Getting From God, not Getting To God

Most religions and cults, including AA, give the impression that man must do things in order to get to God.

The Bible teaches the exact opposite, which is an offense to man, but is the Truth in Grace which Jesus brought to the Earth when God became a man, and which He accords for evermore to those who believe on Him.

In AA, men and women have to keep taking their inventories in order to maintain their "conscious contact" with God.

In truth, God has set up a new covenant through the death and resurrection of His Son, which makes knowing God effortless:

"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

The New Covenant focuses on what God does, not us. He puts His laws in our hearts and minds, He leads us from within. He is a God to us, providing for every need that we may have.

The goal is not longer "getting to God", but "getting from God":

"17For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17)

The New International Version is more accurate:

"For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!"

Abundant!

The Youngs Translation bears out the full meaning of this verse:

"for if by the offence of the one the death did reign through the one, much more those, who the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of the righteousness are receiving, in life shall reign through the one -- Jesus Christ."

We get to keep on receiving these lavish gifts of righteousness and grace. This grace empowers us to be, do, and have all that Christ is in us.

"10But 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)

This grace cannot flow in our lives if we believe that we must keep working in order to get to God:

"4Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." (Galatians 5: 4-6)

God wants us to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5: 7), and this faith that we live by, is the same faith as Jesus Christ (Galatians 2: 20-21)

We are called no longer to "get to God", but rather to "Get from God", or to receive:

"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)