There is no freedom from a sin conscience as long as we define ourselves by our sins and continue to confess our sins, as if our confession, our profession, or anything else that we do can keep us one step ahead of our sins.
We are not just sinners, but we are dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2: 1-2)
When Jesus died on the Cross, He announced to the world once and for all forever: "It is Finished." (John 19: 30)
With Alcoholics Anonymous, men and women learn every week that the work is not finished, that the sickness of alcoholism will plague them for the rest of their lives, and without the Twelve Steps, meetings, and work with other alcoholics, they will drink again.
Empirical literature, personal accounts, and field research accounts confirm that people can get clean and sober with AA, and in fact the program-cult initiated by Bill Wilson.
One pastor commented very powerfully, and I could not agree more, that for every believer, every child of God who believes that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the Cross for our sins and was raised for our justification -- yet every believer who insists on attending AA meetings or Celebrate Recovery meetings is basically saying that what Jesus did was not enough.
When He said "It is Finished" -- He was not expressing some hollow opinion. When He declared that the work was done, He was not making a mere suggestion, or giving
If you believe that you have to attend any program, or participate in any cult, which claims that you must confess your sins, work steps, attend meetings, and work with other people in order for them to adopt the same program, then you are insulting God the Father and denying Jesus Christ the right to sit down at the right hand of the Father at rest.
We must never forget that Jesus Christ sat down not because He is God, for that will never change, but because He finished the work of purging all our sins:
"11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool." (Hebrews 10: 11-13)
I write this again: for any Christian, for anyone who claims that Jesus Christ is his or her Lord and Savior, yet at the same time claims that the Twelve Steps helps perfect our walk with Christ - those people are testifying by their actions that what Jesus did was not enough. They are saying that Jesus does not have a right to sit down at rest, and therefore the unrest of sin and strife should remain in our lives.
The more that I meditate on the power of Christ's blood at the Cross, which cleanses (present tense!) us from all sin and unrighteousness (1 John 1: 7), the angrier I get with anyone who pushes Twelve Steps of any form in our churches and on any Christian. Nothing could be more dangerous to the walk of righteousness and grace which Jesus offers to us:
"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." (Galatians 5: 9)
Paul was as subtle as a machete in third chapter: "O foolish Galatians!" -- there is nothing more foolish, or dangerous, than adding one thing, one work, any extras to what Jesus did for us at the Cross.
The moment we want to do or say or think anything to fulfill or perfect our righteous standing before God the Father, we are not walking in the truth, and we are negating all that Jesus did for us at the Cross.
Jesus gave Himself for us, and with Him we can receive all things. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, as well as sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1: 30) What gives anyone the idea that Jesus is not enough?
The Twelve Steps, which I was raised in as a child, infused in my Christian walk as a norm that in addition to reading our Bibles, we need to read the Twelve Steps, work a program, and make the most to live a Christian life in our efforts.
Today I write emphatically: Alcoholics Anonymous is an offensive, insulting cult which tramples on the blood of Jesus, and the consequences for people who proudly define themselves by this program instead of resting in the Finished Work of Christ Jesus:
"Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10: 29)
Before this dire warning (for those who recognized Jesus as Messiah yet were not yet willing to rest in the finality of His work at the Cross), the writer of Hebrews writes:
"26For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. " (Hebrews 10: 26-27)
Can you imagine walking around with a sense of fear and retribution in your life? I did. I have lived with the sense of unending foreboding and fear, and I had no idea why for so long. After growing up in a household where I had prayed over my meals for years, where I had been going to church, and I had been reading the Bible daily, I still had not full revelation or rest in the finality of what Jesus Christ did for me at the Cross.
Terrible, but true.
The more that I meditate on what Jesus has done, not just for me but for everyone in the world (John 3:16; 1 John 2: 1-2), the more I realize how wicked and dangerous is the Twelve Step cult.
And blasphemous, too. To think that what Jesus did at the Cross is not enough: that is a great evil which is still bringing many precious saints into bondage.
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