Asking God for forgiveness

Need or should a saint under the New Covenant ask God for forgiveness?

• Are the NT references to asking God for forgiveness, all in the gospels, to be understood as applying to saints prior to the New Covenant being implemented? Note the following verses (verses about forgiveness related to salvation are omitted since the question is about the redeemed person, the saint, needing to ask God for forgiveness, and verses about people forgiving other people are also omitted for the same reason):
  • Mt 6.12 “forgive us our (opheílēma) debts/obligations.” Parallel passage (pp): Lk 11.4.
  • Mt 6.14-5, “if you forgive others their (paráptōma) offenses/tresspasses against you your heavenly Father will also forgive you ... but if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions (paráptōma).” Pp: Mk 11.26.
    • Don’s note: unwillingness to forgive others may undermine the sincerity of confessing one’s sin to the Father as required in 1 Jn 1.9, thus denying the “confessor” the forgiveness promised)
  • Mt 18.35, “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you (hold accountable for sin and exact punishment per Mt 18.32-34), if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
  • Mk 11.25, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”
• One non-Gospel reference addresses God forgiving a saint after the saint’s salvation: Jas 5.15, “and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”
  • But note even here the saint is not requesting forgiveness, and Jas 5.14’s description of the elders praying over the sick person may be about their healing and the cause of their affliction, not necessarily about requesting forgiveness. The context suggests the elders pray about the affliction and the cause, and the healing is promised as well as forgiveness if necessary.
• Questions to consider:
  • If a saint is ever in a state of being “unforgiven” by God, is the saint still not under God’s condemnation as in Rm 8.1?
  • Does Col 2.13, “having forgiven us all our transgressions” mean all the saint’s sins, including future ones, are already forgiven? If so what is the significance of 1 Jn 1.9? A parallel passage is 1 Jn 2.12, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.”
• My current understanding:
  • A sense of needing God’s forgiveness is useful as it supports our awareness of both our inclination to sin (Rm 7) and our actual sins which, though actually forgiven already, can harden our hearts, e.g. sear our consciences, and affect our relationship with God in other deleterious ways.
  • Since no post-Gospel (e.g. New Covenant context) verse instructs the saint to ask God for forgiveness, and 1 Jn 1.9 promises forgiveness based on confession, the most Biblical practice is to confess sins and thank God for forgiving them. This would (IMO) include public/corporate prayer where the one praying on behalf of a group of saints would/could legitimately offer to God confessions of sins, but then would be thanking God for forgiving them (rather than requesting forgiveness).