The Separation of Church and SNAKE, finished today with Adversary and Advocate.  Our adversary, the devil (1 Pet. 5: 8) seeks “to hook” people in sin.  But Jesus is our Advocate, who gives us victory over sin… it’s called “catch & release”!  John’s letter [1 John 1: 5 — 2:2] is very helpful and optimistic.  While God’s holiness gives Him NO TOLERANCE at all for sin (In Him is no darkness at all!), we can experience freedom from the captivity of sin through the finished work of Christ.  Our walk is marked by light, and our practice must be to forsake sin!  Even then, we do not have “sinless perfection”.  But confessing our sin, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  The wonderful answer is… “Don’t sin!  But if you do… “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”.  Advocate is the Greek, “parakletos” combining “beside” and “to call”.  Our Advocate is called to our side to represent us as would an attorney.    Jesus pleads our case before the Righteous Father, and identifies us not as a sinner, but as a new man in Christ.  So it is that we have right standing with God.