Why do I have to continually confess my sins if they have been forgiven?

It’s important to remember that we’re dealing with two separate issues; our sins judicially and our sins in real time.

Jesus Christ is our advocate, our defense attorney, our mediator. His blood sacrifice on the cross satisfied the Father’s holy wrath regarding our sins past, present, and future. Jesus’ suffering and death was a plea to the Father for our vindication and forgiveness. Jesus went to trial on our behalf before the Father and declared us “not guilty”. The Lord accepted the Son’s sacrifice on our behalf. The devil who’s our accuser and prosecutor head was bruised (Genesis 3:15). This the bible says was done before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:7). This is how our sins were dealt with judicially. This was pre-salvation. Once we believed in what Jesus did, we were saved. We’ll never be punished eternally for those sins and go to hell since the Father already punished Christ for them (Isaiah 53:1-5).

But, because of the wickedness that still remains in our flesh, we still commit sin in real time. Fortunately, we still have our advocate Jesus Christ who continually intercedes for us so that we can be continuously forgiven our sins when we repent and confess them (Hebrews 7:25; I John1:8-10; I John 2:2). When we ask for forgiveness post-salvation, it’s to restore fellowship, not relationship. Our relationship with the Father through Christ is forever when we believed. We’ll never lose our salvation.

Concluding, we must confess our sins because the word of God commands us to. To say we have no sin is to call God a liar which is blasphemous and proves the truth is not in us. Also, confessing sin is humbling; it reminds us that we still need the Savior and our sufficiency is in him although we’re born again. There is an ongoing tug-o-war between the flesh and the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). We must never forget the power that saved us, is the ongoing power that sustains us in salvation.

Once our physical bodies are made perfect and we’re in the eternal state, we’ll sin no more (I Corinthians 15:51; Philippians 3:21; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I John 3:1-3). This is yet future.

This is a promise that what the Lord started, he’ll complete. (Ephesians 1:14; Philippians 1:6).