In warfare, the difference between winning or losing often doesn’t depend on tactics or battle strategies, but on our attitude. This is true on the physical as well as the spiritual level. Our number one enemy isn’t the devil, but a defeated mind shaped by sin-consciousness and performance. Thankfully, the victory Jesus won through His death and resurrection is our victory as well; to win, we simply need to believe this.
The key to spiritual growth focuses on learning to live free from the mindset that keeps us bound. A religious mindset is one that revolves around busily doing all we can to please God, not knowing that He’s already pleased with us because of our faith in Christ. Waking up every day trying to earn God’s approval chokes out the grace that Jesus secured for us on the cross. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). This impacts every single moment of our lives.
The law was never given to make us holy, but to reveal sin and our need for a Savior. Focusing on our failures lets sin gain strength in our minds and produces condemnation. Condemnation drains our joy and weakens our confidence before God. “…For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins” (Romans 5:15, 16, NLT). God wants us to live freely and lightly, unencumbered by constant shame over past mistakes.
Paul’s encounter with Jesus completely shifted his mindset. Whereas before Paul had previously lived strictly by the law, the revelation of grace he received radically changed the way he thought. “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory” (2 Corinthians 3:7-9). Living by the law, which requires self-effort, always produces self-condemnation when we fail. It leaves us frustrated and exhausted because our own works can never produce righteousness.
Before Jesus, mankind was trapped in sin-consciousness brought about by the law. When He arrived, He perfectly fulfilled the law and then replaced it with grace through His death and resurrection. Believers have been delivered from sin-consciousness to righteousness-consciousness. “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:5-8). We now have the freedom to stop living as prisoners of guilt and start living as people empowered by God’s love.
