If God Forgives Us, Why Keep Confessing Sin?

Every time we pray the Lord's Prayer, we ask our Father to forgive our debts (Matthew 6:12), or our sins (Luke 11:4). Many of us have wondered about that line. If Christ paid for all my sins, why do I still need to ask? Writing for The Gospel Coalition, Justin Dillehay says the answer is yes to both. We need forgiveness once for all, and we need it every day.

Dillehay begins with what Jesus taught. The petition shows we will never reach perfection in this life (1 John 1:8). But Jesus would not teach us to pray in a way that doubts our Father. So the real question is how the finished work of the cross fits with our ongoing need to ask.

His answer rests on 1 John 1:9, today's verse. In context, he says, John is not describing one confession and one pardon. The forgiveness is conditional (if we confess) and ongoing (the blood of Jesus keeps cleansing). As we walk in the light, we see our sins more clearly. As we see them, we confess them. As we confess them, God forgives, over and over again. So are your future sins already forgiven? Dillehay says it depends on what you mean. Decisively atoned for? A glorious yes. Never needing to be confessed? No.

Stephen Wellum, professor of Christian theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says much the same, also for The Gospel Coalition. Confession is not a new justification. It is a renewed application of what Christ already did. We add nothing to his perfect work. By the work of the Spirit, Wellum says, confession reawakens us to Christ's work, and God revives our assurance. So believers pray daily for forgiveness, not with the despair of someone who thinks he is lost, but with the confidence of adopted children before a Father who has declared them just (Romans 8:1).

What does this mean tonight? Dillehay says that when Christians sin, we do not turn to some Plan B. We turn back to Plan A: Jesus Christ, our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). Asking forgiveness does not mean we have lost our standing and need to be saved again. It reminds us that salvation also means being made holy and treated as God's children. And do not despair over sins you cannot remember. Dillehay notes we will all die with unconfessed sins, because there are so many we never notice. Paul knew of no hidden sin in his life, yet he knew that did not make him innocent (1 Corinthians 4:4).

Dillehay's closing word is worth carrying into the weekend. Praying for forgiveness is not only a duty we have as sinners. It is a privilege we have as children. It assures us that our Father is eager to forgive and looks for chances to show mercy. So confess tonight, by name and without fear. Then rest.

Dillehay grounds the once-for-all side of the answer in Colossians 2:13-14. When God made us alive with Christ, Paul says there, he forgave all our trespasses and canceled the record of debt that stood against us, nailing it to the cross. Dillehay says that when Jesus bore our sins on the tree, he left none unborne. Union with Christ brings both God's verdict of righteous and a lasting peace with God that guarantees our final salvation (Romans 5:1, 9-10, 8:30). Dillehay is a pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Hartsville, Tennessee.

Wellum adds that justification is a declaration, not a process that pours righteousness into us, so it happens once for all time and cannot be lost. The verdict believers will hear at Christ's judgment seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) has already been brought into the present (John 5:24). Yet he notes that Scripture also ties our forgiveness to whether we forgive others (Matthew 6:14, Matthew 18:15-35, James 5:15). From God's side, Wellum says, our future sins are forgiven when he declares us just, since our future lies before him as an open book. From our side, it is best to see justification as the forgiveness of our past and present sins and the judicial ground for the forgiveness of future ones. God's plan is from eternity, but the Spirit applies Christ's work to us in time. That is why confession keeps going until we are glorified and sin no more.

Scripture: Matthew 6:12, Luke 11:4, 1 John 1:8-10, 1 John 2:1, Romans 8:1, 1 Corinthians 4:4