Friday, April 12, 2013

The Galatian Error -- Mixed Message of God's Grace and Man's Effort -- Part III

The Greatest Error of AA is the simplest one - Jesus is not first, foremost, or forever.

A "god" of my understanding, as presented by AA, turns into some fictive deity based on a stern following of the Twelve Steps.

Whatever God you claim to believe, he or she or it must submit to the Twelve Step program.

Yet submitting to any program of men just brings us under bondage once again to the elements of the world:

"But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" (Galatians 4: 9)

and

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2:8)

It's all about Jesus Christ -- the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.

Jesus Christ, the life and the love of every believer.

Nothing could be more practical than that.

There is no need to return to the law, since God places His laws in our hearts and minds:

"For 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:

"And 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.

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

 The Spirit of God within us gives us all wisdom: "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2: 20)

and
 "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (1 John 2: 27)

He lives in us, and through us, and works in us:

 "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2: 12-13)

There is no mixing the Good News -- it's a Gospel of Grace, not works: "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1: 6-7)

It's the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of the grace of Christ, and nothing less, and certainly nothing more, for Christ is everything for us:

 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1: 21)

and

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." (Colossians 1: 15-20)

This is far more than any "God of my understanding." He can take care of anything, can He not? Don't mix the message. Christ is as practical as it gets. No "Twelve Steps" needed.

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