I don't think we can talk too much about God's forgiveness, Christ's advocacy, or our own need of Him.
We all sin. " for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We are guilty of sin ("all have sinned") and we all continue to fail ("all... fall short"). There is no one who does not continue to sin.
Our response to this fact is telling. We might respond by leaning into it, perhaps even celebrating it. "We all sin" we might say dismissively, while our passions rule us and drive us deeper and deeper into it.
We might respond with a less enthusiastic – but equally useless – resignation. "We all sin" we might say, shrugging with a defeated sigh.
But Scripture lays out something different. The first response to our sin is on Christ's part. "If anyone sins" – not, "if anyone repents" – "we have an advocate with the Father" (1 John 2:2). It's important for us to recognize that Christ doesn't wait for us to repent, to confess, or to pray. No, whenever we sin, He is our advocate with the Father. Long before we feel any sense of remorse, He is already working on our behalf with the Father in heaven.
Our response to sin is laid out in 1 John 1:9, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." It's remarkable that it is Divine justice that is linked to our forgiveness. God's justice demands He forgive us when we confess, because Christ has already paid for our sins. What an amazing thought, that the same justice that we would expect to drive God to wrath to punish us for our sins actually drives Him to forgive us, because Christ has died for us (cf. Romans 3:24–26).
There's a tendency for us to think that we earn God's forgiveness by our confession, which shows just how fallen we are. There is no merit in confession, it's simply an acknowledgment. It's saying what God already knows: we have sinned.
The language of 1 John 1:9 has a sacramental sense. It's for our benefit: we can point to confession and say, "I know God has forgiven, because I have confessed, and He promises to forgiven when I confess." The fact is that we have forgiveness of sins as a present blessing (Colossians 1:14). God doesn't wait for us to confess before He forgives. But we need that assurance of forgiveness. We need to know that He has forgiven, and so we have this answer: "if you have confessed, then I have forgiven." And we can point to that confession as a sort of a receipt of forgiveness.
Of course we still have a tendency to hang on to guilt, and we really insult God in doing so. We act like God's forgiveness is all well and good, but we need something more. It's an unimaginably arrogant thing for us to think that God might have forgiven me, but my standards are higher than His. It's a wicked thing to think.
And of course we might need to make amends to some other person. If we have sinned against our brother or sister as well as against the Lord, we might need to ask their forgiveness as well. But the fact remains that God is the most injured party regardless of whom else we have hurt.
We recognize, too, that our confession of sins is really a tangible result of Christ's advocacy for us, and the Holy Spirit's work in us. It's not our idea to confess our sins to God, but His. When we confess our sins and have that receipt of forgiveness, we come to understand that it's because Christ had already been advocating for us – even while we were still sinning – that we were brought to our knees to confess.
It's worth bearing this in mind. It's worth contemplating this. "Whoso is wise, let him observe these things, and let them understand the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah" (Psalm 107:43).
