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The example that Apostle John gave to them that Jesus Christ through His labour was able to provide for us in our day and for those generations after the time of Christ, that He would be an advocate for all. We know that mankind is unable to live without committing sin but His sacrifice on the cross provided a way for mankind to look to the Almighty God then through that advocate, through that redeemer Jesus Christ, that through His sacrifice He would intercede for us so that we would not have to continue to bear that burden of the sins we commit. It takes a step on our part. It is not an automatic step.

We have to make that choice to believe that He can do that. We have to be able to go to Him and repent for the sins which we commit and ask Him to intercede on our behalf before God. It is not merely enough that we confess our sins because confessing our sins is only an admission of guilt. When we repent for our sins, we are saying that we will endeavour to overcome our sins. We may confess that we did that, but when we repent, we make that added effort to overcome the weakness that was on us, that allowed us to commit that sin. When we do that the step then needs to be that we ask our Lord Jesus Christ to intercede on our behalf, to take that prayer of repentance before God, as we have humbled ourselves, acknowledged our weakness and repented for these sins, then He is able to go before the Almighty God and ask Him to forgive us.

The sin we commit may be against our brother or sister. We can go to them and say, “Will you forgive me for that?” If they say, “Yes”, we feel great, we feel like we are forgiven, but the sin we committed was against God, so it is GOD who we need to ask for forgiveness. Our brother or sister may forgive us, but it is only God who has the power to wipe the curse of that sin from our soul that we can once again be reconciled to Him. It is a step that we all have to take. It is a step that we have to make willingly and with all understanding of the importance of that step before we can receive forgiveness, and that is the importance of the birth of Jesus Christ into the world, and that is why we celebrate His birth, and that is why we look to Him as the Author and Finisher of our faith.

As we call ourselves Christians we commit to following His teachings, His words, and His examples that He set to all mankind. It is contained in the Scriptures that are there for each of us. We can look at the children of Israel, the Jewish nation and say that they should have known, but they did not have that blessing that we have, they did not have the Holy Bible that we have, they did not have the examples that have today, they did not have the Holy Spirit with them at all times. They relied, in their day, on word of mouth, on what they were told by the teachers or prophets. They did not have the benefit that we do today of instant communication. We have to be careful of that because sometimes it can lead us astray, but if we always reference back to the Holy Bible and ‘try it’ against the words contained therein, and ‘try’ the information we have been given against the teachings of Jesus Christ we will be led on the right path.

Let us make that commitment, let us give thanks to the Almighty God that He did allow His Son to be born into the world, that His Son did labour, that His Son gave His life for each of us and through that sacrifice we today have that great opportunity of our soul’s salvation.