Not Self Slipping Away, but New Self Already Seated

We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves . . . .(AA, pg 84)

The grand falsehood of AA, and all other religious programs, pushes a man to keep doing something that God has already done for them through His Son Jesus Christ at the Cross, who was raised for our justification (Romans 4: 25), and sits at the right hand of the Father as our ever-present justification (Romans 8: 33).

Jesus was not just breathing when He declared:

"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19: 30)

To explain all that Jesus did at the Cross, Paul and the apostles expounded in a number of epistles, and even John reported that the world cannot contain all the books to record the miracles of Jesus (John 21: 25)

In every epistle, Paul starts out by glorying God in Christ, for all that He has done:

"3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" (Ephesians 1: 3)

One of those blessings includes our new standing 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)

You and I are seated in Christ, high above all principality, power, and authority (Ephesians 1: 22), above the heavenlies. We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

Other scriptures relate that we are not changing into a new person, but that we have become a new person:

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)

and

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. " (Romans 6: 11)

and

"22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 2: 22-24)

and

"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (Colossians 3: 9-10)

The Christian Life is not about getting better, or about getting rid of our old selves, but rather awakening to the revelation of who we are in Christ. Not once should anyone identify with his former self, thoughts and behaviors:

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 11)

then

"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Romans 8: 13)

and

"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Colossians 3: 5)

We are not called to "slip away" from our former selves, but no longer to identify with our fallen flesh, but rather live in the newness of the Spirit.