The thing that I have come to believe about all this–which is really the heart of the New Covenant we are in…is that we are not forgiven sinners now. We are new creatures in Christ. That old man has been crucified with Him and has been buried with Him…that is where my old man is….and yours….dead and buried.
When I came to Jesus I received a brand new life–the very life of Christ Himself as my own life. Gal 2:20, Col 3:3,4, 1Cor6:17. That is the new “I” that I am now….It is not the old I forgiven….and now required to try hard to please God everyday and to repent everyday….That old I…is dead…and God is not interested in it doing anything for Him.
Trying to live that way…seeing yourself as the old I..but now forgiven….instead of seeing yourself as CHRIST in you…as you…before the Father..is setting aside the grace of God and trying to establish your own righteousness based upon your own efforts.
This whole thing is discovered by us by going through the torment of our own Romans 7 experience just like Paul did. He discovered to his horror that the more he tried to not covet…the more he coveted all manner of things…he could not stop sinning–and this is as a born again spirit filled believer!! Eventually he cried out in exasperation to God for deliverance….it was then that he got it...I HAVE BEEN DELIVERED ALREADY!!!through Jesus Christ our Lord. He saw that he died and was now a new person–Christ and Paul as one spirit—so that God now fulfills in me/you /Paul all that He wants done.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
God has done it!! He has condemned sin in your flesh ALREADY….You have Christ Jesus as your very heart now…you do not have a deceitful heart —Jeremiah 17 was pre cross. Your heart is pure….your heart is true and clean and washed and new…you are free to think of your heart as dirty and rebellious if you want to….and that is what such a seeing will produce.
But eventually you will tire of trying to please God by your own righteousness and come through to Romans 8 and the rest of the Spirit.
Paul goes on to tell us that we are not in the flesh but in the spirit–Ro 8:9 That is where we live permanently…God placed us there in Jesus. How to walk in the Spirit?
Only by faith….calling those things that be not as if they are.
Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:10
Daily putting on the Lord Jesus Christ BY FAITH….we believe therefore we speak…..speak what?
I am crucified with Christ….
I no longer live
Christ lives in me
The life I now live…which is Christ living…
I live by the faith of Jesus who lives in me and as me….
Jesus gave Himself for me….he exchanged Himself for me….
I do not set aside the grace of God……for if righteousness comes through self effort
if righteousness comes through confession of sin….then Christ died in vain!!
Righteousness comes through receiving the indwelling Jesus Christ as your only righteousness.
Rom 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 
