Ezekiel 33:10-16. God tells Ezekiel that if the wicked man turns from his sin, makes reparation, and walks "in the statutes of life committing no iniquity" then "none of the sins he has committed shall be remembered against him." Conversely, if the righteous man "trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered." God says he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, he wants them instead to "turn back, turn back from your evil ways."

Here the God of the Old Testament shows that he is the same as the God of the New Testament. Often people think of God as being vengeful and angry in the Old Testament, and kind, loving and, and forgiving in the New Testament. But he is the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and here we see it. God has always been all forgiving. All he wants is for us to turn back to him, away from our wickedness. It does not matter how much we have sinned if we repent and try to walk in his "statutes of life" we will have life, all is forgiven.

I think sometimes we just get so deep in our sin that we don't see the way out - we lose sight of him all together, we start thinking that this is just the way it is. Then he allows us to suffer the consequences of our sin in order to wake us up and have us turn back to him. But when Jesus was here, on Earth, even people who were deep in sin and had lost sight of him could physically see God, they had physical encounters with him where they were confronted with him right in their own lives. And he said to them things like "Your faith has saved you, your sins are forgiven." So we can often think of Jesus as being more forgiving than the God of the Old Testament, but the things Jesus said are the exact same kinds of things that God is saying to Ezekiel here.

Also, the righteous cannot "trust" their righteousness to be a get out of jail free card - they can't "live by" their righteousness when they sin. That is, we all have to be trying to walk in his statutes, that is the key. We don't get to store up brownie points for being righteous that can be applied against later transgressions.

It is not a question of how long we have been good or trying to follow him, it is a question of our hearts - what are we really feeling? How are we really trying to live?