Bill W. -- A Mere Variant of Moses

"But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart." (2 Corinthians 3: 15)

I did not believe this for a long time, for AA is just Moses dress up in "Bill W." trappings, a lot of laws which cannot make a man righteousness or holy or good.

Moses represents the Law, the Old Covenant in which man had to obey God's law.

Yet even when God laid out the Ten Commandments, he provided the shedding of blood for the remission of sins:

22And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. 24An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." (Exodus 20: 22-26)

Christians in the United States are clamoring for the reinstatement of the Ten Commandments.

But that is the Old Covenant, a covenant which God found fault with:

"For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

"For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:" (Hebrews 8: 7-8)

This Old Covenant including confessing one's sins and offering sacrifices.

This Old Covenant is done away with through the New Covenant, in Christ:

"But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ." (2 Corinthians 3: 14)

and then

"Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." (2 Corinthinas 3: 16)

The Lord is the beginning and end of our life. We do not need the laws and rules to guide us, for in the New Covenant, based on His Finished Work of forgiving all our sins and giving us His righteousness, He then writes on our hearts and minds His laws, and His Spirit lives and guides us from within!

Bill W., like every human being who creates human solutions to get to God, merely took the Law, then dressed up a set of inventories as a "program" for living.

But what is the Law:

"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious," (2 Corinthians 3: 7)

and

"For if the ministration of condemnation be glory" (2 Corinthians 3: 9)

Ministry of death, ministry of condemnation. . .

No wonder I was often frustrated and depressed as I was growing up, tutored to live life according to the Cold, Hard Twelve Steps.

Paul writes to the Romans that the Law cannot justify us at all:

"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: 20)

and

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." (Romans 7: 7)

The law is  meant to bring us to Christ, then we no longer need the law (Galatians 3: 24-25)

The writer of Hebrews could not be more blunt or clear-cut:

"5And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Hebrews 3: 5-6)

Moses was a faithful servant, but Jesus is the faithful Son who ministers on our behalf forevermore.

Paul tells us what to do with the servant the law:

"Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

"So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. " (Galatians 4: 30-31)

So, believer, cast out Bill W., and let the Son reign in you!