The blood of Christ was shed not merely for us to see, but primarily for God the Father to see. When Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He presented His blood before the Father as an eternal, once-for-all atonement for our sins—past, present, and future. This perfect sacrifice can purify our conscience from "dead works"— futile attempts to earn God's favour through our own efforts. This is ours when we come to God receiving a full acceptance on the basis of this atonement due to Christ’s shed blood. Because Christ's atonement is complete, we need only to be reconciled to God by receiving this once and for all forgiveness of sins. Thereafter if we sin, we need only to confess to God those new sins and rest in the assurance that we are cleansed from them by the faithfulness of God to honour the full effectiveness of that finished atonement.