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Jesus — Our Advocate, Intercessor And Mediator

The New Testament teaches that Christ is our advocate, intercessor and mediator (cf. 1 John 2:1; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 1 Timothy 2:5). To better understand how our Lord functions in these roles, let us use the following example of a general practitioner:

Although a general practitioner is educated in the general practice of medicine, he would not be in a position to diagnose some major illnesses without the assistance of a specialist. For example, if we were to have have a heart problem, the general practitioner would refer us to a cardiologist. He would speak in our behalf to the heart specialist, explaining to him the symptoms he found regarding our heart. He would serve as a “go between” or intercessor to see that the care of our heart was fully provided. Thus, the general practitioner would be serving us as the advocate of our heart problem, an intercessor for our symptoms, and a mediator for the care of our heart.

Spiritually speaking, our Lord functions in exactly the same way as the above general practitioner:

1) The Lord is our advocate (1 John 2:1 – NKJV) “” Because He alone fully understands our sinful condition (Hebrews 4:15 – NKJV), He alone can successfully plead our case before His Father, helping us to commit any necessary lifestyle changes before Him (1 Peter 2:21-24 – NKJV).

2) The Lord is our intercessor (Romans 8:34 – NKJV; Hebrews 7:25 – NKJV) “” He intercedes on our behalf “” our symptoms are laid before God, and His mercy [note the idea of the mercy seat] is pleaded for on condition of our repentance.

3) The Lord is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5 – NKJV) “” He is our “go between” “” the Person who reconciles the relationship between ourselves and God (cf. Romans 5:8-11 – NKJV; 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 – NKJV; Ephesians 2:13-16 – NKJV; Colossians 1:16-22 – NKJV).

Brethren, we are continually spiritually blessed because the Lord willingly functions in the above three capacities on our behalf. Therefore, “let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15 – NKJV; cf. Ephesians 5:20).