Our Lawyer, Judge, and Judgment

Michael Wilcox made the observation that many scriptures speak of the Savior and our relationship with Him using terms from law: "[Christ] is our advocate—our lawyer—with the Father. Sin is broken law. There will be a judgment and a punishment or reward. We stand before the bar of God.  These are all terms from jurisprudence. We need a defense attorney and Jesus pleads for us” (S. Michael Wilcox, Face to Face, Seeking a Personal Relationship with God).  I thought I would explore this idea in the scriptures a bit further. Perhaps the most common law theme in Christianity is that of judgment.  Nearly all Christians believe in some kind of judgment that we will face, and it is such a common theme that we may not think about it in terms of jurisprudence.  The scriptures are clear that it is Christ who will be our Judge.  He testified to the Jews, “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22).  Moroni also witnessed this fact when he finished the Book of Mormon testifying that “the great Jehovah” is “the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead” (Moroni 10:34).  In one sense it could be perhaps quite discouraging to think that Christ is our Judge: after all, He was the only perfect person to live on the earth.  If I go before a mortal judge, I would prefer one who has made similar mistakes as I have and therefore might understand better and be a little lenient towards me.  But Christ made no mistakes and in fact commanded us, “Be ye therefore perfect” (Matthew 5:48).        

             Gratefully, though, as Brother Wilcox wrote, Jesus is also our personal lawyer or advocate.  It certainly would be odd to watch in a mortal court where the lawyer and the judge were the same person, but I think we should take great comfort in knowing that the Savior is on our side; He told the people in Jerusalem, “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).  That He is indeed our advocate is attested to in multiple scriptures.  John wrote to the Church of his day, “But if any man sin and repent, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (JST 1 John 2:1).  In our time the Lord encouraged the Saints in these powerful words before warning them of the difficult times ahead, “Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 29:5).  In another section He promised of some of the early missionaries: “I myself will go with them and be in their midst; and I am their advocate with the Father, and nothing shall prevail against them” (D&C 32:3).  In D&C 45 we get a better glimpse of what it means for Christ to be our advocate: “Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—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; 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).  Certainly that is the kind of thing that we want Christ to say about us, that because we believed on Him and came unto Him, His sacrifice will satisfy the demands of justice against us.  Note that all of these scriptures about Him being our advocate appear to contradict the early scriptures about Him being the judge, for these suggest that it is the Father who is the judge.  It seems to me, though, that whether we say the Father is the Judge or the Son is the Judge actually doesn’t matter; they will always judge perfectly righteous judgments and judge identically.  There will never be a case where Christ will plead for someone with the words above and the Father will say, “Well, actually, do you remember the time he did that one thing?....”  Whatever Christ argues for us as our advocate will certainly be what the Father accepts, for as the Savior testified, “The Father and I are one” (D&C 93:3).  Perhaps Joseph Smith said it most precisely when He affirmed that “God and Christ are the judge of all” (D&C 76:68).  At any rate, we know we will have a divine lawyer and a divine judge, and they will do all they can to help us to stand “spotless at his judgment-seat” (2 Nephi 33:7).  Our responsibility is to receive that help and stay true to our faith until the end.