The Christian Life is not about getting better about living.
It's about growing in grace and knowledge of Life Himself: Christ Jesus.
Jesus did not come to make bad men good, but rather make dead men live.
The death that works in every man comes to the forefront in the face of theTen Commandments. God did not provide the Law in order to give us a standard to live by, but rather to force us to acknowledge that we cannot live the holy life through our own efforts:
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" (Romans 5: 20)
The law was not meant to justify us, but rather show that we are unrighteous in and of ourselves.
AA, like any other religious system, posits to members that through their efforts, men and women can claim progress (never perfection) over their addiction to alcohol or any other perversion.
Man is still seeking life, and yet his attempt to reach for life in his own strength inevitably tarnishes it with death.
"We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear." (AA, pg 68)
Jesus Christ does not just give us life. Jesus Christ is Life. Creation receives scant attention in the Bible. God is all about redemption today and forever, and redemption is found and founded in Jesus!
When we accept that God and Christ are all about passing from death to life, not just about not drinking, not sinning, not doing bad things, then we receive the life that He so freely offers us.
I cannot tell you the amount of time I spent trying to fix my feelings, trying to get rid of resentments, and finding that every person, place, or thing would set me off nonetheless. All of those hurt feelings are a mere manifest of our dead Adam sinful nature. When we rest in Christ, when we receive His righteousness, then we can let go of all the old and dead and harmful ways, including addictions to substances.
I was convinced that how I felt would determine whether God was with me or not. I was living in feelings all the time, lolking at myself, constatncly looking boer my shoulder to make sure that I dod not do or say something wrong.
AA does not make us more God-centered. The program makes us more self-centered!
We cannot see or understand God without first seeing and respecting his Son:
"8Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" (John 14: 8-9)
We are called to see Jesus, not ourselves, to receive His life, not try to live a better life on our own.
All of this starts and ends with our reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ:
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 11)
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