which adds a further particular, and, therefore, neither=quia (a Lapide), nor=nam (Beza). This particular relates to the Person of the Intercessor (καὶ αὐτος=et ipse, idemque) and is of perpetual validity and operation (ἐστὶ), like and parallel to the preceding ἔχομεν παράκλητον. The word ἱλασμὸς occurs only here and in 1 John 4:10, and there also connected with περὶ . The verb ἱλάσκεσθαι is also found in a Passive sense, Luke 18:13 : ἱλάσθητί μοι τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ, where the reflexive sense is not wholly quiescent; be (become thou) mercifully disposed, suffer thyself to be mercifully disposed, it is consequently ἵλεων γενέσθαι, propitium fieri. Or with the obliteration of the reflexive force peculiar to the Middle, it has an Active sense, e.g., Hebrews 2:17 : ἱλάσκεσθαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ λαοῦ, to atone, expiate for the sins of the people, expiare. In classical Greek ἱλάσκεσθαι denotes only propitium facere aliquem, indicating the attempt of the pagan sacrifices to reconcile God. In Holy Scripture, and especially in the New Testament, God is not reconciled by us, but reconciles, as we learn from the instructive passage, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, cf. Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 2:16. Man is καταλλαγείς, God only καταλλάξας, ἀποκαταλλάξας ἑαυτῷ, εἰς αὐτόν. In Clement Rom. we find already ἐξιλάσκεσθαι τὸν θεόν, but it does not occur in a canonical writing. The Socinians have not overlooked this. Schlichting says: “Non est ergo cur quispiam ex hac placandi voce concludat, deum a Christo nobis fuisse placatum” (see Delitzsch, Note on Heb., p. 97). The same view is very distinctly contained in our parallel passage, 1 John 4:10 : αὐτὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς καὶ , God the Father has constituted the propitiation by sending there for His Son. He Himself is the propitiation, which comprises the High-priest and the sacrifice. For according to Kühner 1, §. 378, p. 418, ἱλασμὸς denotes “the intransitive relation of the stem verb.” It is, therefore, neither=ἰλαστήρ (Grotius, al.), for He is also the propitiatory sacrifice, nor=ἱλαστήριον (Bengel, Lücke, de Wette al.), for He is the Agent accomplishing the propitiation (or expiation). As He is the Light of the world, the Truth, the Life, the Way in Himself, and not only has, shows or brings it, so He is Himself the Propitiation; it is “really existing in His Person” (Düsterdieck); He is “not the Reconciler or Propitiator through something external to Him, but through Himself” (Lücke). Thus He is called our ἁγιασμός, 1 Corinthians 1:30; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21.—Nor is He ἱλασμὸς θεοῦ, but περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν. The sins are the points with which the propitiation is concerned, to which it has reference (περί); neither substitution is mentioned here, nor the manner and means how this propitiation is accomplished and brought about. John evidently designates church-members by ἡμῶν (fidelium, as Bengel explains the word); he writes to Christians, not to Jews. The sequel also simply contrasts Christians and non-Christians. Bengel justly observes with reference to 1 John 5:19 : “quam late patet peccatum, tam late propitiatio.” On that account the apostle adds:

Yet not for ours only, but also for the whole world.—Here is simply oratio variata. He might have said: ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τῶν ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου, joining what precedes with ἁμαρτιῶν, or connecting before with ἱλασμός, οὐ περὶ ἡμῶν δὲ μόνον, which would answer to the conclusion as it stands. See Winer p. 599; [also Appar. Crit. 1 John 2:2; 1 John 2:2.—M.]. A similar variation is found Hebrews 9:7. The point is, therefore, not breviloquence (Ebrard), nor the supplying of τῶν (Grotius, de Wette, Düsterdieck). Nor was it because of the evil inhering in the κόσμος, since it is equally applicable to Christians (contrary to Huther). The Apostle’s design was manifestly to show the universality of the propitiation, in the most emphatic manner, and without any exception. This renders any and every limitation inadmissible. We must not except with Calvin the reprobos, because of predestination; it is rather the double decretum absolutum which is here excluded. Neither is it admissible to take κόσμος as ecclesia electorum per totum mundum dispersa (as Bede does), nor to explain it of the heathen only (Oecumenius, Cyrillus, Hornejus, Semler, Rickli). In like manner we must not think only of the apostle’s age, but rather of the totality of unbelieving mankind in general (Spener, Paulus, de Wette, Lücke, Sander, Neander, Düsterdieck, Huther). As in 1 John 1:7, the work of Christ extends to all the sins of His people, so it extends here to the sin of the whole world, without distinguishing between contemporaneous and successive generations (Baumgarten-Crusius), or finding here any reference to the difference between sufficientia and efficacia. This renders it also perfectly clear that while Christ is the Paraclete of believing penitent Christians only, His propitiation has respect to, and is sufficient for all men in general. The idea of παράκλητος is, therefore, not wider than and including ἱλασμὸς, as Bede supposes [“advocation habemus apud patrem qui interpellat pro nobis et propitium eum ac placatum peccatis nostris reddit.”—M.]; or, vice versa, ἱλασμὸς is not the wider idea including παράκλητος (de Wette, Rickli, Frommann); the two ideas are rather cöordinate, yet so that παράκλητος, pre-supposes ἱλασμὸς; Christ has made a propitiation sufficient for all men. He is Himself the propitiation, and would fain appear before the Father as the Paraclete of all men. There are two different parts of the Redeemer’s work, each having its real mode of action and effect, but of course in an ethical life-sphere.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The frontiers of Christianity.

Systems which, like Pelagianism, do not acknowledge the necessity (ἐάν τις ἁμάρτῃ) or like Manichaeism with its fundamental dualism, deny the possibility (ἵνα μὴ ἁμάρτητε) of redemption, if the question bears on the objects of redemption, and systems which, like Ebionism, deny the Divinity (δίκαιον), or in the opposite case, like Docetism, the humanity (’Ιησοῦν) of the Redeemer, if the question bears on the subject of redemption; such systems are wholly foreign to Christianity.

2. Of Christ.

a. Sinlessness and holiness is the fundamental trait of His Being. He requires neither an expiation nor the help of an advocate, but He makes the one and accords the other.

b. His work on earth is indicated by His being ἱλασμὸς περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν—καὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου. This implies,

α. As He is δίκαιος, and according to 1 Corinthians 1:30 : σαφία—δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἁγιασμὸς καὶ , so He is Himself, so there is existing in Him, also ἱλασμός; and beside Him and without Him there is no propitiation for our sins.

β. As He only is δίκαιος, and all men ἄδικοι, so it is He only who has made and does make a propitiation for all men; this affirms the universality of the only ἱλασμὸς.

γ. The atonement extant relates to the sins which violate the majesty of God, disturb the holiness of the order of His Kingdom, and are the products of an enmity to the Glorious One, so that they arouse the reaction of the ὀργὴ; and therefore, as distinguished from καταλλαγή, reconciliation which bears on sinners and creates a disposition, reconciliatio, ἱλασμὸς is to be taken in the sense of atonement, propitiation [or expiation] expiatio, and as regulating a disturbed relationship. Expiation renders quiescent the ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ, whereas reconciliation allays the enmity of man in his ἁμαρτία, cf. Nitzsch, System § 135.

δ. The effect of the ἱλασμὸς is that he, whose sins are expiated, ceases to belong to the κόσμος, but not irresistibly, nor by a physical process, but only as a real beginning and supporting foundation, on which we must take our stand, and progress, in order that the καταλλαγή may ensue, and that we may become partakers thereof; in our ethical demeanor we must do our part whenever occasion and aid are afforded us, otherwise we shall lose the ground of salvation, the beginning of blessedness, and the receptivity for the same. But our passage is silent as to the manner how it is done; even the αἶμα (1 John 1:7) is tacitly pre-supposed. Nor may an inference respecting substitution be drawn from this passage, as Nitzsch (System, p. 284) has done.

η. Christ is and remains the ἱλασμός—both for all sins and the sins of all, and for all ages and generations; His atonement is permanent in its operativeness. Not only in a general way, but the individual, every individual, is the object of expiation and reconciliation. This passage teaches the predestination of the salvation of all men.

c. His work in heaven is indicated by παράκλητος πρὸς τὸν πατέρα; which imports,

α. That it concerns a work after His entrance into His original glory, consequently that which the glorified Redeemer does for us in heaven; He is not only a historical person and power, whose influence is felt for centuries, like Luther and his reformation, and the Greeks with their civilization, but He is an ever living person above, and at the same time in the world’s history.

β. Jesus, the Christ, is consequently the Paraclete, not only as to His Divine, or as to His human nature, but in His Divine-human person in its glory with the Father.

γ. This work concerns our need of help remaining after our expiation and reconciliation effected by Him on earth, which need of help consists in our repeated sinning anew, and the consequent peril threatening anew our filïal relation to God the Father effected by him; He desires “to cancel again the effects of our sins on our relation to God,” (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis 11, 1, p. 545), on the object of this work, are “believers still sinning in their walk in the light” (Huther), and that without any exception.

δ. This work of the exalted Redeemer is an intercession for Christians belonging to Him in faith; it is a real work of the Lord, since He not only silently waits for the effects of His reconciliation, but is actively engaged in pressing His merit with the Father, and that, as a vocalis et oralis intercessio. Our passage excludes all the intercessions of Romanism, those of the Virgin Mary, and of all the saints, who, as well as St. John, stand in need of intercession. See Conf. Aug. XXI., Apol. XXI. 10, sqq. For the saints are not deprecatores, still less propitiatores, ut orent, non tamen invocandi. It also dismisses the “grossly sensuous view” combated by Calvin when he says: “nimis crasse errare eos, qui patris genibus Christum advolvunt, ut pro nobis oret;” the intercessio is not humilis. But it is equally false to regard it as only symbolical, as nuda interpretiva (per ostensa merita), as Bede does, or only as the continuing effect of the work of redemption consummated by Christ in His death (Baumgarten-Crusius). Unfounded is the view of Köstlin (Lehrbegriff, pp. 31, 192), who understands παράκλητος to denote the eternal High-priest, who does not pray, but, as the Father for His sake loves also those who believe in Him, directly excludes intercession, because John 16:26 expressly deprecates ἐρωτᾷν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα περὶ ὑμῶν. The intercession of the Paraclete, which contemplates the perfection of believers and their preservation in the Sonship, must be well distinguished from the asking intercession of the High-priest, which contemplates the acceptance of the Sonship, cf., Lange on John 16:26, Vol. 4, p. 343, n. 16. [German edition, M.].

3. Of Christians.

a. Sinfulness continues even in the most advanced Christians, and manifests itself in the constant recurrence of particular sins.

b. The warfare against sin, however, is earnestly insisted upon. John does not say whether it is possible to a believer not to sin; nor does he say that he must sin (Calvin: “nam fieri non potest, quin peccemus”), but demands that Christians should strive not to commit sin. The Apostle’s love of the Church (τεκνία μου) constrains him to charge them not to sin, because those who sin not, keep themselves, (τηρεῖ ἐαυτὸν, 1 John 5:18) preserve their sonship with God and their regeneration (1 John 3:6, 1 John 3:9). He views sin as man’s ruin and ungodliness.

c. The Christian requires no other human mediator, or priest; he has become spiritual himself, and no longer secular, himself a priest and not a layman. These antitheses vanish to those who live in faith in Christ the Redeemer, do every thing through Him and for His sake, and refer every thing to Him.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Sin should not be denied, but fought and conquered. Seek with Jesus the Sinless One for true humility in the knowledge of thy sin, and thou wilt find with Him the right courage to overcome thy sin. As thy perception of sin grows more keen, thy sensibility even of the most secret and most trifling sin more acute and delicate, thy sorrow for sin more profound, thy struggle with it more desperate, so thy perception of the Saviour’s life and work will also grow more keen, thy hearing of God’s still small voice more acute, thy joy over the cleansing power of His word and work more profound, the Lord’s victory over thee and thy triumph with Him more certain. Although a man sanctify himself, he still sins. It is Jesus Christ, the Righteous, in His glory, who prays for the fallen, for an unrighteous world, that cannot forgive and forget any thing that judges and condemns. The demand not to sin is not devoid of consolation, if we do sin; but he only that strives to satisfy the demand will be satisfied with the consolation. Never forget that Christ has expiated sin, and that He had to expiate it, and thou wilt take a serious view of sin.

Augustine:—“Ibi habes advocatum, noli timere, ne perdas causam confessionis tuœ. Si enim aliquando in hac vita committit se homo disertæ linguæ et non perit, committis te verbo et periturus es?”

Luther:—The righteousness of Jesus Christ is on our side; for the righteousness of God is ours in Jesus Christ.—It is a certain fact, that thou art a part of the world: lest perchance thy heart might deceive thee and say: “The Lord died for Peter and Paul—not for me!”

Starke:—Teachers should deal with their hearers as a father deals with his children; but then the hearers should so demean themselves that such a course is possible.—Whoso serves the Church of Christ with his writings, should examine himself as to the motive which prompts him; if he does unite with the motive of ambition or covetousness, it is sin to him; but if his motive is really and truly the glory of God, and he desires to make his gifts useful to men, it is well-pleasing to God.—Blessed consolation! Christ is our advocate and spokesman, who has taken our cause in hand! Rejoice, ye tempted ones! there is no danger. Our Saviour claims His right.—

Heubner:—The Christian promises of grace are holy and not designed to abet idleness; they are not given to careless and hardened sinners, but to sorrow-stricken, contrite and penitent sinners.—Here is expressly taught Christ’s intercession for His people. It is of infinite value before God, because it is the intercession of the Righteous, of the perfectly Holy One, who may dare to intercede with God.

[Cranmer, Abp.:—“Christ was such an High Bishop, that He, once offering Himself, was sufficient by one effusion of His blood to abolish sin unto the world’s end. He was so perfect a Priest, that by one oblation He purged an infinite heap of sins, leaving an easy and ready remedy for all sinners, that His one sacrifice should suffice unto all men that would not show themselves unworthy, and He took unto Himself not only their sins, that, many years before were dead and put their trust in Him, but also the sins of those, that until His coming again, should truly believe His gospel. So that now we may look for none other Priest or sacrifice to take away our sins, but only Him and His sacrifice. And as He dying once was offered for all, so, as much as pertained to Him, He took all men’s sins unto Himself.”—M.].

[Church Homilies:—“All men are God’s creation and image, and are redeemed by Christ.”—M.]

[Beveridge:—“If any man’s sins be not pardoned—it is not for want of sufficiency in Christ’s sufferings, but by reason of his own obstinacy or negligence in not performing the conditions required for applying the sufferings of the human nature in Christ unto his own particular person. For seeing that that death, which was threatened to all mankind in the first Adam, was undergone by the whole nature of man in the second: hence all particular persons comprehended under that general nature, are capable of receiving the benefit of those sufferings, if they will but apply them rightly to themselves.”—M.].

[Barrow:—“The whole world is here mentioned in contradistinction from all Christians to whom St. John speaketh in this place: that the whole world of which he says below, that it ‘lieth in wickedness.’ Ch. 5, 19. In this and in various other places, where Jesus is called the Saviour of the world, that the world, according to its ordinary acceptation, and as every man would take it at first hearing, doth signify the whole community of mankind, comprehending men of all sorts and qualities, good and bad, believers and infidels; not, in a new unusual sense, any special restrained world of some persons, particularly regarded or qualified, will, I suppose, easily appear to him, who shall, without prejudice or partiality, attend to the common use thereof in Scripture, especially in St. John, who most frequently applieth it as to this, so to other cases or matters.”—M.].

[Neander:—“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.”—M.].

[1 John 2:1. Bunyan, John: The work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, clearly explained and largely improved, for the benefit of all believers. Many editions.

Charnock, Stephen: The Intercession of Christ. Works, 8, p. 1.

Fuller, A.: Christianity the Antidote to presumption and despair. Sermons, 326.

Hook, W. F.: Jesus Christ the Righteous. Sermons, 307.

1 John 2:1-2. Crisp, T.: Sermons, 2, pp. 251–386.

Revelation of grace no encouragement to sin.The faithful Friend at the bar of justice.Christ’s advocateship for all the elect.Christ’s righteousness only dischargeth the sinner.The act of believing is not our righteousness.Faith the fruit of union.Christ alone our Mercy-seat.

Beveridge, Bp.: The satisfaction of Christ explained. Works, 4. 162.

Seabury, Bp.: The atonement of Christ. Disc. 2. 113. M.].

Footnotes:

[1][1 John 2:2. καὶ αὐτὸς—ἐστι. “And He is Himself.” Lillie: “Here the emphatic or exclusive force of αὐτὸς is important. He is the only propitiation for sin. The penitent may trust the Advocate who, righteous Himself, died for him. Such an Advocate God will hear.” The emphatic force is retained by Tyndale, Cranmer, Geneva (he it is that); Syr. Latin versions except Castal. (ipse), German (the same); French vss. (c’est lui qui) Bengel (ipse. Hoc facit epitasin. paracletus valentissimus, quia ipse propitiatio).—Lachmann following A. B. Vulg. places ἐστι before ἱλασμός.—M.]

[2][German: “But also for the whole world.” Winer, p. 599, specifies this clause as an instance of oratio variata, pointing out that in περἰ τῶν , οὐ περὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων δὲ μόνον , instead of the last words περὶ τῶν ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου, or instead of the first περὶ ἡμῶν might have been used.—M.]