A friend and I found a small church to attend, but their pastor prays at the beginning of their service asking for forgiveness of their sins. This made me wonder: Jesus died on the cross for us and he put the past, present, and future sins on that cross with him, so all <\/b>of our sins have been forgiven. So why do they continue to ask for forgiveness when it clearly says in the Bible that they have been forgiven. It’s as if they don’t think they are. It’s as if asking God for blessings over and over when He has <\/b>given them to you, but we keep asking.<\/p>\n\t “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous<\/em>” (I John 1:8-2:1).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The letter of I John was written by the Apostle John to fellow Christians. Notice that sin is not something already taken care of and no effort is needed on the Christian’s part to have the sin removed. John instructs the Christian that when he sins, he is to confess his sins to God in order to receive forgiveness of those sins. If a person does not do this, then his sins would not be forgiven.<\/p>\n Jesus did die to forgive mankind of their sins. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed<\/em>” (I Peter 2:24). But this does not mean that everyone’s sins are automatically forgiven. Most of the world will end up in hell. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it<\/em>” (Matthew 7:13-14). While the gift is freely offered to everyone, not everyone will accept the gift. This remains true both before and after a person becomes a Christian. This is why there are warning to Christians not to return to sin. “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries<\/em>” (Hebrews 10:26-27).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: A friend and I found a small church to attend, but their pastor prays at the beginning of their service asking for forgiveness of their sins. This made me wonder: Jesus died on the cross for us and he put the past, present, and future sins on that cross with him, so all of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1571],"class_list":["post-49560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-forgiveness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23588,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-you-say-that-the-girl-who-was-living-with-her-boyfriend-could-be-forgiven-of-her-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":49560,"position":0},"title":"Why didn’t you say that the girl who was living with her boyfriend could be forgiven of her sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read over\u00a0your response to a girl who lives with her boyfriend and she asked why you called it a sin. You gave her reasons, but then you listed reasons for her to consider. The second heading was \"It Can Keep You Out of Heaven.\"\u00a0 If you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47056,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-get-forgiveness-of-my-sins-before-i-am-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":49560,"position":1},"title":"Can I get forgiveness of my sins before I am baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have accepted Jesus as my Savior but there is this little detail: I am not baptized. My family is not Catholic, so I wasn't baptized, but I truly believe in God and have been praying a lot lately for His forgivenesses. Is it okay if I'm not baptized?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57521,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-meant-by-christ-died-for-our-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":49560,"position":2},"title":"What is meant by “Christ died for our sins?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible says that Christ died for our sins. Does this mean that he died for the forgiveness of our sins? Answer: \"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures\" (I Corinthians 15:3). The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54363,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-we-know-jesus-forgives-mortal-sins-we-are-traumatized-over\/","url_meta":{"origin":49560,"position":3},"title":"How can we know Jesus forgives mortal sins we are traumatized over?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm just enquiring if you can help me. I read comments about sin on your site. My question is: How can we know Jesus forgives mortal sins we are traumatized over? Answer: The Roman Catholic church uses the term \"mortal sins,\" instead of just saying \"sins.\" Even though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28443,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-the-thief-on-the-cross-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":49560,"position":4},"title":"What About the Thief on the Cross? (Bassford)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford When it comes to discussion about baptism for the forgiveness of sins, most Christians know all the steps of the dance. If we're studying with a non-Christian and we show them passages like Acts 2:38 and I Peter 3:21, one of two things is going to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/top_53_bmp-251x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":80660,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/all-past-present-and-future-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":49560,"position":5},"title":"All Past, Present, and Future Sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton I don't know how many times I have heard preachers when talking about getting full forgiveness of sins, say, \"That means all past, present, and future sins are forgiven at the cross.\" Let us study the scriptures on this matter. The Bible does not say or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n