Well, why do we keep confessing our sins if all of our sins have been canceled in Christ? It's a great question from a listener to the podcast named Andy, who represents, I think, a lot of listeners out there who are asking this very same question. Here's how Andy put it, "Hello, Pastor John.

Can you help me understand the work of Jesus whereby all of our sins, past, present, and future, were forgiven in Christ, and yet we are called to continually confess?" Thinking specifically of the "it is finished" statement in John 19, 30, and also the amazing reality that Christ "forgave all our trespasses and canceled our record of debt that stood against us" in Colossians 2, verses 13 to 14.

But then we're also called to constant confession, too, in 1 John 1, 9. So, Pastor John, how do we make sense of all these truths? Why do we keep confessing if all of our sins have been canceled in Christ? I love that question because it gives me an occasion to exult with you and with all of our listeners in the immeasurable greatness and beauty and preciousness and wonder of what Jesus did, in fact, on the cross, achieve once for all when He died and rose again for His sheep.

And I say "for His sheep" because it says in John 10, 15, "Jesus laid down, I laid down my life for the sheep." In other words, in the death of Jesus, God has a very special, peculiar design or intention or purpose to purchase and create a flock for Himself, including the purchase of our faith, our union with Christ, our forgiveness of every sin, past, present, future, our eternal right standing with God as adopted children and as new creatures in Christ—all that purchased once for all by Jesus.

That's what God intended and achieved when Christ died and stood in the place of His sinful flock, His sheep. Now Andy sees this glory. He sees it, and he's exulting in it with me, I believe. He says in John 19, 30, he sees it is finished. He sees in Colossians 2, 13, God made us alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands.

This, He set aside, nailing it to the cross. That's just got to be one of the most amazing two verses in all the Bible for describing what became of our debt that we could never pay, canceled, nailed to the cross. And you can add to what Andy has seen and pointed out in those verses these, like Hebrews 7, 27, "Christ has no need like the Old Testament high priests to offer sacrifices daily since He did this once for all when He offered up Himself," or Hebrews 9, 26, "He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," or 10, 14.

I mean, Hebrews is really good at this. "For by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." So there it is, once for all, not repeated. Not repeated in history, not repeated in the mass, in the Roman Catholic mass, Sunday after Sunday, not repeated in any kind of Protestant religious performances that we may attempt through baptism or whatever.

Once for all, done, finished, complete, debt paid in full, can't be added to, can't be improved upon. That's the foundational glory of the achievement of Christ when He died for us on the cross. So Andy's question is, well, if the death of Christ achieved the forgiveness of all the sins of all God's people for all time, what does 1 John 1, 9 imply when it says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Or verse 7, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." So Colossians 2, 13 and the passages that we saw in Hebrews sound like our forgiveness was achieved, completed in the death of Christ, but 1 John 1, 9 and 1, 7 sound like our forgiveness and our cleansing depend on our confessing those sins and walking in the light.

And that's the issue that Andy is raising. Here's how I would resolve the tension biblically, and there are two steps in the resolution. So number one, we should distinguish between the purchase, and that includes the permanent securing, so the purpose and the permanent securing of our forgiveness once for all at the death of Jesus, on the one hand, from the personal possession and enjoyment of that benefit, on the other hand, which comes to us through faith.

So at the death of Jesus, our sins are canceled, nailed to the cross, debt fully paid, so payment and securing accomplished. Once for all, never to be repeated, permanently, infallibly for all God's people when Christ died. But the personal reception, the possession, the enjoyment of that achievement, that purchase, that securing of forgiveness only comes to God's people through faith in Christ, union with Christ by faith.

So I say that because of texts like Acts 10:43, "Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins." I mean, that's clear. Everyone who believes receives forgiveness of sins. And Romans 3:28, "We hold that one is justified by faith." So justified, including forgiveness of sins, right standing with God, by faith.

And the reason there's no conflict, no tension between the absolute certainty of the forgiveness achieved in the moment of Christ's death and the fact that this forgiveness is dependent upon, contingent upon God's people coming to faith in Christ, the reason there's no conflict, no danger of anyone missing out who was died for in that way, is that God sees to it in his sovereignty that all those for whom he fully paid do in fact come to faith.

There's no dropout. Those of me foreknew, he predestined. Those of me predestined, he called. Those of me called, he justified. Those of me justified, he glorified. He sees to it. That's the first step in resolving the tension between Colossians 2:13 and 1 John 1:9. Here's the other one. The Bible teaches that there are traits that God's people have that show they are in fact God's people and do truly belong to Christ, truly born again, truly have union with Jesus.

These traits are how we can know that our sins were fully paid for and our forgiveness fully secured by the death of Jesus. One of those traits is how we deal with ongoing sinning in our lives. This is the complicating issue. Christians sin. 1 John 1.8, that's what John is dealing with.

1 John 1.8 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." The question becomes, well, if you are a true child of God, if your sins are truly and fully paid for, covered, canceled, what will you feel? What will your thoughts and actions be toward your ongoing sinning?

What trait will mark you? And here are two biblical answers. Colossians 3.3, "You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." That's a description of wonderful, completed salvation. We're already home. Next verse, "Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire." So one trait of those whose sins are fully paid for is that we make war on our sinning.

That's the mark of those whose sins are fully canceled. We make war on our sinning. We put them to death. But you can't do that if you don't admit, that is, confess that you have any. So the second trait, 1 John 1.9, is confession. If we confess our sins, which you have to do in order to make war on them, if you don't think you have any, if you're not confessing, "Yes, I have sinned.

I'm sorry." If you don't confess that, you won't make war. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive our sins. So confessing our sin is the agreement with God that we have sin, and it must be fought and killed. If we don't confess this truth, we're living, John says, in an illusion.

We're lying, we're deceived, we're calling God a deceiver, and we're not saved. If we're living in the illusion that we have no sin and that it doesn't need to be killed, we're living in an illusion, not in salvation. So confession of sin is not the basis of our forgiveness.

It is one of the traits that show we are truly in Christ, where all our sins are covered by His blood. Yeah, that's fascinating, and a great point to end on here. Thank you, Pastor John, for walking us through those texts, and thank you for listening. If you haven't done so, you can get the latest episodes by subscribing to Ask Pastor John on your favorite podcast app in Spotify or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel.

To find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question of your own, go online to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, if 2020 has taught us anything, it's that the times are always uncertain, and our lives in this world are far less stable than we ever imagined. So where do we find comfort and confidence to walk forward in seasons like we've experienced in the spring of 2020?

That is the question up next on Wednesday. I'm your host Tony Reinhke. We'll see you then.