Forgiven Once for All
Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins for all time.
“By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Hebrews 10:10
There are certain things you only need once. You don’t need to keep being born, you don’t need to keep graduating from high school, you don’t need to keep paying your mortgage once your house has been paid off, and you don’t need Jesus to die again for your sins.
Once was enough.
You have been forgiven once for all because Jesus died once for all.
Yet somehow, we’ve managed to turn what He has done into something that feels less permanent than a gym membership signed on January 1st. We think because we’ve sinned again, Jesus has to forgive us again. But that will never happen because more forgiveness would require Jesus to shed more blood.
The author of Hebrews points out this fact in Hebrews 9:22:
“…and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”
When you sin, Jesus is not climbing back up on a Cross in heaven to shed more blood to forgive you again. Once was enough.
It is finished.
If this weren’t the case, He would have to offer up His blood repeatedly from the time God formed this planet. Just look at Hebrews 9:26:
“Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
ONCE. WAS. ENOUGH.
You don’t need to be forgiven again after you access your complete forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus.
If you have the mentality of, I sinned again, so I need to be forgiven again, you’re basically saying, I sinned again, so Jesus needs to shed His blood again.
Not gonna happen. The death He died, He died once. The life He lives, He lives forever (see Romans 6:10, Revelation 1:18).
But because Jesus is not that important to the box church—He’s an afterthought—all of this permanent forgiveness that came by way of His blood? It’s strange to many Christians.
And when I say box church, I’m referring to the dime-a-dozen institutional facilities that are steeped in the tradition of men and overlook everything Christ accomplished, as well as who you are as a new creation.
The box church.
Just like you have box stores—Walmart, Lowe’s, Target, and so on and so forth—everywhere you go, they’re basically the same, and you know what you’ll get. Well, for the most part, everywhere you go, you know what you’ll get when it comes to the box church too.
Not much about Jesus. He’s a footnote to the six-part series on how to get more stuff or how to behave better—taught, of course, by one man.
There’s much more to say about this non-biblical system, and I will. But for now, just understand that the box church has largely ignored the finality of the Cross. Yet it is where most Christians go to learn more about God. Instead of proclaiming the permanent forgiveness that came by way of Christ’s blood, the box keeps Christians coming back week after week trying to receive what He’s already given them once.
JESUS ISN’T MAKING PAYMENTS ON YOUR SINS
Under the Old Covenant, animal sacrifices were offered again and again because those sacrifices could never permanently take away sins. Hebrews explains:
“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:11)
Notice the words.
Day after day.
Other translations say daily or every day.
Repeatedly. Oftentimes. Again and again.
Same sacrifices.
Never take away sins.
That’s a terrible payment plan, wouldn’t you say?
Imagine thinking you’re paying off your credit card every month but somehow still owing the entire balance. And imagine it going on forever.
That’s essentially what was happening with animal sacrifices on the altar at the temple. There were annual sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins and daily sacrifices in order to draw near to God. The repetition itself should have proved to them that the problem would never be permanently solved (see Leviticus 16, Exodus 29, Hebrews 9 and 10).
Then, Jesus showed up.
Hebrews immediately contrasts those Levitical priests, who were constantly shedding blood, with Christ:
“But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)
One sacrifice for sins for all time, and then Jesus sat down.
He wasn’t coming back tomorrow or next year as the Lamb to shed His blood again in order to continue that sacrificial system.
The work was finished, so He sat down. The priests at the temple were never allowed to sit down because the work was never finished.
Those sacrifices were like putting the lawbreaker’s debt on a credit card, temporarily moving it without ever permanently paying off the balance. But Jesus came along, paid the entire balance, and cut up the card.
The debt is completely gone, paid by Jesus Himself—including the debt of every future sin. No more payments need to be made.
BUT DID YOU CONFESS ALL THOSE SINS?
This is where a lot of Christians get nervous. “Okay, sure, Jesus died once to forgive me. I understand that I can only be forgiven by His blood and it will never be shed again. But don’t I still have to confess each individual sin to get it forgiven?”
If that were true, we have some problems. First of all, this would negate what Jesus did on the Cross. This mentality would mean His blood did not completely forgive you, and it was only part of the equation. The rest is up to your repeated words (see Hebrews 10:10,12,14,18).
So not only is the blood of Jesus insufficient, but what if you can no longer speak? What if your tongue gets cut out? What if you lose the ability to use your voice box? What if you can’t use your hands to write out a sin you’re trying to confess? Maybe you’re paralyzed?
Not only that, if verbalizing every single sin is what was required to continually forgive you, that would mean when you confess, Jesus would yet again have to hoist Himself back on a Cross in heaven and shed more blood each time you confess (see Hebrews 9:22,26, Hebrews 10:12).
Not only that, what about the sins you forget to confess? How are you keeping track? What about the sins you incorrectly justify as not sin, but actually are? What about the sins you ignore and fade into the rearview mirror of your life, never to be spoken about again?
God wouldn’t forget just because you purposefully forget, and just one sin would cause you to be eternally separated from Him.
Do you see how there is no blessed assurance with such a theology? Do you see how this makes no big deal out of what Jesus has done with His blood?
And why not just go ahead and do a blanket confession for all the sins of your entire life?
The truth of the matter is you do not have to keep short accounts with God because the account has been paid in full once and for all time (see Colossians 2:13–14, Hebrews 10:14,17–18).
I don’t want to be misunderstood. Confessing sins can be a very healthy thing. Confess your struggles to a trusted loved one or friend. Get it off your chest, ask for prayer and wise counsel. That’s a good thing (see Galatians 6:2). But verbalizing sins is not causing you to be forgiven again.
Of course, when we understand this, we have to deal with 1 John 1:9.
In regard to 1 John chapter 1, this is not about repeated confession for repeated forgiveness. Keep in mind, John was a Jew who had lived under the Old Covenant system of annual forgiveness by way of animal blood (see Leviticus 16:30, 34, Hebrews 10:1–4).
Do you think John would go from annual forgiveness to confession by confession by confession?
Absolutely not. He fully understood what happened through the blood of Jesus.
The context of 1 John 1:9 is found in the full chapter. This is about sin-deniers—people who claimed they had no sin and had never sinned. Therefore, they believed they didn’t need to be forgiven (see 1 John 1:8,10).
Contextually, they needed to admit the opposite: they had sinned and needed to trust Jesus. God would then forgive them and cleanse them of all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:9). Once they did, they would be able to join John and the other believers in fellowship (see 1 John 1:3).
BUT JOHN SAYS “WE” IN 1 JOHN 1:9?
Picture this: You have a small child and he decides to get a cookie out of the cookie jar at 4:45pm. However, you’ve got dinner on the stove and plan on feeding your family at 5:30.
You catch him in the act, stoop down low, get eye to eye with him, smile, and say in a sweet voice, “We don’t eat cookies before dinner, do we?” He shakes his head and hands the cookie back.
“Thank you. We will eat a couple of cookies after dinner. Okay?”
He nods, grins, and then takes off to go play in the living room.
Now, did you get the cookie out of the cookie jar? No. Your little munchkin did. So why did you say “we?”
Because you were trying to be kind. We is a soft way of saying you.
John was often called the apostle of love. He also repeatedly called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” so apparently he understood love pretty well (see John 13:23, 19:26, 21:7,20).
When we understand John’s usage of the word we—see what I did there?—we can understand that he’s softly pointing a finger.
Did John personally walk in darkness while claiming to have fellowship with Jesus? No. Yet he wrote, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie” (1 John 1:6).
Did John still need to admit for the first time that he had sinned and needed Jesus? No. He had already trusted Him. John’s sins had already been forgiven (see 1 John 2:12).
John’s use of we doesn’t mean he was personally guilty of every false claim he confronted. Instead, he was graciously placing himself inside a series of conditional statements while exposing what unbelievers were claiming. Therefore, this was an invitation to those who denied that Jesus had come in the flesh, claimed they had no sin, and insisted they had never sinned (see 1 John 1:8,10, 4:2–3).
If someone rejects those truths, then they’re rejecting the very truths through which they must be saved.
John was gently pointing that out by saying we.
He didn’t need to repeatedly confess his sins in order to repeatedly receive forgiveness. He had already believed in Jesus. Therefore, he had already been forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:9, 2:12).
All means all.
FORGIVEN PEOPLE DON’T NEED MORE FORGIVENESS
Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
Notice the tense? We have. We have redemption. We have forgiveness. These aren’t things we’re waiting to receive. And do you see how we have them? His blood. His grace.
Paul repeats this to a different group, the Colossians:
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins” (Colossians 2:13).
How many sins? All.
Paul didn’t say God forgave all the sins you remembered, confessed, or committed before salvation. He said all (see Colossians 2:13–14).
John used the same completed language:
“I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of His name.” (1 John 2:12)
Not might be forgiven. Not are being forgiven one by one. Your sins have been forgiven.
Forgiveness isn’t something you need more of every day because that would mean Jesus would need to shed more blood every day. Not gonna happen (see Hebrews 9:22,26, Hebrews 10:10,12,18).
Look at it this way. Let’s say you have the winning lottery ticket for $500 million. You hand in the ticket, they give you the money, and off you go. Life will never be the same financially. You’re rich as rich can be!
However, you go back to the same place the next day and say, “I’m here to collect my 500 million dollars.”
They’d look at you like you need to be committed. “Ummmm…you already have all the money.”
Then you do the same thing the next day. “I’m here to get my cash.”
Then the next. Then the next. Then the next.
Now, God won’t look at you sideways if you keep asking for more forgiveness after you’ve already trusted in Jesus. But through His Spirit, He will remind you that you already have it (see John 14:26, 1 Corinthians 13:5).
This is why Paul told the Ephesians they have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (see Ephesians 1:3).
Forgiveness isn’t something you’re trying to get from God every day.
It’s something you already have because you’re in Him.
WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW’S SINS?
If you’ve seen Back to the Future Part I, Part II, or Part III, there’s always a moment in each film when the future changes because something in the past changed. Well, this is what happens the instant you trust in Jesus. Your future is changed.
If your future is changed, then that means you accessed something from the past that you did not have before—namely, complete forgiveness through faith in Jesus (see Acts 10:43, 13:38–39).
How many of your sins were in the future when you accessed the forgiveness Jesus provided on the Cross? All of them—even your future sins. Jesus offered “one sacrifice for sins for all time,” and by that one offering He perfected us forever (see Hebrews 10:10,12,14,17–18).
If this were not the case, then you would be forgiven only up until the moment you first believed. After that, you’d be without hope, just as Marty McFly would have been if playing “Earth Angel” hadn’t worked. His parents wouldn’t have fallen in love, he wouldn’t have been born, and you would still be in your sins.
Yet at the Enchantment Under the Sea, that song worked. His parents kissed at the dance, and his future was secured.
The blood of Jesus worked. He died so even your future sins could be forgiven. Therefore, your future was secured.
The reality is, none of your future sins will ever surprise God. He already knew every sin you would commit when Jesus offered Himself once for all of them. God is not bound by time, space, or matter. If He were, then He wouldn’t be God. This is why Christ’s bloody sacrifice was sufficient for every sin you’d ever commit across the entire timeline of your life (see Isaiah 46:9–10, Hebrews 9:26,28).
Peter expressed God’s perspective on time by saying with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day (see 2 Peter 3:8–9). Not only that, if you think about it, where do we get our measurements of time from? The earth’s rotation gives us days and nights, while its movement around the sun marks our seasons and years.
Who created the earth, the other planets, and the sun? God (see Genesis 1:1,14–16, Colossians 1:16).
Therefore, He “holds the remote to the DVR,” so to speak.
If you record a ball game and then sit down the next day to watch it on your DVR, are you changing the athletes’ choices when you pause, rewind, or fast-forward? No. You’re simply viewing the game from outside the time they originally played it. You can move backward or forward within that recorded timeline without changing what the athletes chose to do, right?
Now apply that to your Creator and your brief human lifespan. Even if you live to 100, that’s not very long to God. He holds the remote to the heavenly DVR, so to speak. He knows you’ll sin and when you’ll sin, yet He has chosen to remember those sins no more, all because of what Jesus did 2,000 years ago—which isn’t that long ago to Him.
The Eternal One has no beginning and no end (see Psalm 90:2, Revelation 1:8). Billions of tomorrows are still drops in the bucket of eternity.
Your future sins are completely forgiven. You can thank Jesus.
This devotional is from an upcoming book! Check out Matt’s other bestselling books here!