To Be Least

so there's a chance that any sin i am yet to commit might be unforgiven? if i do not confess sin, i can't enter into eternal life with Christ? if i die in that act of sinning, i'm hellbound? is that what is being said? just curious. thanks for posting.
 

While its true that we should not try to sin, or live our life like we can do anything we want and we will still go to heaven, Jesus did forgive us for sins that we will commit in the future.

Hebrews chapter 10 points out that if what Jesus did was not a special sacrifice, that we would have to continue to sacrifice every year.

Verse 10 reads that "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all."

Verse 14 reads that "by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified"

It is possible to lose your salvation, but it is not likely or as easy as some would say. You can't live like God is some big ole bottle of white out. But how can you live in peace and joy, if you are worried about the sins of the future?
 

I just now found and read this particular post, and would like to interject another thought. If someone "falls away" from the faith, how are we to know they are just backslidden or were never really a true part of the body of Christ to start with? Perhaps that's something only God knows, for only God knows the human heart--we can not.

And when Christ died for our sins, he DID die for ALL of our sins, but we need to continually confess our sins as they become evident to us. To say Christ only died for SOME sins, well, that would make his costly sacrifice incomplete. He said on the cross, "It is finished." Complete! However, to know we're forgiven is certainly no license to keep on sinning. To fall back into sin does not cost us our salvation, per se, but can greatly hinders our relationship with Christ, perhaps cut off certain blessings, until we are restored once again thru confession and forgiveness. Hope that makes sense. Scripture says, "If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I think that's from 1 John 1:9--the Christian "bar of soap":-)

The bible is full of assurances of salvation, if we'll just search them out. One is, "No one can snatch you out of my Father's hand." To put so much emphasis on our keeping our salvation, is to rely on SELF, and not the finished work of redemption on the Cross. IT's not about us, it's about HIS PAYMENT for our sin debt. Grace. We don't deserve this, yet it is through grace, so that no man can boast. Christ paid it in FULL.

Now, I need to get those scriptural references for you so you won't think I'm just pulling all this out of the air:-) Consider this--if we cannot EARN our salvation, then what can we possibly "do" in our human flesh to keep it or lose it? IF we truly belong to Christ, he has promised that "neither will I leave you or forsake you." Unconfessed sin, however, brings its consequences and blocks our relationship with God, but our salvation is not what's in danger. And God disciplines those he loves, the bible says. We're all like sheep who've gone astray....and we desperately need our Shepherd to keep us.

Forgive me for not providing additional scriptures to support what I'm sharing, but I'm up very late and sick, so will get back with you tmorrow! Very important stuff here. Thanks for thought-provoking commentary, but we do need to be like the Bereans and search out the truth. We also need to consider the bible in FULL context, not just take a little text here, or there.

Thanks & blessings to you,
Vicki
 

When Christ was crucified all of my sins were future. So is what you are saying: "His sacrifice was incomplete at the time He made it?" Just trying to clarify.

I'll give you my take on this.

Hebrews 10 says something about this. It points out that what Jesus did was a special sacrifice such that we would have to continue to sacrifice every year.

Verse 10 reads that "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all."

Verse 14 reads that "by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified"

How can we be justified by faith, once for all, and yet need to go on confessing our daily sins so that we will be forgiven?

On the one hand, the New Testament teaches that, when we trust Christ, our faith is reckoned to us as righteousness (Romans 4:3, 5-6) the righteousness of God is imputed to us (Philippians 3:9). We stand before God "in Christ" as righteous and accepted and yes, even "forgiven," as Paul says, "David [in Psalm 32:1] pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered" (Romans 4:6-7). Thus justification, in Paul's mind, embraces the reality of forgiveness.

But, on the other hand, the New Testament also teaches that our ongoing forgiveness depends on confession of sins. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Confessing sins is part of "walking in the light" which is what we must do if the blood of Jesus is to go on cleansing us from our sins: "If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light...the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). And Jesus taught us to pray daily, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).

How then shall we see ourselves in relation to God? Are all our sins already forgiven, or are they forgiven day by day as we confess them? Does justification mean that all sins are forgiven past, present, and future--for those who are justified? Or is there another way to see our sin in relation to God?

Let's listen first to a pastor and theologian from 350 years ago, Thomas Watson.

"When I say God forgives all sins, I understand it of sins past, for sins to come are not forgiven till they are repented of. Indeed God has decreed to pardon them; and when he forgives one sin, he will in time forgive all; but sins future are not actually pardoned till they are repented of. It is absurd to think sin should be forgiven before it is committed....

The opinion that sins to come, as well as past, are forgiven, takes away and makes void Christ's intercession. He is an advocate to intercede for daily sin (1John 2:1). But if sin be forgiven before it be committed, what need is there of his daily intercession? What need have I of an advocate, if sin be pardoned before it be committed? So that, though God forgives all sins past to a believer, yet sins to come are not forgiven till repentance be renewed. (Body of Divinity [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979], 558)"

Is Watson right?

It depends. Yes, I think one can talk this way about forgiveness if one keeps firmly in mind that the purchase and ground and securing of forgiveness (past, present, and future) was the death of Jesus, once for all.

The ambiguity comes in the question, When do we obtain forgiveness for all the sins we will ever commit? There are two questions beneath this question:

When was our forgiveness purchased and secured for us?

When will our forgiveness be applied to each transgression so as to remove God's displeasure for it?

The answer to the first question would be, at the death of Christ. And the answer to the second question would be, at the renewal of our repentance.

God also sees our sins as "covered" and "not reckoned" because of the blood of Christ (Romans 4:7-8). Thus, paradoxically, he sees our sins as both guilt-bringing (and thus producing grief) and guaranteed-of-pardon (though not yet pardoned in the sense of his response to confession and the actual removal of his fatherly displeasure).

What is it that distinguishes God's judicial wrath toward the unbeliever's unconfessed sin from God's displeasure toward the believer's unconfessed sin?

The difference is that the believer is united to God in Christ by a new covenant. The promise of this covenant is that God will never turn away from doing good to us and will never let us turn away from him, but will always bring us back to confession and repentance. "I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me" Jeremiah 32:40).

This new covenant commitment was purchased by Christ for us (Luke 22:20) and applied to us through faith so that, though we incur our Father's displeasure, we, who are justified believers, never incur the judicial wrath of God to all eternity.

Or to put it another way, since the forgiveness of all our sins is purchased and secured by the death of Christ, therefore God is totally committed to bring us back to confession and repentance as often as necessary so that we may receive and enjoy that forgiveness in the removal of his fatherly displeasure. It is our Father's pleasure to restore us to His pleasure until such restoring is needed no more.

So in summary, my take on all this is that our sins are completely covered by the blood of Christ - past, present and future, however, that does not relieve us of the obligation to repentance and confession which serves to remove God's displeasure over our sins.

I do not believe that God will ever be angry at a believer. All his wrath was poured out on Jesus at the cross. There is no condemnation. But that doesn't mean that God isn't disappointed when we sin or that He doesn't discipline His children (Heb 12).