For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
Psalm 38:4
For in You, O LORD, I hope; You will hear, O Lord my God.
Psalm 38:15

Are we to “wrestle with sin,” or “rest in God’s grace”? Yes to both. But that isn’t easy. There is a tension between these two positions.

Wrestling with sin is evidence that one is saved, since the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin. Conviction needs to lead us to confession and repentance, which (for the child of God) always results in forgiveness and cleansing.

When we have taken our sins to God for forgiveness, since He never withholds forgiveness from His children, we need to rest in His grace. We must refuse to live in condemnation over what God has forgiven and taken away.

We all tend to be repeat offenders in areas of our own particular weaknesses. When we commit a sin again, even after having been previously forgiven, we are convicted again. That new conviction over an old and often repeated sin amps up the “wrestling with sin” aspect of the tension. And it should.

But when we confess our sin, again, maybe for the umpteenth time, God forgives us. Again. And when He does, there is “therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1)

This is why the healthy Christian life is one of constant tension between wrestling with sin and resting in God’s grace. Do both. All the time.