In the bible God speaks of us 'being right' with Him, or 'righteous'. That's what He wants above almost all things! He made us and as His people we are to live according to His perfect instructions for our welfare. He placed our ancestor Adam in the garden of Eden and the only thing that tested whether Adam would live 'right' with God and not be rebellious was whether Adam would not eat from one particular tree.

Well, Adam did eat of that tree and rebelling against God's instructions is called 'sin'.

When the bible talks of sin the Greek word translated as sin is 'hamartia' which means 'missing the mark'. Whatever is your criteria for righteousness or 'right living', if you miss that bullseye by even an iota you have missed the mark and sinned.

Some people have 'doing certain things' or 'keeping certain things inviolate' as the criteria. When they transgress that criteria on any point, to be consistent, they have to admit that they have sinned. And the biblical/scriptural penalty for sin is death!

In John Chapter 16, verses 8 - 11 Jesus pointed out what 'missing the mark' was under grace and how the Holy Spirit would convict people of this sin.

John 16:8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Notice that Jesus says the sin that Holy Spirit would convict us of is 'Not believing in Jesus'!

When you are convicted of this and put faith in Jesus and accept him as your Lord and Saviour you are born again (born of God), and Jesus comes to live in you, giving you His faith to walk after the Spirit (walk righteously) in this life. He lives in you and you are 'IN' Him!

1Jn 3:9 No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

When you are born of God you naturally want to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in you. Although you will make mistakes, since you are 'IN' Jesus, God sees you as righteous (the righteousness of Christ). Now you can ask for His forgiveness and being forgiven you move on to overcome!

The overcomer, who is putting faith in Jesus to live His life through them, is hitting the mark!

So the believer who believes on Jesus and is thereby guided by Holy Spirit, lives an overcoming life because God's seed abides (lives) in him/her.

And, since he/she is meeting the criteria that Jesus gave for the New Covenant believer to hit the bullseye (which is belief in Jesus), he/she is not missing the mark!

Best wishes for Grace and the Peace of Jesus.
Attlee.

Another thought...