For the Christians who believe they are "saved", what is the importance of the forgiveness of sins?

[catholic1seeks]

Obviously, it wouldn’t matter if someone sinned after one is assured of salvation (“saved”), so why do these Bible-only Christians and other non-Catholics still pray for God to forgive their sins… or do they?

 

[brkn1]

Obviously, it wouldn’t matter if someone sinned after one is assured of salvation (“saved”), so why do these Bible-only Christians and other non-Catholics still pray for God to forgive their sins… or do they?

I already have more than I can handle in the OSAS thread, but I will give you a quick answer, using some verses out of (John 15).

A saved person wants to abide in Christ, so that he will have more joy in the Lord and thereby have
the FULL joy, which can come from already being eternally saved in Christ, on earth and later in Heaven.

We all sin, even after we are eternally saved. Those sins are never biblically stated to “unsave” a person, although they can and do cause a saved person to no longer “abide” in Christ, until the Father purgeth them, as a Gardener cleans His plants to make them bear more fruits of the Spirit, which are the works wrought by God, not us, as some suppose incorrectly.

“Abiding in Christ” only happens after we are first eternally “saved in Christ”. Many people confuse those terms as being identical, which they are not.

An eternally saved person will naturally want to always abide in Christ. So when he/she does sin, that person can use the Advocacy he/she has in Christ through the Holy Spirit to boldly go before the Father to confess and receive forgiveness for those sins, which is the result of the Father’s acceptance of the once-for-all sacrifice for all of our sins that Jesus did for His own on the cross.
That work through the Spirit, in Christ, towards the Father that we do to receive forgiveness for our sins is not a work that has to do with saving us, but rather keeping us abiding in Christ.

The work of eternal salvation is strictly the “Work of God”.

 

[Curious_One]

The Apostle John tells us (i.e. the saved Christian), that if we say we are without sin, we call God a liar, but if we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and true and will forgive our sins. If we do sin then Jesus will be our advocate and so that through our repentance and His intervention we will be forgiven - Also check out Romans 7 -

 

[someotherguy]

Obviously, it wouldn’t matter if someone sinned after one is assured of salvation (“saved”)

That’s news to those of us who know the scriptures. The Bible, specifically, the book of 1 John, explains that the person who continues on in their sin is not saved to begin with.

so why do these Christians and other non-Catholics still pray for God to forgive their sins… or do they?

Because God is the only one who can forgive our sins.

If you’re born again, then you’re saved and nothing and no one can take that away from you. You’ve been crucified with Christ and have received an entirely new nature.

However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot still sin and that sin no longer offends God.

I explain it to my children and to those new Christians I disciple as unrepentant sin being like a brick.

Let those bricks stack up long enough and you’ve built a wall between yourself and God. You may still be saved, but now, you cannot hear God and you cannot know God’s will, nor can you know the comfort and assurance of God.

In other words, while the born again believer’s union with God can never be broken, his communion can.

It takes repentance on our part and forgiveness on God’s to knock that wall down again.