Q: If God has already “Justified” us as the Bible proclaims, then, why are we supposed to seek His forgiveness, if we sinned? Help us with this question!
Q: If God has already “Justified” us as the Bible proclaims, then, why are we supposed to seek His forgiveness, if we sinned? Help us with this question!
A: That is a good question because Romans 8:1 states, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” And we as Christians know this to be true, because it says Justification takes care of sin (past, present, future), therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Then the question becomes why pray for forgiveness when the Bible says our sins have already been remitted?
The answer is, you stand before Holy God as clean and righteous, free from the penalty of sin in your Justification state. And, when we became Christians through the acceptance of Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He eradicated sin from our human spirit and infused us with His Holy Spirit; then He instructed us to renew our soul on a daily basis: the soul consist of four parts – mind, will, intellect, and emotions. Our souls are being saved, and our bodies will be saved, in terms of receiving a new glorified/incorruptible body.
It is here, in between the processes of “being saved” (soul of mankind) and “will be saved” (receiving our glorified bodies that the transformation takes place between “Justification” and the need for “sanctification.” While we are here in these physical bodies, there will always be the need to continually be washed from the presence of sin and the power of sin. As a born again believer, we will never again need to be Justified, but as a Christian, there will always be a need for sanctification while we are at home in these sinful bodies. This is why Jesus instructed His disciples in Matthew 6:12, to ask the Father for forgiveness and He instructed us through the writing of the Apostle John in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”