Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. (AA, pg 60)
We cannot claim any progress through anything that we do in our flesh, in our own efforts:
"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? 25I 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: 21-25)
This war brings us into defeat, while the war which Christ win give us victory:
"Now thanks
be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh
manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place." (2 Corinthians 2:14)
Through the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, we do not claim progress, but victory:
"37Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
More than conquerors! Not just conquering, not just "Winning!" but "Hyper-victors", because the Victory is won for us through Christ, and is given to us thourgh His Holy Spirit living in us, granting us the glory of God.
Paul describes the standing that every believer has in Christ:
"3Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the
good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)
We are blessed with all blessings in Christ. We are chosen, beloved of God because we are filled with Christ's grace, given to us to justify us fully from all sin. We are adopted as children, brought into the family of God.
Yet if that is not enough:
"For by one offering
he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)
We are perfected in relation to our conscience, the sense of "wrong" which plagues every person born a son of Adam into this fallen world (Romans 7: 14, 24-25)
We do not "claim" progress, but in Christ we receive preeminence through the riches of God's grace.
Our part is not to stand, but rather to receive our seated status in Christ:
"4But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6And hath raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2: 4-6)
We can make no progress on our own, but in Christ, we can do all things:
"5I
am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 5)
and
"13I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me. " (Philippians 4: 13)
Forget "progress", receiving God's perfection through your perfected standing in Christ.
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