"True Christians never really get over their sin; they live in healthy awareness of it."
How it sounds in your head: I've heard sermons about how we're all 'just sinners saved by grace' and we should never forget that. Isn't constant awareness of my sin the mark of genuine Christianity? Don't the most godly people remember they're wretched?
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
-- 2 Corinthians 5:17Twisted interpretation of 'chief of sinners' theology that keeps believers locked in old identity rather than new creation reality.
She's been taught that pride comes before a fall, and forgetting her sin nature sounds like dangerous pride. Constant awareness of her wretchedness feels like spiritual safety and appropriate humility before a holy God.
Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector who extorted his own people for years. After one dinner with Jesus, he's called 'a son of Abraham' with salvation come to his house—no instruction to spend years in 'healthy awareness' of his extortion career.
I REFUSE the lie that I must live in constant awareness of my old identity. IT IS WRITTEN that I am a new creation—old things passed away, all things became new. I am not a sinner saved by grace; I am the righteousness of God IN Christ Jesus. IT IS WRITTEN that there is no condemnation for those in Christ, not even self-condemnation. My identity is not defined by what I was but by WHO I AM in Him. Under the BARAK blessing, I am blessed coming in and going out, above only and not beneath. I am NEW. I am CLEAN. I am RIGHTEOUS.
The Father doesn't introduce you to angels as 'my forgiven sinner'—He introduces you as 'my righteous child.' He's not asking you to remember who you were; He's asking you to believe who you ARE, because He already forgot who you were.