The law can’t condemn us because we have been released from the law through our crucifixion with Christ. We died to it. We died to the law’s demand that we do the best we can by our self-sufficient performance to find acceptance before God and to posture ourselves to experience His favor. Living under the law is the belief that God requires something of us, but being set free from the law and now under the reign of grace, God does the performing and not us. Instead of our best for Him, grace means His best on our behalf. I can always tell that a Christian is still living under the yoke and slavery of the law by how much guilt and condemnation they deal with. Scriptures tell us that Satan is the accuser of the brethren – not the condemner. We become the condemner’s when we come into agreement with the accuser, and the accusations are always about how our performance for God was not good enough. When we fail, grace is there to remind us of the foolishness of trying to do anything apart from utterly depending on Jesus. Grace bends us towards Christ, who continually offers His divine activity on our behalf as a free gift. The law always bends us toward ourselves and our own performance, which always leaves us with some level of self-rejection and condemnation. Living under the law will eventually bring you to a place of hopelessness because you will discover that you will never get it perfect enough. When that happens, Christians learn to fake it. They wear veils, which hide other people from seeing how defeated and destitute they are on the inside, though they are trying to do all the right things on the outside. Grace enables us supernaturally and freely to manifest the righteousness of Christ, and when those times happen that we do stumble, grace is there to keep us bent towards Jesus so that freely forgiven, we can get up and take the next step trusting in Christ alone.
The law demands that we try hard. Grace invites us to trust Him.