Will God forgive me for things I did not ask forgiveness for?

God has done everything necessary to give you complete forgiveness for everything you have ever done wrong and everything you will ever do wrong. Once you truly ask, His forgiveness is for everything you have ever done and everything you will ever do. It is complete. 

Books cannot contain all the sins marked against me nor the inadequacy of my confessions nor the completeness of my forgiveness.

 

We confess that we are sinners, not just that we have sinned.

When we confess to God, we must confess that we are sinners. We may want to specifically confess a particular sin that he has put on our heart, but the truth is that we have sinned more than we realize. For example, you may ask for forgiveness for looking at pornography… again. But that sin which sticks out so much in your conscious, may have hidden the fact that you did not pray for your friend like you said you would, opened the Bible for your morning devotion as you committed you would do every day two weeks ago, ignored God’s prompting to talk to the stranger that looked confused? That’s just a made-up example but consider that there is much more going on than the sin that you have on your mind. You must confess that you are a sinner who has fallen short of His glory, and you need forgiveness and restoration.

Consider Isaiah when King Uzziah died. Isaiah was called up into the throne room of God Himself. He saw the great cherubim making up the thrown and the awe-inspiring seraphim proclaiming and protecting the holiness of God. This holy prophet feared for his life. “And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:4-5). The closer we get to God, the more we realize that we are full of sin even in our best days. It is not just a sin that we must confess but our sinfulness.

When David confessed his sin that he had been holding out on as described in Psalm 32, he did not just confess to the specific sin of adultery and murder. “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalms 32:5). There was so much iniquity that piled onto those sins making it possible for a righteous king like David to get to the point where he would do such a thing.

There is no way to account for every time that we did not do what God was leading us to. You can for a short time (keep your confessions frequent), but not from the beginning. You have to trust God to forgive you for sins that you cannot remember and that you did not realize were so egregious.

The criminal on the cross next to Jesus did not confess why he was a criminal, just that he knew he needed forgiveness. He did not confess anything but that he needed forgiveness. After declaring that he was rightly put on the cross and Jesus was not, he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus offered him complete forgiveness while both hung on their crosses. He believed in Jesus. His confession showed that he believed that Jesus was able to save him even though Jesus was dying on the cross next to him. And Jesus completely forgave him.

 

We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.

We are not basically good people who happen to sin. The Bible describes that we have a sin nature and that we are born with the propensity to sin. This is evident if you watch very young children who are already doing things like deceiving others, taking things they know are not theirs and things like that.

We are basically bad people who work hard not to sin, but really need a new nature. Our parents and those around us try to teach us to understand and do what is right. If we are not trained to make right decisions, we will show that we are naturally self-absorbed, narcissistic, and evil. Any parent will tell you that you do not have to teach your children to steal toys or to keep the things they like from other kids. They already have those ideas.

People tend to look at other people and think, they must be righteous because they look like they are. But the human experience is one of fighting a sin nature. The most righteous looking people that you look to have either matured well or are only covering for sin that you cannot see. We are wired to rebel against the God who loves us and offers us life. Our first thoughts are almost always selfish. Each of us has a stronghold reserved for the evil one to come and tempt us.

It is our nature to sin. It is who we are. This is the flesh which is being replaced. God does not just offer forgiveness of specific sins. He offers us complete forgiveness and a new nature that is not a sin nature. Living in that new nature is the discipline of every Christian.

An honest look at your life will reveal more sin every time you look at it.

The closer to God that you get, the more sin and sinfulness you will see in your life. It’s like getting closer to the light. The closer you are, the brighter it is and the more obvious how much hair you have on your clothes – or am I the only one who has a golden retriever?

Remember Moses was not even able to look on God’s face because of the glory of God. That is what we have fallen from with every sin. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Think about the glory of God as evidenced in the most beautiful sunset that you have ever seen. That’s where we started. Each sin carries us farther away.

The more we realize the wonder of the glory of God and our starting place in it, the more we realize how sinful we are and what we have done to that glory. It is easy enough not to see that in the dark and when we do not look, but the closer that we get to God, the more light that is shown on our lives.

 

God forgives all our sin through the blood of Jesus Christ spilled once on the cross.

His death is sufficient for all of our sin, and he does not need to do it again for the most recent sin. We are forgiven once with the price paid once. He forgave all our sin past and present. It is all forgiven immediately. Jesus paid that price and will not pay it every time you sin. His forgiveness is complete.

He will not die again because you went back to your favorite sin like a dog will return to his vomit. He does not have additional work to do each time you stray away from Him. That sin is paid for, and forgiveness is complete.

This is unusual and does not fit into the model of most (almost all) other religions. Most religions are able to keep people in line and doing what they want by offering the prize after successfully completing the work. Do your chores and you will be rewarded. In Christianity, Jesus offers you the reward with your commitment and fellowship with your follow up, but your forgiveness is complete.

He died once for all sin for all people. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Notice the word “world” and “whoever” showing that forgiveness is offered to all even if most will not accept. This includes those who died before He was born. Jesus’ death on the cross not only covered your sins before you confessed that you were a sinner, but they also covered the sins of those who believed before Jesus died. Abraham was not righteous enough to be in the presence of God. He believed and he was forgiven even though the price had not been paid at that time (see Hebrews 11).

Your inventory of sins will be ongoing and grow as you become more aware of your blind spots

It’s impossible to know every way that you have offended God. As you grow closer to God, you realize that some things that you do all the time are offensive and sinful. An easy example would be gossip. It might be that your parents and everyone that you know are prolific gossipers. It is the life that you have always lived and all that you have ever known. One day, God helps you to realize that this is a sin (1 Timothy 5:13, James 1:26, James 4:11, Romans 1:29, Ephesians 4:29, and so many more). It would take the rest of your days trying to remember every single time that you engaged in this one activity. Even now, you are likely lighting up your pride (James 4:6, Proverbs 16:5, Romans 12:16, etc.) that you are not THAT bad.

One of the purposes of the Law was to point out sin. You were sinning long before you knew you were. Romans teaches us that one of the reasons that the Law was provided was to “show us” that we were sinning. Paul tells us in Romans, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7). Before the Law was given, we were sinning, but we did not know it. How would you remember every time you had sinned when you often did not even know it was sinning?

Your environment often helps you to sin. When Isaiah says that he came from a sinful people, he is acknowledging that he can be like everyone he knows and still be deep in sin. Entire cities even entire countries were wiped out because of sinfulness. We are measured against God not our neighbor.

We come to God asking for his all-inclusive forgiveness understanding that we cannot identify every sin. Confess your sins to God and accept his full and complete forgiveness. When you sin again, quickly confess and accept His hand back into His fellowship.