Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
Why Ask Forgiveness for Our Sins
There is a false teaching that the sins we commit will send us to hell. When one is shown through very clear scripture that is not true, they will often struggle with the question of why we ask God to forgive us for our sins. After all, if we are automatically forgiven for our sins, why do we still need to ask God to forgive us? The answer to that is in understanding one of the consequences of sin.
Sin has basically two clear consequences. 1) It separates us from God in our relationship with Him in this life. 2) It eats away our rewards so we receive fewer rewards in the afterlife. However, it is the first consequence that we must consider for this article.
Many think that the sins we commit will send us to hell, but that is not what scripture actually teaches. There are a few scriptures they will give that are interpreted to mean it does, but there is not a single verse in the entire Bible that clearly says the sins we commit will send us to hell. Not one! Yet there are many scriptures that say we are saved by believing in Jesus and not one of them ever mentions repenting of sin. To be quite honest, it doesn't even make logical sense that sin would send us to hell.
Think about that. God loves us so much that He came to walk among us and suffered torture and died on the cross to save us. But He is willing to throw us into the Lake of Fire for eternal punishment over one lie? Really? We are flawed humans, yet if a man was willing to throw his son out of the house for telling one lie and not admitting to it, the entire world would see that man as a terrible person! If we who are only human are expected to have forgiveness for our kids, how then can we expect that God, Who is a loving and forgiving God, would not?
The truth is, the sins we commit do not send us to hell. If you are a true believer, you are forgiven. Period! But that does not mean we do not have to ask for forgiveness!
If you love someone and they do something that upsets you or hurts you, you don't stop loving them over it. No matter how often they hurt you, you will continue to love them. You will always forgive them. That does not mean that you are not hurt by what they did though. That does not mean you aren't hurt by the fact that they didn't care they hurt you.
When someone does something that hurts another, their relationship is damaged. That transgression will hurt the relationship and will continue to do so until it is confronted. When we sin against God, it upsets Him. He loves us still and forgives us, but it saddens Him that we don't care that we sinned against Him. That sin causes damage to our relationship with God and that damage will not go away on its own. The only way that damage is repaired is if we turn to God with a repentant heart and ask Him to forgive us. The desire in our hearts to make things right with the Lord and ask Him to forgive us will please Him. He can then take that sin and brush it aside as if it never happened. Though He had already forgiven us for it, He still needed us to ask forgiveness to brush the pain aside and repair the relationship.
Another thing one needs to understand is that sin compiles. I see them as great boulders. We sin once and it lays there between us and God like a boulder. When we sin again, it also sits as a boulder next to the other boulder. Every sin we commit will continue to add to that pile, slowly building up a great wall between us and God. The larger that wall gets, the less we can hear God. The less God will hear our prayers until He stops showing any sign of being there for us. It cuts us off from the Lord and that allows us to fall deeper into sin.
When we turn back to the Lord and ask Him to forgive us with a truly repentant heart, God will swipe that entire wall aside and clear the slate so that our relationship can begin to grow again.
We do not ask God to forgive us for our sins because we do not want to go to hell. So long as we believe, we are His children. We have no fear of Him sending us to hell. We ask God to forgive us because we love Him and want to grow closer to Him.
Sin has basically two clear consequences. 1) It separates us from God in our relationship with Him in this life. 2) It eats away our rewards so we receive fewer rewards in the afterlife. However, it is the first consequence that we must consider for this article.
Many think that the sins we commit will send us to hell, but that is not what scripture actually teaches. There are a few scriptures they will give that are interpreted to mean it does, but there is not a single verse in the entire Bible that clearly says the sins we commit will send us to hell. Not one! Yet there are many scriptures that say we are saved by believing in Jesus and not one of them ever mentions repenting of sin. To be quite honest, it doesn't even make logical sense that sin would send us to hell.
Think about that. God loves us so much that He came to walk among us and suffered torture and died on the cross to save us. But He is willing to throw us into the Lake of Fire for eternal punishment over one lie? Really? We are flawed humans, yet if a man was willing to throw his son out of the house for telling one lie and not admitting to it, the entire world would see that man as a terrible person! If we who are only human are expected to have forgiveness for our kids, how then can we expect that God, Who is a loving and forgiving God, would not?
The truth is, the sins we commit do not send us to hell. If you are a true believer, you are forgiven. Period! But that does not mean we do not have to ask for forgiveness!
If you love someone and they do something that upsets you or hurts you, you don't stop loving them over it. No matter how often they hurt you, you will continue to love them. You will always forgive them. That does not mean that you are not hurt by what they did though. That does not mean you aren't hurt by the fact that they didn't care they hurt you.
When someone does something that hurts another, their relationship is damaged. That transgression will hurt the relationship and will continue to do so until it is confronted. When we sin against God, it upsets Him. He loves us still and forgives us, but it saddens Him that we don't care that we sinned against Him. That sin causes damage to our relationship with God and that damage will not go away on its own. The only way that damage is repaired is if we turn to God with a repentant heart and ask Him to forgive us. The desire in our hearts to make things right with the Lord and ask Him to forgive us will please Him. He can then take that sin and brush it aside as if it never happened. Though He had already forgiven us for it, He still needed us to ask forgiveness to brush the pain aside and repair the relationship.
Another thing one needs to understand is that sin compiles. I see them as great boulders. We sin once and it lays there between us and God like a boulder. When we sin again, it also sits as a boulder next to the other boulder. Every sin we commit will continue to add to that pile, slowly building up a great wall between us and God. The larger that wall gets, the less we can hear God. The less God will hear our prayers until He stops showing any sign of being there for us. It cuts us off from the Lord and that allows us to fall deeper into sin.
When we turn back to the Lord and ask Him to forgive us with a truly repentant heart, God will swipe that entire wall aside and clear the slate so that our relationship can begin to grow again.
We do not ask God to forgive us for our sins because we do not want to go to hell. So long as we believe, we are His children. We have no fear of Him sending us to hell. We ask God to forgive us because we love Him and want to grow closer to Him.
