Well, welcome back to the podcast on this Monday morning.

If you are with us on Friday, we looked at the sin that remains in us as believers.

And it raises another question, one about confession for sin.

That is, if God has forgiven all of our trespasses and if all of our sins were canceled at the

cross, why do we need to continue to repent?

It's a question inspired by the glorious truth of Christ finished work in Colossians 2

versus 13 to 14. And the question comes to us from a listener named Judy, who lives in

Rockford, Illinois. Dear Pastor John, I'm struggling with a question regarding God's word and

once your input, once we have repented and turned to the Lord for salvation,

is it necessary to repent every time we sin afterwards? I've always believed that,

but recently someone told me that after our initial repentance at the time of salvation,

ongoing repentance is no longer necessary. At first, I was flummoxed,

but then there are so many verses to say he has forgiven our sins past, present, and future,

Colossians 2, 13 to 14, for example. Christ has forgiven all of our sins, canceled all of our

debts and has nailed it all to the cross finally and fully. So am I doubting this work if I go on

repenting for my sin? I'm a former Roman Catholic and this ongoing confession of sin reminds me

of their way of keeping Jesus on the cross through false traditions. Can you help me think through

this? Maybe the most important thing that I could do to help Judy is to point her and the rest of us

to the all-important distinction between redemption as something that is already accomplished

and finished once for all, never to be repeated or edited to, and redemption that is applied to us

when we're saved, when we're converted, and then in an ongoing way, now and forever.

And in making that distinction, we will see that forgiveness of sins, which is what she asked

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