Our Advocate with the Father

By virtue of his righteousness (priesthood and temple correctness) and atoning sacrifice, Christ has power to intercede with God for us, or to be our advocate. But what does that mean? Let’s first take a look at two different passages of scripture that talk about Christ’s role as advocate:

28) For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens. (Moroni 7:28)

3) Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—

4) Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;

5) Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. (D&C 45:3-5)

Both of those passages tell us that Christ advocates or pleads our cause with God the Father. In order to understand what that means, we ought to define some terms. An advocate is like a defense attorney who uses arguments to defend someone in a court of law. This implies that we are on trial as criminals. Actually, we are on trial partly because of the fall of Adam – “and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.” (2 Nephi 9:6) – and partly due to our own sins. ‘Plead’ is another legal term. It means to argue a claim in court and declare whether the defendant is either guilty as charged or not guilty. Christ as our advocate will plead or give reasons why we are not guilty. The legal term ‘cause’ means ‘lawsuit’. The word ‘cause’ also means ‘motive’. Both definitions work here because Christ acts as our advocate to argue why we should not be punished according to our legal dispute and according to our motives for not fully living the law.