D&C 45

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.

Bruce R. McConkie

Jesus pleads the cause of the Twelve--and all the saints--in the courts above. He is their Mediator, Advocate, and Intercessor. He makes intercession for them, because they have forsaken the world and come unto him; he advocates their cause, for their cause is his cause and they have received his gospel; he performs a divine service of mediation, reconciling fallen man to his Maker, because the fallen ones choose now to associate with those who are not of this world. Jesus prays, thus, not for the world, but for those who have kept his commandments; who have reconciled themselves to God through faith and repentance; who are preparing themselves for an abode with him and his Father. And his interceding petitions are always available for all men, if they will but believe his word and obey his law. (The Mortal Messiah, 4:111; emphasis added.)

Neal A. Maxwell

The entirety of Jesus' unique role as advocate cannot be understood if approached only legalistically and adversarily, such as when one mortal lawyer jousts with another lawyer before an impassive judge. In the sense here intended, an advocate seeks to plead, to persuade, to intercede, and to mediate in order to aid another's cause. This is surely part of what Jesus does for us. But He is, once again, both the advocate and the judge! No mortal lawyer has such a dual role.

When commencing the agonies of the Atonement, Jesus declared of His atoning purpose, "For this cause came I into the world" (John 18:37).

In calling upon the mercy available in Father's plan, Jesus thereby truly "advocateth the cause of the children of men" (Moro. 7:28). It is significant that He so pleads for us out of His full, personal knowledge and understanding of each of us, including our individual experiences and shortfalls set amid the shared general human condition. "Behold, and hearken, . . . saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, your advocate, who knoweth the weakness of man and how to succor them who are tempted" (D&C 62:1).

He can succor us in any form of the human condition because, as He reminded Joseph in the Liberty jail: "The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" (D&C 122:8.) No person, therefore, who comes before Him can exclaim, "You don't understand what I have been through!"

How like the tender words cited earlier (D&C 45:3-5) are the following and amplifying words recorded in Alma, attesting to Jesus' personal knowledge of our individual and personal sufferings and sicknesses:

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

"And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." (Alma 7:11-12. See also Matt. 8:17.)

Hence Jesus not only bore our sins personally in order to atone for them, but He also bore our pains, infirmities, and afflictions. Thereby ensured is the precious fact that Jesus' mercy would be full, because He knows how to succor us in a unique, merciful, and personal way--amid all of that through which we mortals individually pass. Having so purchased us once, His glad and great investment in us continues (see Acts 20:28). ...

Therefore, beyond ensuring general immortality if, as to our sins, we are adequately and truly repentant, He likewise specifically succors and pleads for us as only He can. He does this out of His perfect love, a love which is fully informed by His perfect, personal familiarity with our individual situations. No wonder He is the wondrous Keeper of the entering gate to eternal life, and in His loving empathy He "employeth no servant there" (see 2 Ne. 9:41). ...

Hence we see how Jesus is our advocate in the most unique way. After all, if all this were analogous to mere mortal advocacy, how many advocates know their clients perfectly? For example, how many mortal advocates have actually suffered deeply, physically and mentally, for their clients? Besides all this, we are not mere clients. We are Christ's spirit brothers and sisters! ...

However, unlike the "finished" act of the Atonement achieved in that axis of atoning agony--Gethsemane and on Calvary--across an additional time frame Jesus' continuing advocacy for us mortals is spread. It continues in a special, ongoing process as we, individually, access and apply His atoning blood. (See Mosiah 4:1-4.) Having paid the price for us, the Grand Atoner is also the apparent judge as to our entitlement to access further His atonement, as we repent and become "the children of Christ" (Mosiah 5:7).

Jesus did not retire to some corner of the universe for a well-earned vacation after performing the great Atonement, but He has remained constantly vigilant and vigorous, personally mindful of all of us.

While the scriptures relevant to Jesus' advocacy are abundant, verb tenses vary, as already noted, suggesting something significant. For further examples consider the post-atonement scriptures, such as Heb. 7:25, which declares that "Jesus ever liveth to make intercession," suggesting a continuousness. Heb. 9:24 speaks of how He is to appear to make intercession for us, perhaps at the day of judgment. The Apostle John wrote that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, likewise suggesting an ongoingness to Jesus' advocacy and to our accessing and applying His atonement (1 Jn. 2:1). Moro. 7:28 notes Christ's atonement and declares that He "advocateth the cause of the children of men." D&C 45:3-5, as noted earlier, indicates that He "is pleading" in our behalf, again the indication of an ongoingness.

Hence His pleading apparently continues for all specific and worthy individuals until the final judgment. ... Hence Jesus' advocacy appears to be a continuing process, as we struggle individually to overcome our weakness and thereby to "apply the atoning blood of Christ" by becoming more like Him (Mosiah 4:2). (One More Strain of Praise [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1999], pp. 34-48)