The Twelve Steps -- Another Example of the Old Covenant

"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:" (2 Corinthians 3: 7)

The Twelve Steps are just a watered-down version of the Ten Commandments,and the rest of the Law.

Bill W., like many New Englanders of Puritan stock, have misconstrued the original purpose of the law, which was not to make a man holy, but to make him wholly helpless so that he would receive the grace of God and be made holy.

"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 19-20)

One of the more common complaints against AA and other Twelve Step Programs centers on the lacking guidelines to define "the exact nature of our wrongs", or "defects of character."

And even if a man takes his inventory, he has done nothing to receive the real lacking element: Life, and that more abundantly (John 10: 10).

How many stories have I read, including from Harold Hill the engineer from Maryland by way of New Hampshire, who after giving up the drinking, still felt all kinds of empty on the inside.

In one meeting, a member crowed that the Big Book told him everything that he needed to do to get through the day. I believed him, yet upon taking his advice I found that the book simply outlined nothing but the steps that I needed to take in order to stay sober. The program is not a way of living, but rather a means for taking one's inventory and engaging in never-ending maintenance, a program which causes people to spend more time looking at ourselves rather than living the life that we can receive by faith.

We need to be set free from the law altogether, not just seek a new program that attempts to keep us in line with rules and regulations:

Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant (Hebrews 9: 15), and thus he replaces and removes the Old Covenant:

"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8: 13)

The Twelve Steps is just another spin on the Old Covenant, one in which man tries to come to God through His efforts, who tries to earn God's love and favor, and just as the Israelites would sacrifice animals to atone for their sins, members of AA will show up to meetings, take their inventories, and then engage in little "Twelfth Step" work to make up for anything lacking in their lives.

The whole thing ultimately reeks of a grey existence, one which has so watered down the Law, that man attempts to live by a set of rules, and makes nothing of God's grace, which empowers us to live the life victorious in Christ Jesus.