Self Must Be Killed -- Replaced with Christ Jesus

Selfishness - self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.

 

So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help. (AA, pg 62)

 

When I was sitting in the meetings, I could not agree more.  "I" was the biggest problem in my life. But how does a man "get rid" of himself?

 

And how exactly was I going to turn my will and my live over to this "God"?

 

A lot of these questions AA folks did not answer very well.

 

Only by learning about the power of God's grace in my life have I learned what it means to live free of the bondage of self:

 

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20-21)

 

Notice that Paul says that he is "crucified" with Christ -- how much "deader" can a man get?

 

The notion that we can break free of the bondage of self on our own is just utter nonsense. The more that I try to break free of "I", the more of "I" I find myself fighting with. Paul explained this utterly frustrating turmoil succinctly in Romans 7:

 

"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." (Romans 7: 14)

 

The sin element -- more than what we do, but the fact that we are dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2: 1). We are born into this fallen world as fallen people, sons of Adam, inheriting his spiritual death:

 

"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness (bold-face added), after his image; and called his name Seth." (Genesis 5: 3)

 

Then

 

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." (Romans 5: 14)

 

This matter of spiritual death simply cannot be ignored, yet AA makes no mention of it. Just as a doctor cannot properly care for a patient without diagnosing the proper illness

 

"For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."

 

"I, I, I" -- what a mess self-focus can make of a man. Paul was so focused on himself, trying to live up to a standard, the law, which no one can live up to. The law demands from us, yet none of us can live up to its standards.

 

"If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good." (Romans 7: 16)

 

We all have this notion that we are called to live to a greater standard than mere impulse. A man who chases after drink, food, or any other inordinate desire, no matter how much he seeks to be satisfied, will not stave off or staunch the death that sticks to him as a son of Adam.

 

"Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." (Romans 7: 17)

 

This passage is for the man who now has Christ Jesus living in him. Even a child of God, seated in heavenly places, will contend with the temptations to sin.

 

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Romans 7: 18)

 

As long as Paul keeps looking at himself for the source of doing the good that he wants to do, he finds nothing but frustration.

 

"For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (Romans 7: 19)

 

"I would, I would" -- when we are willing in our own effort to do anything it all comes to naught. For the believer, we are not called to conjure up our one way in the world, but intead we are called to trust in the leading of God through His Holy Spirit in us:

 

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2: 13) 

 

This whole turmoil will afflict any men, born again or still dead, who tries to live up to the perfection of the law:

 

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7: 24)

 

"This body of death" -- that's a neat way of discussing "self" -- and just as no man can live in his own strength if he jumps out of his own skin, so no man can hope to achieve life through his own efforts.

 

'I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." (Romans 7: 25)

 

Jesus Christ is the answer. The same one who holds the whole universe in His hands, the same who is the Head of the Body of Christ, the same who made the universe, He is the Life that men seek, the gift of righteousness and grace which frees a man from his own strength, which produces nothing but death, and gives birth to the life that man is seeking:

 

"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15: 10)

 

The grace of God gives us a new life, and this grace is a person:

 

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1: 17)

 

This is the grace that teaches man to avoid evil, that teaches men to do good, to walk in the newness of life (Titus 2: 11-14)

 

God has already provided us a way out, a "death to self" if you will, through His Son:

 

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

 

The superabounding goodness of God, who gave His Son, is the same God who gives us all things with Him (Romans 8: 32). With all our sins forgiven, with our life given to us, with all of our needs met, there is no need to be preoccupied with self. Instead, we set our eyes upon Him who died for us and reigns forever more at the right hand of the Father (Colossians 3: 1-3)