Date:   7/19/2012 4:24:47 PM ( 12 y ago)
Hits:   1,910
URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1965227

1 of 1 (100%) readers agree with this message.  Hide votes     What is this?

Doc, yes that explains it further and this article below is what I was trying to explain to Refreshed above, but much more thorough:


Does a Christian Need To Ask God For Forgiveness?
Pastor Tony Butler
A Favorite Chorus of mine:

“Before the throne of God above I have a strong, a perfect plea:

A great High Priest, whose name is Love, Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on his hands, My name is graven on his heart;

I know that while in Heaven He stands No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair, And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look, and see Him there Who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died, My sinful soul is counted free;

For God, the Just, is satisfied To look on Him and pardon me!”

A common and clear teaching of the gospel of grace in the New Testament is the fact that all of our sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus. Most people agree with this. Another common teaching to Christians is: Only if a believer confesses his/her sins, will God forgive him/her of his/her sins. (IJN. 1:9) Many Christians agree to this as well, without ever connecting it in their minds as a contradiction of total forgiveness.

However it seems the disconnection comes when people are forced to reconcile the two simultaneously. Christians seem to have no problem if both are taught separately; both teachings invoke an “Amen.” However, when the statement is made, “Jesus died for all your sins and we as believers in Jesus never have to ask God to forgive us again for the rest of our lives, no matter how many sins we commit because they all have already been forgiven” – then comes the giant disconnect which produces a Nicodemus “Huh?” in many people.

I am going to address this issue in a detailed and clear way so as to invoke thought, theological consistency and biblical truth. Whether we agree or not, at least the clear issues will be addressed. There are godly Christians on each side of the issue, but godly doesn’t always mean correct. I believe with all my heart my view is correct, balanced, and congruent with New Testament realities as to who we are in Christ and the spiritual blessings we have in Christ.

We are all commanded to rightly divide the truth. (II Tim. 2:15) So let’s get to it. To better understand the issues we need to ask ourselves some questions to get moving in the right direction.
Covenants matter
Question One:

What covenant did Jesus operate in while He was alive on the earth, the Old Covenant or the New Covenant? If you said the Old Covenant you are correct. (Gal. 4:4) As one born under the Law, Jesus was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. (Mt. 15:24) Living under the covenant of law, the words of Jesus reflected that covenant to the Jews. Under the covenant of law, one was not totally forgiven but must receive ongoing forgiveness in order to remain in a guilt free state. (Heb. 10:4; 7:19; 9:9; 10:1; 11:40)


When I teach people that all their sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus and that they don’t have to ask God to forgive them anymore because they are all forgiven, the immediate response is for people to run over to the Old Covenant and quote Mt. 6:12 - “…and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.”andMt. 6:14 - “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;.”


Christ’s statements above were addressed to the Jews alone and were “Law” based. Jesus was saying “If you want God to do something for you then you have to do something that will cause Him to act in your behalf.” Jesus was plainly saying to them that if there was a single person they did not fully forgive, then they would not be fully forgiven. No man could come into the presence of God unless they are fully forgiven. Again, He is raising the standards of the Law to point people to the grace that He alone possessed. He was asking people who didn’t even have the Holy Spirit in them to do in the flesh what only God himself could do.

Question Two:

What covenant are we under, the Old Covenant or the New? If you said the “New” then you are correct. (Heb. 12:24)

We need to ask the question: “How can a statement of Jesus made before the cross, under the Old Covenant, have more weight than the words of Jesus made after the cross, which has brought us into the New Covenant?” The newer revelation always has the greater weight of authority than an older revelation. During the time of Christ’s preaching before the cross there was only animal’s blood that was shed and words spoken to the Jews by Jesus who were all under the Old Covenant. There was no testimony by the four gospel writers of fullness of forgiveness that would come to Jews and Gentiles alike through the shed blood of Jesus. This would only come later, after the resurrection of Jesus.

If you understand that Jesus was born and operated under the Old Covenant in the gospels, and if you understand the New Covenant is completely different than the Old Covenant, then you are well advised not to allow an Old Covenant teaching to Jews override the teachings of the Covenant of Grace in which we live.
Question Three:

When did the New Covenant begin, while Jesus was alive or when He died? If you said when He died, then you are correct. (Heb. 9:16-17)

If you believe you are under the New Covenant of Grace then you must examine the superior benefits of that covenant.

When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, that blood was poured out for all the sins of humanity for all time.1 John 2:2 – “And He is the propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the sins of all the world.”

One has to understand that the blood of Jesus is payment for all sin, for all time, for all people, even for those who had already died in the past, from Adam on. However, as our Passover Lamb, the blood is only applied to the hearts of those who had believed properly in the Old Covenant and those who believed in Jesus when He came to the earth. (Romans 3:25 – “whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness through the passing by of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God;” Hebrews 9:15 - “And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new covenant, so that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, those who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” 1 Cor. 5:7b – “… For also Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”)

There isn’t a single scripture after the cross that asks a believer to ask God for forgiveness!!! It is already accomplished. We as New Testament believers are told over and over in the Scriptures that all our sins are forgiven: past, present and future, and paid for by the blood of Jesus. Forgiveness of sins isn’t something you get on a daily basis on request to God. It is a once and for all act of God through the shed blood of Jesus which has forgiven us of all our sins. (I will address how a believer deals with sin later) Below are some of the many scriptures that declare this present reality of total forgiveness in the life of the believer:


Hebrews 10:15-18 - “The Holy Spirit also is a witness to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ also He adds, ‘their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.’ Now where remission/forgiveness of these (sins) is, there is no more offering for sin.”




1 John 2:12 – “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.”


Ephesians 1:7 – “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,”


2 Corinthians 5:18-19 – “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them,”

Hebrews 10:12 – “but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God …”


Matthew 26:28 – “for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”

Acts 13:38-39 – “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.”
Hebrews 8:12 - “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more”


Hebrews 9:26b – “… but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”


Hebrews 9:12 – “and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”


Hebrews 9:22 – “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”


Hebrews 10:18 – “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin” (not even prayers)


1 John 3:5 – “And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.”

Revelation 1:5 – “and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood”

Notice, all the verses above are in the past tense. Forgiveness isn’t something God will do it is something He has already done in the life of the believer. At the cross, God poured out all His forgiveness toward those who are His. We don’t need to ask anymore! Paul described once and forever forgiveness in Colossians 2:13-14:

“And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Because of His finished work at the cross all believers have been acquitted for the sins of a lifetime! If you believe that your sins are still being forgiven one at a time as you ask for forgiveness, or even if you lump them all together as a conglomerate confession, a troubling question must be answered:

What happens if you die with just one sin in your life which you haven’t asked for forgiveness or confessed?

The truth of Scripture is that before we were ever born, God from eternity past saw every sin that we would commit. The debt of sin we owe is secured by a lifetime. Jesus carried our lifetime of sins to the cross with Him two thousand years ago. God canceled the debt and washed clean every stain. The empty tomb and the blood of Jesus placed before the throne of God should spark praise and joy in the life of every believer.

The question must be asked, “Which covenant are you going to live under concerning the forgiveness of sins?” You can ask God to forgive you everyday if you want. It won’t hurt your salvation, but it will keep you from understanding the greater reality of grace that has come to you through the shed blood of Jesus. Are you still living as if you were under the Old Testament by constantly asking for God’s forgiveness? Those days are over and finished! Rejoice in the truth that you are totally forgiven. The old covenant is forever gone.

The writer of Hebrews said the following concerning the Old and New Covenant:

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the lord, When I will effect a new covenant, With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:7-12)

Beloved, we live under the New Covenant. It is a Covenant of Grace that is far superior to the Old. Let the blood of Jesus be your final answer to sin, not your daily requests for something that has already been given to you.

Once and for all forgiveness versus Confession forgiveness


OK, you read all this so far, and you are having to think about things perhaps in a way you never thought about them before, but you are still plagued by another verse that was given within the New Covenant, written by the apostle John. (1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”)


Let’s look at this verse in two ways: logically and theologically.

Logically, we can see this verse has a stipulation contained in it. I John 1:9 requires something of the person. We see the “If” which clearly reveals choice to do or not to do. “If” is the Greekword (ἐάν – ean) which is a Greek particle that denotes uncertainty or indefiniteness. Then we see the words “we confess” which implies a stipulation which requires an action on our part. The Greek word “Confess” isὁμολογέωhomologeōwhich means “to say the same thing as another, to agree with, assent, to concede.” Thenfinally we see God, Who is declared to be just in order “to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”- the result of fulfilling the condition of confessing.

The question must be asked, “If forgiveness only comes as a result of our confession of sins, then what happens if we don’t confess them?” John says they are only forgiven if they are confessed. Suppose a Christian asks for forgiveness for sins in the evening when he/she prays. The next morning he/she awakens and has a sinful thought or commits and act of sin. What if he/she dies on the way to work without having asked for forgiveness? Is he/she going to stand before God unforgiven? Should we live our lives in a constant fear that we may miss a final request for forgiveness? This is diametrically opposed to all we have read above concerning our sins having been already forgiven. How can we reconcile the two, since they are both written under the New Covenant?

Is it bad to ask for forgiveness? As a pastor I think many people ask God to forgive them in the same way that people say “I’m sorry.” God knows the heart of each person. However, I do think it is bad to deny the benefits of the Blood of the New Covenant so that forgiveness rests on a condition of confession. The one who says “Forgive me” as “I’m sorry” needs to realize all their sins are paid for and that there is zero possibility of them dying in condemnation because they didn’t get a chance to confess before they died. They also need to know that their asking for forgiveness shouldn’t keep them from coming boldly to the throne of grace through the shed blood of Jesus that has forgiven them eternally for all their sins.

Theologically, we need to examine the context of I John 1:9 and discover to whom the text refers. No other verse in all the combined epistles places a conditional "if" on forgiveness and cleansing. There are numerous verses declaring our sins are once and forever completely forgiven as seen above. So how do we deal with this singular verse? There are only a couple ways to look at it. The first is that I John 1:9 is written to Christians and contradicts the majority of clear statements of total forgiveness by the blood, even later comments by John himself. The second way to look at it is to see it wasn’t referring to believers at all, but to un-believers.

If you apply it to unbelievers, it is completely in line with the whole of Scripture. Unsaved men confess to God their sin and He forgives them of “All” their sins and cleanses them of “All” unrighteousness. This sounds just like the benefits that Christians are said to have as a result of believing in Jesus. Even the conditional “If” makes sense. Salvation is a choice one has to make.

All scholars agree that John was facing a prevalent heresy in his day called Gnosticism. Gnosticism held two major beliefs that went directly against Christianity. First, that Jesus was only present on earth in the Spirit but never in the flesh. And second, they denied the reality of sin. This will help you understand why the Gospel of John begins with the Deity of Christ and His coming in the flesh, and why I John begins in the following words:

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched (see what he is saying? "We saw him… Jesus was real flesh and blood. We touched him.") - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (dealing with the issue of sin) If we confess our sins; he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:1-9)

Now, with the context and history in mind, can’t you see what John is really saying? Is he saying that Christians need to confess their sins in order to be forgiven, or is he saying that those who have false beliefs (gnosticism) aren’t Christians, but if they will just confess their sins then God will forgive them? Look just a few verses down when John truly address Christians: 1 John 2:12 – “I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.”1 John 1:9 is simply an invitation for a Gnostic heretic to become a Christian.



The Perfect Sacrifice Bringing Perfect Forgiveness


Take an imaginary journey with me if you will to the tabernacle in the wilderness. You see a priest running and shouting “I found it, I found it!” He declares He found the perfect sacrifice that will forgive all the people of their sins forever. Up until that time their sins were only forgiven one year at a time.

Now you look and see all the Levites rejoicing as they tear down the tabernacle and cease sacrificing animals. None of the articles of furniture are needed anymore. No more blood is needed. Everyone is forgiven forever! For the rest of their lives they are guilt free, forgiven having no condemnation of God and full access into His presence. Unfortunately that never happened and the sacrifices continued, year after year because they were still guilty because animal blood couldn’t remove sins. Hebrews 10:1-2 says "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming - not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.”

However, one day a prophet by the name of John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, "Look, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" The Bible teaches us that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, that Jesus’ sacrifice cleansed us once and for all, not repeatedly over time, so there is no method or procedure that is required for us to remain forgiven. One of Jesus' disciples named Peter said, "Christ died for sins ONCE FOR ALL, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." (1 Peter 3:18)

I want to ask you a question. What would make a person feel better: daily confessing sin and the need of continuous sacrifices that just covered daily confessed sins, or receiving eternal forgiveness that came from a once and forever offering for sin from a perfect sacrifice?

No amount of confessing sins to God will bring us more forgiveness than we have through Christ’s perfect sacrifice. Since the one sacrifice and shedding of blood has been accomplished there is nothing more to do concerning forgiveness than to rejoice in what God has done for us. Christ’s blood is eternally effective, redemptive, and eternally sufficient for every sin we have committed in the past, to the last sin we will ever commit in the future. They were all paid for 2000 years ago. Because of this there is no more need for sacrifices, confessions or anything else to access the throne of grace boldly. Every Christian must make a decision with their own heart: Are all my sins forgiven by the one-time sacrifice of Jesus and the shedding of His blood or is forgiveness contingent on my confessions of sin to God?

The Issue Of Simplicity

I think some of the problems people have with accepting that all their sins are forgiven for all time, whether they confess them or not, has to do the idea of ease. It just sounds too easy! “There has to be more to it,” they think. “There must be something I have to do to secure forgiveness.” It is the same thing unbelievers fall prey to when they think they have to work for their salvation. They just don’t see that everything is settled by what Christ did for us and not what we do. Thinking on this level underestimates the price paid on the cross and the effect of the blood on which it was shed. There was nothing easy about what Jesus did for us on the cross.

For some people they believe that forgiveness comes by doing good, for others by making prayer chants, and others by confessing everyday their failures to God. Regardless of all this the Bible makes it clear without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. In my opinion as a pastor, when we fail to recognize the sufficiency of the blood to cleanse us from all our sins at the time of salvation, we are guilty of either minimizing the sacrifice of Christ or improperly interpreting scripture through incorrectly dividing the word of truth. (II Tim. 2:15)

False Ideas Connected To Total Once And Forever Forgiveness

When I share that all our sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus and the fact that we don’t have to ask God to forgive us for our sins anymore, there are three primary objections raised by some believers.

First Objection

Total Once And Forever Forgiveness leads To Sinful Living

I find it interesting that people think this way, because God says the exact opposite. Biblically, it leads believers to come boldly before GodHebrews 10:18-19 – “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus,” It gives a clear conscience and cancels condemnation in our lives (Heb. 9:14). Nowhere in the bible is the slightest hint that once and forever forgiveness leads to loose living. The thought never crosses the apostle’s minds. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. The purpose of total forgiveness is so we can draw near to God, not run away from Him and delight in sin. (Rom. 6:15)

Second Objection
Total Once And Forever Forgiveness Requires No Responsibility Of The Believer

Nowhere in the bible is grace given as an excuse to sin. The grace of God teaches us just the opposite. (Titus 2:11-12)No one who practices open rebellion and sin like unbelievers can possibly be a Christian. (I John 3:8) We as believers possess the Spirit of Holiness and are God’s holy ones through faith in Christ. The true Christian has the power of a new life in Christ and has passed from death to Life. (Rom. 8:1-2) Once forgiven, a Christian begins a life built on the grace of God that receives Him completely through the person and work of Christ on the cross. (Eph. 2:1-8)

What God has cleansed and forgiven, we should count cleansed and forgiven. When we sin as new Covenant believers we aren’t called to ask God for forgiveness, but we are asked by God to repent. True repentance always flows from godly sorrow. It is a sorrow that flows out of divine relationship. When we sin against God we know we have quenched or grieved the Holy Spirit. We can sense that we have gone against the character and testimony of God. That prompts a sorrow in the true believer which brings genuine repentance, which means to turn away from something. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 – “Now I rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you grieved to repentance. For you were grieved according to God, so that you might suffer loss by nothing in us. For the grief according to God works repentance to salvation, not to be regretted, but the grief of the world works out death.”


It is impossible to repent and have godly sorrow without any confession to God. Confession merely means to agree with God and speak truth. When a Christian sins it is as normal as breathing to speak of his/her failure to God and ask Him for help from the throne of grace. (Heb. 4:16) The Bible will tell Christians to put off the deeds of the flesh, the Bible will tell us to walk in the newness life, and the Bible will tell us not to sin. However, if we do sin, we are not told to ask God for forgiveness, but to realize that we have an advocate in heaven Who has completely satisfied the Father’s righteous standards in our behalf. “But if we do sin, we are told we have an advocate, Jesus the righteous, Who is the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 2:1) No where are we to ask God to forgive us, because that has already been accomplished.

Third Objection

Total Once And Forever Forgiveness Has No Consequence For Sin In The Life Of The Believer

Tell that to Ananias and Sapphira. (Acts 5:1-5) Tell that to the Corinthians who died and were sick because of improper conduct. (I Cor. 11:29, 39) This is simply a false statement. The apostle Paul, more than anyone, taught once and forever forgiveness without a hint of ever asking the believer to ask God for forgiveness. The same Apostle Paul calls Christians to remember the sins of Israel and how they were punished lest any believer should think they could sin without retribution. (I Cor. 10:1-12) The bible clearly teaches God’s chastisement in the life believers. (Rev. 3:19) Christians reap from sin in two ways; First, they reap the consequences of their actions, and secondly they can reap the consequences of God’s re-action. No Christian gets away with anything. Sin never promotes anything healthy in the life of a believer and always brings a negative consequence, whether we believe it or not.
Pastoral Conclusion

I believe the Scripture teaches all our sins are already forgiven without having to ask God to forgive us. This view, in my opinion, carries far more Scriptural weight than Scriptures (used by many) that were spoken under the Old Covenant by Jesus in the Gospels. I also believe that the clearly expressed realities of the blood of Jesus applied to the believer for the complete forgiveness of sins demands that I John 1;9 is related to non-Christians and is inviting them to be saved. If that isn’t true then there is a clear contradiction between all of sins being forgiven by the blood of Jesus the moment we believed and the conditional forgiveness that only comes by personal confession of sins. (Some will disagree, saying John is only speaking of relational forgiveness and Paul speaks of eternal forgiveness. I understand what they are saying but I just don’t buy it. It is just another philosophical application trying to undo the seeming contradiction between once and forever forgiveness versus conditional forgiveness. I don’t believe it has basis in Scripture.)

I have laid before you the main issues as I understand them. I hope this has helped the reader in some way. If we still disagree, let us disagree agreeably. Should you want to discuss this more fully you can come and talk to me in person or e-mail me tony[at]fountainofgrace[dot]us.

God bless you and have a Jesus filled day!


Just to keep things fair and balanced I am putting three opposing points of view below

Does a Christian Need to Ask God for Forgiveness After Sinning?


“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Should a Christian ask forgiveness for his sins? Yes. Must he do so in order to be forgiven? Not necessarily.

According to Jesus, we should regularly ask forgiveness for our sins–perhaps just as regular as asking for daily bread. In doing so, the request is general. It does not itemize sins in order for them to be forgiven. Sure, if a sin is known, we should confess it, just as we make mention of specific needs beyond our daily bread; but please note, it is not wrong to pray a “blanket prayer” for forgiveness. Conversely, it is not necessary to itemize sins for forgiveness. According to the word of God, there is sin within us that remains unknown to us (Psalm 40:12; 139:23-24; cf. Jeremiah 17:9). God alone knows the heart. “Who can understand his errors?” asks the psalmist rhetorically; therefore, the follow-up request is general: “Cleanse me from secret faults” (Psalm 19:12).

In asking forgiveness, we Christians should keep in mind two things. First, we ask on the basis of a permanent relationship with God as our Father. Just as in Christ, our status as “righteous” and as “clean” does not dissipate when our daily sin-count fluctuates, so also God ever remains our Father in Christ, and we address Him as such in order to receive the forgiveness of sins.


Second, the forgiveness of sins is something that Jesus purchased in bulk for us on the Cross. In Him, “we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14). Therefore, when we ask for forgiveness, we are asking for a benefit to be applied that Christ already purchased on our behalf. Since we already have it, we are sure to receive it every time we ask–and even when we fail to ask.


Interestingly, this constant application of the blood of Christ to our souls falls under the doctrine of Christ’s intercession for us in heaven. As our ever-living Priest, He is able to save us “to the uttermost” because He ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). According to this Scripture, our full salvation in the future depends upon this constant intercession in the present. Though we have been justified by Christ’s death, we should not forget that “we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:9-10).
 

<< Return to the standard message view

fetched in 0.09 sec, referred by http://www.curezone.org/forums/fmp.asp?i=1965227