The believer’s comfort and confidence.

1 John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. This verse is a continuation of John’s encouragement to his readers if they do sin. Yesterday we saw that when we sin, we have Jesus to advocate for us. He has provided His righteousness to be our righteousness as we stand before God. That’s comforting and encouraging isn’t it? Today we are encouraged by this great truth. Jesus, Himself, paid the ransom for our sins. We owed a debt we couldn’t pay. The payment had to be death. Only Jesus could give up His life (which had to be in blood, for life is in the blood). Because He was righteous, He gave up His life, knowing His Father would receive His payment as payment in full for all the sins committed by all those God gave to Him (John 17:2). However the payment made by Jesus wasn’t just for the Jewish disciples. The payment was also for people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation—the whole world. He didn’t mean Jesus advocated for and paid the ransom for every single person in the world. We know that’s not the case because Peter wrote, “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Pet. 3:7). There will be a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. John’s statement was meant to give encouragement to all believers, both Jew and Gentile, if they sin. They have Jesus as their advocate before the Father and He has given His own life, at the command of the Father, to cover them if they sin. Here’s Paul’s version of this truth. The gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). So it is true, that if we abide in Christ and Christ lives through us, we won’t sin. It is also true, that if we do sin, we have an advocate with God in Jesus who is righteous and has paid the ransom Himself to cover our sins. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a friend!