Why Christians Rely on the Twelve Steps

Every Christian knows the blessed assurance of being saved.

When we accepted that Jesus died for us, we confessed from our heart to our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we passed from death to life.

For many of us, however, the glory cloud of goodness which we received as a part of being saved would subside in a matter of weeks or even months.

What was fun and wonderful initially would wear off.

Some of us would struggle to get back that loving feeling. Others among us would go to church more often, or we would engage in other religious behaviors. All trying to get that feeling, we would do just about anything we could to get back that strong sense of God's presence in our lives.

I lived this never ending frustration for a few years.

Yet others, and I include myself in this set of Christians, after we get saved, we discover that bad habits, behaviors, and other sinful thoughts and feelings still persist in our lives.

A sense of shame develops within us. What do we do about these sinful feelings, thoughts, and even bad habits?

I believe that some Christians are born again yet still struggle with drinking, or eating, or sexual perversions, and so on.

Because they are saved, however, the sense of shame becomes more pronounced.

Why do Christians go through these struggles?

No one has informed them, and I was one of them, that we are saved and receive a new Spirit, we are granted life through Christ living in us (Colossians 1: 27).

Most Christians know that Jesus died for their sins, but they do not receive the blessed truth that Jesus Christ died for all their sins.

Moreover, many Christians, such as myself, do not learn that we still have sin in our flesh, in our bodies.

Paul identifies this struggle:

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Romans 7: 18)

Paul is very careful to distinguish himself from his flesh, for we have been crucified with Christ, and the life in us is Christ living in us (Galatians 2: 20; Colossians 3: 4)

We are not our flesh, and we should no longer identify, or walk in our flesh, but rather with the Spirit of God living in us:

"16This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." (Galatians 5: 16-18)

Yet throughout the day, every day, we will still have sinful thoughts, emotions, and impulses in our flesh.

Paul speaks of this sobering reality, too:

"21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (Romans 7: 21-23)

Paul again distinguishes himself from his members, yet many Christians do not do this. They fail to reckon themselves dead to sin and alive in Christ (Romans 6: 11-14)

Because of this lack of understanding about our life, our leading, and the new creation we have become in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 17), Christians become fearful and despondent, believing that they have to do something about the sin in their flesh.

First of all, Beloved, God has already done something about the sin in our flesh:

"1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8: 1-4)

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, none! The real power of all that Jesus did for us at the Cross, however, is more than dying for our sins. God condemned the very sin nature in our flesh when He sent His Son to die on the Cross for us:

"3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:" (Romans 8: 3)

So, even when we sense wicked propensities within our bodies, when strange sentiments of rage and bitterness, or lustful thoughts emerge in our bodies, we do not need to feel ashamed or fearful, as if we must do something about those emotions. All of them, all of them, have been condemned, paid for, punished.

In fact, for those of us who believe on Jesus, we have died with Him, and thus we are raised with Him:

"4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Romans 7: 4)

We are dead to the law because we are dead in Christ, and yet through His resurrection, we are now alive in Him.

In regards to this wonderful, liberating mystery,  Paul writes to the Colossians, and to all of us:

"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3: 1-4)

We are dead to sin (Romans 6: 11), dead to the law (Romans 7: 4), and dead to the rudiment rules and regulations of the world (Colossians 2: 20)

The Gospel is more than our sins being forgiven, although this is very important. It's about receiving life, and that more abundantly, through all that Jesus accomplished for us at the Cross:

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)

and

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14: 6)

Yet too many Christians do not understand that we have been crucified with Christ, and that the life we live is not us, but rather Christ through His faith working in us (Galatians 2: 20-21).

Most evangelists simply do not relate this important reality to new converts. So, new Christians, and even those who walk in the faith, go to church, and live "their lives", become frustrated by the sense of fear, sin, anger, and other upsetting emotions and temptations in their lives. Believing that they have to live this life on their own, even though they know without hesitation that they are going to heaven, they strive through their own efforts to be holy.

The more that men and women try to break free of any sin, any bad habit, or terrible addiction, however, the stronger the sin, habit, hang-up, addiction becomes:

"14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Romans 7:14-18)

That "I" or rather that fleshly self which we try to fix, cannot be fixed, cannot be improved. We have to realize that our flesh is dead and thoroughly corrupted, and rather let His life live through us.

However, as long as children of God in the Body of Christ refuse to accept that there is no hope in their own efforts, they will inevitably trust in their own efforts. Hence, the proliferation of Twelve Step programs in our churches, and man's insistence on his efforts to produce good works, even though God has provided the works in us already (Ephesians 2: 14) and is working within us both to will as well as to do the very things which He wants us to do (Philippians 2: 12-13).

Christians rely on the Twelve Steps because they have not reached the realization that there is no flesh which can glory in God's presence, that everything we are ,have, and do is because of the grace of God in our lives (1 Corinthians 15: 10). Jesus was not kidding when He declared: "Apart from me, ye can do nothing." (John 15: 5)

15 is then number of perfect rest, and 5 is the number for grace. We are to rest in His perfect grace, knowing and believing His love for us.

The love begins and ends with all that Jesus has done for us at the Cross. He died for all our sins, and through His death the sin in our flesh has been condemned, that we may reckon ourselves dead to sin, and reign in life receiving His gifts of righteousness and the abundance of grace which accompany it. (Romans 5: 17)