“When we trust that Christ’s work, rather than our own achievements, is the basis of our righteousness, then God mercifully grants us the riches of His love that only Jesus deserves.  God looks at us as though we were as holy as His own Son, and treats us as lovingly despite our many imperfections.  Most Christians cherish the beauty of the truth that God viewed us through the lens of Jesus’ goodness when we claimed Him as our Savior.  We trusted that Christ’s death paid the penalty for our sins, and that we were made right with God – justified – not by our own holiness but by trusting in the holiness He provided.  Just as objects look red when viewed through a red lens and green when viewed through a green lens, we believed that when God looked at us through Jesus He viewed us as His own child….What robs many believers of this joy, however, is a misunderstanding of how God continues to view us after we have received the grace that justifies us.  After initially trusting in Christ to make them right with God, many Christians embark on an endless pursuit of trying to satisfy God with good works that will keep Him loving them.  This belief, whether articulated or buried deep in a psyche developed by the way we were treated by parents, spouses, or others, makes the Christian life a perpetual race on a performance treadmill to keep winning God’s affection….While the Christian life can be characterized as a race, we persevere on the course God marks out for us not by straining to gain His affection but by the assurance that He never stops viewing us from the perspective of His grace…..Grace (is) not only the means by which God once justified us, it is also the means by which we are continually encouraged and enabled to serve Him with undiminished delight.”  Bryan Chapell