Confessing Our Sins

Q. I would like to know the following.I am aware that Jesus Christ died for my sins,once and for all(me and everybody)  So,all my sins are forgiven,wiped away,I am clean. I assume that He died for my past sins,and the future sins,and that all sins are forgiven.  When “my sinful nature sins again”if I can put it that way,do I still have to ask for forgiveness of sins, (I have allready been forgiven) or do I just repent of my sins before God and admit that I sin and that it is wrong,and then thank Him that He has forgiven me allready?

A.  1 John was written to believers.  In 1 John 1:9 John advised them and us to confess our sins in order to be purified from all unrighteousness.  This has nothing to do with our eternal salvation, but rather with our earthly relationship with God.   Unconfessed sin can cause interruptions in that relationship, depriving us of its benefits until we admit that we’ve sinned.  Whether you ask Him to forgive you or thank Him for already having done so is not as important as acknowledging the sin and expressing remorse.

Think of Adam and how different things might have been if he had simply confessed instead of trying to blame somebody else.  God already knew he had sinned and never intended to disown him.  But their relationship was certainly different after it happened.  I find it interesting that the Bible doesn’t mention whether Adam ever confessed.