What Is Meant By Righteous-Consciousness and Sin-Consciousness?

Within the current grace movement, we read and hear about righteous-consciousness and sin-consciousness.

What is meant by righteous-consciousness and sin-consciousness?

The best way to explain it is through the lens of my own life experience.

In college, I became involved with a Christian ministry that stressed that a believer in Jesus is out of fellowship with God if they have unconfessed sins.

And since I did not want to be out of fellowship with God, I constantly was focused on whether I had any unconfessed sins.

Being out of fellowship is defined in many ways by many different churches and Christian organizations.

Here are a few of the ways it is defined:

• Sin distances a believer from God

• Sin divides a believer from God

• Sin disrupts communication with God

• Sin blocks access to God

To resolve the problems that sin creates between a believer and God, those who promote that unconfessed sins cause a believer to be out of fellowship with God tell believers to consistently confess their sins to God so fellowship can be restored.

As you can see, this causes a believer to live in fear of being out of fellowship with God and to live focused on confessing sins so fellowship can be restored.

This is what is meant by sin-consciousness.

Sin-consciousness is a pre-occupation with confession of sins for the purpose of restoring fellowship with God.

Ironically, when believers are consistently focused on confession of sins to restore fellowship with God, they can’t enjoy fellowship with God because they are constantly wondering if they have missed any sins needing to be confessed.

In addition to sin-consciousness being about restoring fellowship with God, it is also about receiving forgiveness from God.

Those who promote the belief that unconfessed sins result in unforgiven sins keep believers living in guilt.

In this case, sin-consciousness is pre-occupation with confession of sins for the purpose of staying forgiven by God.

Living with a sin-consciousness to stay in fellowship with God and to stay forgiven by God is a miserable way for a believer to live.

How do I know this?

I know this because this is how I lived for 6 years in the Christian organization I was involved in.

Additionally, I taught this because after college I joined staff with this organization.

But eventually I broke free from this sin-conscious life.

How did I break free?

I broke free by becoming righteous-conscious.

In 1990, I first heard the term righteous-consciousness in a book by David Needham, Birthright: Christian, Do You Know Who You Are.

Righteous-consciousness is living with the continual awareness that we are righteous before God because Jesus took our sinfulness at the cross and, through faith in him, we receive the righteousness of Jesus.

This is the gospel of grace that Paul writes about in Romans.

It’s not that Jesus’ righteousness covers our unrighteousness, but that we are declared by God as righteous…guilt free!

Jesus took our unrighteousness at the cross.

He gives us his righteousness as a gift, which we receive by faith.

Through faith in Jesus, we are declared by God innocent of all charges of sins because our sins were charged to Jesus’ account.

Living with a righteous-consciousness is the continual awareness of our righteous standing before God because of Jesus.

Around the same time I was reading Birthright, I was also reading a book by Bob George, Classic Christianity, that explained how pre-occupation with ourselves makes us miserable and that trying to stay in fellowship with God and forgiven by God makes us tired.

That is true!

This was my experience.

Once I learned that I was always in fellowship with God because of the presence of Jesus in me and that I was always forgiven by God because of the payment of my sins by Jesus for me, joy came into my heart.

For the first time in 6 years, I could enjoy my relationship with God because now I was Jesus-conscious.

What is Jesus-consciousness?

Jesus-consciousness is living aware that Jesus paid my sin debt (forgiveness) and that Jesus’ presence indwells me (fellowship).

It is living aware that Jesus took my guilt at the cross and gave me his righteousness as a gift.

Those who live with a righteousness-consciousness rather than a sin-consciousness doesn’t mean they ignore or excuse sin in their lives.

Because they are righteous-conscious, they can be honest with God and others about it and seek help if they need it.

Also, they know sin does not reflect their righteous identity.

Therefore, they can make different decisions that reflect who they are in Christ and who Christ is in them.

This is what Paul writes about in Ephesians 4 and 5.

I know this article will leave some with questions…good questions…questions that need to be answered.

For possible answers to your questions, check out my other blogs, as well as my podcast, and videos (see the links on the Home Page).

I have numerous articles, podcasts, and teachings on forgiveness and fellowship, as well as the new testament of grace.

These may answer your questions.

Let me finish this article by saying that the reason I no longer hold the belief that believers can be out of fellowship with God or need to seek forgiveness from God has nothing to do with the books I read.

The books simply introduced me to these truths.

However, before I embraced what I learned in these books as truth, I studied the topics of fellowship and forgiveness in the Bible and came to my own conclusion that fellowship with God is continual and forgiveness from God is complete.

This is the new testament/covenant of grace.

I encourage anyone reading this post to do the same.

Don’t embrace these teachings because I teach them.

Check them out with the Bible and arrive at your own conclusions.