I cannot write this enough:
Celebrate Recovery does not "celebrate" or "recover" anyone or anything!
People sitting around feeling sorry for themselves, still grousing over their sins, when Scripture makes it very clear:
"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)
Do we really think that we can "complete" a work that has already been completed, that Christ has already done, already sitting at the right hand of the Father in glory and honor?
Jesus Christ hung on the Cross for six hours, three suffering as man, and three suffering as God, and at the end of the intense wrath, becoming sin for us, Jesus cried out to the entire universe for all time:
"When Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and
gave up the ghost." (John 19:30)
"It is Finished. . ." yet men and women still believe that they have to confess their sins, making atonement for all the wrongdoing that they have done.
What a ridiculous blasphemy! How grieved God must be, that his darling children still feel like the owe God something. God the Father must feel the same way the Joseph felt after his brothers begged for his forgiveness after their Father Jacob died:
"And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph
will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we
did unto him.
"And they sent a
messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
"So shall ye say
unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their
sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of
the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him." (Genesis 50: 15-17)
Whether Jacob had commanded his brothers to send the messenger is immaterial at this point. Joseph wept because they still felt guilty, they still feared a backlash for all that they had done. Joseph had more than forgiven them, providing for them all that time in Egypt -- yet they still feared.
The most important message we can send to the world and to one another in the Body of Christ is that all of our sins have been put down, put out, put away forever at the Cross. We are called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord, taking in the truth that His Sacrifice is greater than our sin, our shame, our hurts and horrors -- and we are to gain an expanding vision of every evil placed under the feet of Jesus!
On this account, without hesitation, I see no reason why men and women should be sitting in a meeting going over all of their sins. God does not remember (Hebrews 8: 12), so why should we, and why should we care if someone else does?
Instead of "Celebrate Recovery", we must "Celebrate Resurrection" -- the Resurrection life that we receive because of Christ's death on the Cross, the life that we receive through His Holy Spirit!
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