The Twelve Steps Kill -- If Followed

"And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

"Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corinthians 3: 4-6)

The "letter", the "law" kills. The law was never intended to provide us a framework for living, but to bring us to the end of ourselves, to acknowledge our complete guilt before God:

"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)

The notion that we can remove sin or wrongdoing in our lives by taking our inventory and making amends is blatantly refuted in Scripture:

"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

"For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." (Hebrews 10: 1-2)

The sticking point for many believers, the conscience or the awareness of sins in our lives, brings us into bondage. Many times in my life, I would confess sins, seeking relief from the guilt and the fear, but it never went away. The sense of wrongdoing pervasive in my life would not leave me. Thus, the sense that I had to "do something" still harassed me.

Only through the Blood of Jesus Christ do we have the eternal, unremitting confidence that all our sins are forgiven, that no condemnation need ever afflict us again:

"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)

and

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

"By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

"And having an high priest over the house of God;

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Hebrews 10:  19-22)

Working "a program", taking our inventory, going over our sins with someone else, even though God Himself has sworn that He will never again remember our sins (Hebrews 10: 16-17), none of these activities will grant us a life purged from "an evil conscience".

If we insist on following the Twelve Steps, as if we can find and maintain a peace which we easily receive through Christ Jesus (Romans 5: 1), instead of peace we will find turmoil. Instead of rest, we will continue to wander in the desert, hearing the word yet refusing to mix in with faith, when Jesus has asked us to believe on Him as the only work (John 6: 29).

The "letter" kills, Beloved. Any attempt to obey the law in order to meet God's standard will create bondage and wretchedness:

"21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7: 21-24)

Yet there is a Way out:

"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)

His Spirit gives Life (2 Corinthians 3: 6) and His righteousness ministers better things than the condemnation of the law (2 Corinthians 3: 7)