Our Advocate

Jesus is the “High Priest of our confession” (Hebrews 3:1). Our confession enlists Jesus as our High Priest, but the opposite, unfortunately, is also true. If we make no confession, we have no High Priest. It’s not that Jesus has ceased to be our High Priest, but that we give Him no opportunity to minister as our High Priest.

He is the High Priest of our confession. If we say the right things with our mouths in faith, according to Scripture, then Jesus has eternally obligated Himself to see that we will never be put to shame—that we will always experience what we confess. But if we do not say the right things, then, alas, we silence the lips of our High Priest. He has nothing to say in heaven on our behalf.

Jesus is also called our “Advocate” (1 John 2:1). The word advocate is similar to the modern word attorney. Jesus is the legal expert who is there to plead our case in heaven. He has never lost a case. But if we do not make a confession, He has no case to plead, so the case goes against us by default.

We can see how important confession is; therefore, it is very important that we give heed to this third “Let us” passage in Hebrews:

“Let us hold fast our confession” (Hebrews 4:14)

This principle of right confession has a central place in the gospel, as well as in our experience of salvation. In fact, there is no salvation without right confession.