But, it was so much easier before...

For most of us, living the Christian life is a as difficult as finding Christ was. Often it's more difficult. Why? Now that we have Christ in us, shouldn't life go much easier? The truth is that we ourselves make it difficult. We complicate it by trying to do what seems perfectly natural once we become a Christian. We try to keep God's law. But trying through our own effort to keep God's law prevents us from experiencing Christ's abundant life, because contrary to most popular teaching, it is the opposite of what God designed us to do.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 141-142

<idle musing>
As usual, we get it backwards...Christ says, "you're dead" and we talk about how alive we are, "Christ makes your life fuller." Note the pronoun there—your. No, Christ replaces your life with his. I think its a pretty good trade; not fair, but good. I get rid of the life I had that was all bound up with sin and death in exchange for Christ's spotless, sinless one!
</idle musing>