In chapter 2 of Holiness By Grace,author Bryan Chapell explains how the bible teaches that we are united with Christ, we have died to sin and law and He lives in us. Our identity is no longer based upon our good deeds nor our sinful ones, our works of devoltion  nor our shameful actions; rather our identity is found in Christ and all that is His is ours.

Whether I believed that my efforts were working to my merit or to my demerit is irrelevant. All of what characterized me on the basis of my doing and my being is dead. The implications are astounding and not a little alarming. If all of my doing and being count as nothing, then i am as good as dead. And that’s just the point!

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The dead status of our failings enable us to acknowledge wrong without fearing that we will destroy God’s love for us by doing so.

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The life of Christ exists where my identity established by my efforts has been extinguished…It means that God relates to me with the love and status with which he relates to his own Son.

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How does faith in my union with Christ promote godliness? The answer is that our union with Christ allows us to have two confidences that are empowering mechanisms for godliness in the Christian life: 1) confidence that our status does not change and, 2) confidence that our ability does change.