Being conscious of our sins is not the way God wants us to live. By contrast, being aware of how God sees us in Christ—innocent and free—lets us focus on our righteousness. We are forgiven because Jesus has dealt with our sin. We are not what we do; bad behavior does not separate a person from God, but rather the sinful nature of a person before they get born again. Living under the law always creates guilt and self-condemnation for failing in our self-efforts to perform good enough to please God; by comparison, living under grace redefines our identity. It restores us to the fact that He originally created us as righteous, blameless, and holy. Believing that God decided to make us just like Him even before the beginning of time keeps us anchored in our true identity when the world bombards us with messages to the contrary.
