Isaiah 51:22 - Homilies By R. Tuck

God our Advocate with himself.

"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, and thy God who is the Advocate of his people." He will plead for his people when none else will plead (comp. Isaiah 63:5 ). In this we find a foreshadowing of the idea of Christ as our Advocate with God, which, most deeply, most spiritually apprehended, is God pleading with God—God an Advocate with himself. This may be worked out thus—

I. JESUS PLEADS FOR US WITH GOD . "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus;" "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous."

II. BUT JESUS IS GOD . "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." "The Word was God." He was God "manifest in the flesh." "The Brightness of the Father's glory, and express Image of his Person."

III. THEN THIS IS GOD PLEADING WITH GOD . It is a way of figuring for our apprehension what seems to be the fact, that God holds argument with himself.—R.T.