Whom or what is your focus? It makes a huge difference. Many Christians are overly concerned and focused on sin both their past and present sin, believing that the Christian life is one of proper performance before God. They have become consumed by their negative sinful thought life which has led to sinful behavior. They fear failing God by sins of commission or omission. Their primary motivation not to sin leads to a daily evaluation as to whether they have measured up to God’s standard of perfection.

Such a sin driven mentality becomes a miserable and vicious cycle of sin-avoidance, sin cover-up, sin confession, and an over-all consciousness of sin. The end result is guilt and shame.
Sin consciousness keeps us focused on ourselves, “Our” progress, “Our” spirituality, “Our” needs.

The Christian who lives this way inevitably continues to eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” They have falsely assumed responsibility for living the Christian life by avoiding sin, trying “to be like God” (Gen. 3:5) as the serpent suggested to Eve in the Garden of Eden.
You will soon discover that your focus “determines your direction.” If you spend most of your time trying to manage your sin, your sin consciousness will be your own downfall.

This faulty view of sin-management is a religious paradigm driven by performance-based acceptance. Tragically many a Christian is unaware that the victory has already been won! Sin consciousness is religious quicksand. The endless futile struggle to conquer sin by one’s own self-efforts, to overcome what has already been overcome.

The Good News of the Gospel is that the sin of mankind has been taken care of at the cross, when Jesus defeated the Satanic originator and source of sin (I Jn. 3:8) once and for all (I Pet. 3:18), and “broke the power of sin” (Heb. 2:14). Satan and his evil character of sin was conquered (Col. 2:15) on the cross in the death of Jesus Christ, wiping out the consequences of sin.

The person who has received the Spirit of Christ into their human spirit by faith has been made safe by the personal presence and activity of Christ. This is what it means to be in union with Christ, having been “freed from sin” and are now “dead to sin” (Rom. 6:11) and much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:10).

Neither Satan nor his character of sin has any power over us for the power of sin and death was defeated at the cross once for all. It is the power of God’s grace that now has authority over the Christian and as such we are no longer under obligation to sin (Rom. 8:12). That does not mean that the believer cannot exercise his freedom of choice to behave in such a way to misrepresentative God’s character and thus, gives himself to sinful and selfish character expression of Satan.

Is the objective of the Christian life to continually be Christ-consciousness? Are we as Christians to think of nothing else but Christ? I for one do not think that this is practical.

Yes, the Christian should seek to maintain a subconscious awareness of who they are in Christ, in a similar why that a spouse does not loss sight or focus that they are marriage even though not consciously aware when engaged in tasks which require full mental focus to accomplish. They are no less married, just not consciously focused on such.

The Christian is Christ conscious as he or she lives in the reality that “apart from Christ” we can do doing,” and that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). “Our adequacy is from God” (II Cor. 3:5), “We have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness” (II Peter 1:3).

Christ consciousness is by the Spirit’s revelation. As we come into an awareness of Christ “in us,” “through us” and “as us,” in completeness and perfection, our own “spiritual status” is no longer at the forefront of our concern. From this point on life then refocuses outward (away from us), an others-oriented view. This is Christ consciousness. Christ for others through us. Love is Christ and Christ-consciousness is God’s love for others.

Living in Christ consciousness is the assurance of God’s abundant spiritual provision which we have in Jesus Christ. Do not fall for the trap of becoming overly subjective. To “overanalyze” whether you are Christ-conscious or not is like evaluating “how humble” you believe yourself to be. The more conscious you are of having it (humility), the less likely it is that you do! We must beware of all forms of spiritual pride, and the idea that we have “arrived” “spirituality” is not Christ-consciousness but spiritual pride.

To be Christ conscious then is more likely to be conscious and aware of your own unworthiness and inadequacies, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5).

It might be said that Christ consciousness is more hidden from our understanding. We do not have to be conscious of what He is doing, or how well we are doing. As the Apostle Paul declared, “How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable his ways” (Rom. 11:33). We can be sure, though, that He is “with us always” (Matt. 28:20), “For He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” (Heb. 13:5).

Christ-consciousness vs sin-consciousness is Life As God Intended.