Let’s start with a sentence that makes church culture uncomfortable but Scripture unmistakably clear 
We Are All Still Sinners
Yes you.
Yes me.
Yes preachers, pastors, bishops, apostles, and senior leadership.
There has only ever been ONE sinless Man, and Christianity ONLY works because He exists
The moment we forget that, the gospel quietly shifts from redemption to performance, from grace to hierarchy, and from freedom to fear.
And people suffer because of it.
Church brain teaches that works override nature.
It says if you serve long enough, preach loud enough, pray hard enough, or hold the right title, you graduate from being classified as a sinner. You may not say it out loud, but it shows up in how leaders talk, move, and hold others accountable while exempting themselves.
That is not biblical 
According to the very Scripture many claim to subscribe to, if God were to see you instead of His Son, you would not qualify. Not because you are uniquely broken, but because that was never the standard.
Salvation only works because God does not see you, He sees Christ
That means access to heaven is not about performance.
It is about belief and acceptance.
Anything else is religion dressed up as devotion.
Many believers were taught to identify with their sin more than with their salvation.
So hell feels more attainable than healing.
Condemnation feels more realistic than peace.
And freedom sounds like a concept reserved for “better Christians.”
That is not conviction.
That is spiritual suffocation 
Jesus did not die so sin could remain the loudest voice in your faith. The cross did not just expose sin, it addressed it 
When the church leads with shame instead of victory, it teaches people to fear God instead of trust Him. Fear will always produce compliance, not transformation.
Here is the part many do not want to confront.
If works could save you, Jesus would not have had to die.
The reason this feels offensive to people who have “worked their whole lives for God” is because it forces a painful realization. Much of that effort was spent trying to please systems, not God Himself.
Acknowledging that requires grief 
It requires humility 
It requires letting go of spiritual superiority.
That is why self-righteousness becomes aggressive.
It has too much to lose.
Some will read this and decide I am a reprobate.
The truth is it is the opposite.
The mandate on my life requires that I walk out what I say, because you cannot speak this boldly and live secretly. That is why even Paul called himself the chief of sinners. Not to justify behavior, but to acknowledge reality.
Even at your best, you still need grace.
That truth does not excuse sin.
It anchors dependence on God.
Many people misunderstand what it means to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
They think transformation means shedding parts of yourself to be acceptable to God.
That is not renewal.
That is repression.
True transformation is bringing all of who you are to God and allowing Him to shape it for His glory 
Adoption into Christ is not slavery with better branding.
It is sonship.
And sons do not perform for belonging.
They live from it.
Some church systems do not produce life. They quietly drain it.
Leaving environments that bind, shame, or spiritually suffocate you is not rebellion. It is survival.
Jesus spoke about this kind of death too. The kind that happens long before the grave.
People do not leave God as often as they leave misrepresentations of Him.
And if that reality makes church leadership uncomfortable, it is worth asking why.
The New Testament is filled with religious leaders trying to uphold a law designed to make them stumble, because God wanted people to always need Him.
He is a jealous God.
Not insecure. Jealous 
In the same way a confident partner does not need constant surveillance or control, confidence in Christ does not need fear-based theology to function.
That is why Paul said this is the confidence we have in Christ.
Not in works.
Not in titles.
Not in performance.
Jesus was sinless.
You are not.
And that is exactly why grace works.
The cross did not elevate leaders above people. It leveled us all.
Any theology that requires fear to maintain order has already lost the plot.
The gospel was never about exclusion.
It was about restoration.
And when lived correctly, it produces a peace so undeniable that people ask not what rules do you follow, but:
“What must I do to know your God?”
