Should a Christian Ask for Forgiveness from God?

Mark W. Christy, PhD, Pastor of MBC in Channelview, TX

After salvation, all Christians enter into a sanctification process whereby a struggle ensues between the new, redeemed nature in Christ and their old, fallen, and sinful nature. Paul himself recounts his struggle in this regard, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Rom 7:15-17).[i]

Given that sin still indwells the sinner and like Paul they find themselves practicing sin despite the Godly desires of their redeemed nature, is it appropriate for them to ask for forgiveness? While at first, some may feel the answer is an obvious yes. But remember, a Christian is a person who has been fully forgiven in Christ.

Paul, in Romans 8:1, makes it quite clear that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” All people who come to Christ are thus completely forgiven in Christ and thereby justified and made righteous (Rom 5:16; 2 Cor 3:9). Because of this, Peter could confidently proclaim as follows: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39).

Since Christians have been forgiven in Christ, should they continue going to God in prayer seeking forgiveness, and if they did so, would this not be a complete denial of the gospel of complete forgiveness which they have accepted? Christians, who have been forgiven, are enabled via their right relationship with God in Christ to go before the very throne of God in prayer and address God as their father. When the Lord teaches His disciples how to pray, He tells them to address God as “Our Father in heaven” (Matt 6:9). In this same teaching, He also tells His disciples to address their Father by seeking forgiveness: “forgive us our debts”.

After being indwelled by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the disciples would have received God’s full pardon as signified by the gift of the Spirit. They would have been granted entrance to God’s presence via Christ so that they could call upon Him prayer as their heavenly Father. They could rightly approach God because they had been fully forgiven in Christ even while they find need to confess and repent of sin in their still ongoing lives whereby they struggled as Paul attested to.

Their requests for forgiveness based upon the Lord’s own directives regarding prayer would not have been made in such a way that they were requesting additional forgiveness beyond that purchased by Christ and that which had already been granted them. Rather, they would be making such requests as redeemed men who knew that God’s forgiveness in whole had already been granted to them in Christ. Even so, they would be acknowledging the sinfulness of their sin, God’s righteous judgement against them as sinners, and God’s gracious pardon for them in Christ. To put this another way, they knew they could confidently approach God due to the forgives already granted to them in Christ even while they acknowledged their ongoing need for access to that forgiveness. To put it simply, they would be walking in light of a relationship with God made possible by Christ. This relationship was with a holy God, and given that they were still struggling with sin, they would be bound to address God’s holiness with petitions for forgiveness even while they maintained their confidence in their right relationship with God in Christ. As Paul proclaims in Ephesians 3:12, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

Within our relationship with God in Christ, we confidently come before Him despite our sinfulness and confess our sins. This demonstrates our faithfulness because we declare God’s rightness, our wrongness, and our desire to be like Christ. We do not come to Him demanding forgiveness as it were our due. Rather, we come humbly before Him seeking His grace in faithful awareness that He is a loving and merciful God who has given His Word that He has already forgiven us in Christ.

By requesting God’s forgiveness in one’s ongoing struggle with sin, the believer is not in any way impacting their salvation as the blood of Christ has completely purchased their forgiveness before God on the day of judgement. Instead, the believer is merely engaging in a life of obedience where they seek to live according to God’s Word while repenting when they find themselves in error. This is why Paul can declare in Philippians 2:12, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. As we work out our salvation which is indeed already been granted to us by God in Christ, Paul makes it clear that God Himself is still involved: “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Phil 2:13).

The sanctification process, therefore, is a process where both the saved person and God are active. Paul repeatedly calls upon Christians to choose the righteousness path and avoid the trappings of sin:

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom 6:8-14).

In the sanctification process, the Christian is expected to actively choose at all times to act in obedience to God’s Word. In John 14:23-24, Jesus says, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” From Christ’s words, it should be clear that true Christians love Christ and demonstrate this by their obedience. Given their ongoing struggle with sin, true Christians can acknowledge their sin as sin before God in confession and then confidently seek His forgiveness as they know they have been made partakers of God’s grace in Christ.

By keeping God’s commands including the command to repent, true Christians testify to their own salvation:

“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God^[a] is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:3-6).

[i]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.