Freedom From Self Not Found in Self

When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God. This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book. Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. At the start, this was all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious relation with God as we understood Him. Afterward, we found ourselves accepting many things which then seemed entirely out of reach. That was growth, but if we wished to grow we had to begin somewhere. So we used our own conception, however limited it was. (AA, pg 47)

My own conception of God will inevitably be colored by my experiences with people who talked about God, or the religious adherents whom I contacted in the past.

Like many people raised in a "Christian" home, I was brow-beatend with an Old Covenant understanding of God, one bent on punishing me for every mistake I made, a God who was still angry with the world, and would hurt me if I stepped out of line.

The New Covenant reveals a God of grace:

"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:

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)

This New Covenant is based on the fact that God will not remember my sins anymore.

Why does He not remember my sins? Has He gone soft on sin? On the contrary -- He is faithful and just to forgive my sins. Why? Because of all that Jesus has done:

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2: 13-15)

And

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7)

The grace of God we cannot understand, let alone conceive. Either we believe it, or we don't.

Freedom from self is not found in self, but rather in that we receive a New heart, a new Spirit because of all that Jesus Christ has done for us.

And then we receive Christ in us, our hope of glory (Colossians 1: 27)