December 23 – 1 John 2:1; “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

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Our advocate is forever with us; He promised to never abandon us in John 14:23 so we take that promise for ourselves and hold it dear to our hearts.  There is absolutely nothing we could ever do to establish our own righteousness.  Nothing. 

The Greek work for advocate is parakleôtos.  Para in the Greek means to come alongside, the whole word means intercessor, or consoler.  He’s not going to keep reminding us of our old sin that we’ve already repented of!  Jeremiah 31:31-34 tells us that He will remember it no more. 

The “authorities” in the LDS Church are laying an undue guilt trip upon its people.

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““And again, “. . . Unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.” (D&C 82:7.)  Would this mean that the person who has returned to the sins he has professedly abandoned must start the process of repentance again from the beginning? that one cannot return to sin and then start repentance from where he left off?

To return to sin is most destructive to the morale of the individual and gives Satan another hand-hold on his victim. Those who feel that they can sin and be forgiven and then return to sin and be forgiven again and again must straighten out their thinking. Each previously forgiven sin is added to the new one and the whole gets to be a heavy load.”  Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, pg. 170.

Doctrine and Covenants 82:7; “And now, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, will not lay any sin to your charge; go your ways and sin no more; but unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.”