Cease Striving and Enjoy!

Dear Fellow Travelers,
Yes, I know it is Saturday afternoon and many of your are watching a football game; however, I do want to get one more “Hebrew’s clarification of strange doctrines” in before the day is done. This is the strange doctrine: Confessing, repenting, and asking God for forgiveness are essentials for the believer’s continued sanctification [Please note that I said this is a strange doctrine, as in erroneous, false doctrine].
You see, this is another of those man-centered doctrines that places the onus for the believer’s continued sanctification directly upon the believer, rather than where it belongs—upon God. Yes, they do have a place but that is for another perspective, and, just for the record, their place is probably not what you think.
Anyway, if confessing, repenting, and seeking forgiveness are our means to continued sanctification (righteousness), then we really do not need Jesus, unless, of course, we take the position that righteousness is the result of both of us making our respective contributions, which is the epitome of heresy. The fact is this: we have nothing to contribute, absolutely nothing, that could even hint at assisting in our being justified, or in our continued righteousness. I find it incredible that most (well, many) believers readily confess that justification is accomplished by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone, but few act as if that were true, regarding either their justification or their sanctification. The mentality is typically this: I must do my part, so God can (will) do His part. Talk about self-righteousness! Whatever happened to grace?
This is what the author of Hebrews has to say: “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all . . . For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them,’ He then says, ‘And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin” (vss. 10, 14-18).
The fact is this: Jesus did far more for us than most of us have been willing to accept, and, consequently, we live far-short of the abundant life He died to provide for us. Guilt rules and reigns, and in an effort to rid ourselves of it, we confess, repent, and seek forgiveness from the God, who has already not only forgiven us, but also raised us up with Him and seated us in Christ at His right hand in the heavenly places.
Why not stop striving to become what you already are—as righteous as Jesus is righteous—and begin to enjoy the more abundant life that He died to provide for you?