**Pharisee-type believers** unconsciously think they've earned God's blessing through their behavior. **Guilt-laden believers** are sure they've forfeited God's blessing through disobedience or lack of discipline. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace — God's unmerited favor to those who deserve only His wrath.
Most of us probably entertain either of these attitudes on different days. On a good day (as we perceive it), we tend toward self-righteous Pharisaism. On a not-so-good day, we allow ourselves to wallow in a sense of failure and guilt. Either way we've moved away from the gospel of God's grace, trying to relate to God directly on the basis of our performance rather than through Christ.
-- Jerry Bridges