It's about Christ Jesus, Not a Program

One of the biggest issues for me when it comes to AA, confessions, sin, and being OK, gets an FU from me.

I don't know about you, but I fail every day, and I find moreover that I fail deliberately in some cases.

As long as we believe that we have to keep short accounts with God and with our fellow man, we will find ourselves running away from everyone and everything in our lives.

I really screwed up big time today, and I have messed up big time in the past, too.

In the past, with nothing but Alcoholics Anonymous and Twelve Steps, I could do nothing  but browbeat and beat myself down, with a resolution to try harder next time.

Yet in our flesh, in this life, there is no trying harder, there is no doing better. In fact, when we try harder, it only gets worse.

Such is the case with anyone who works the AA program with unflinching commitment. The terrible habits, the bad attitudes, the addictive behaviors get worse, not better.

"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. 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." (Romans 7:18-20)

Especially for those of us who are children of the living God, we cannot look at ourselves and hope to find success, to find the capacity to live obedient lives:

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing."

Where do we find the life that we need to make it through the hard times, and even the good times in this life?

We find our life, our new selves, so to speak, in Christ:

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" (Colossians 1: 27)

Later Paul writes:

"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: 3 -4)

Paul wrote to the Galatians:

"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)

We are in Christ because Christ did everything for us. He took on Himself all our sins, past present and future, and with His death we receive His righteousness and thus His life:

"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." (Romans 8: 10)

This Spirit is the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8: 15), which takes us from dead in our trespasses to alive and seated in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2: 4-8)

He paid for all our trespasses (Colossians 2: 13), and in Christ we are perfected forever (Hebrews 10: 14)

Anything less than that, and we will find ourselves facing nothing but a fearful looking after of judgment (Hebrews 10: 26-28), because we have not rested in the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, that His Spirit and His laws are now leading us.

This point I must also share: whenever I failed, I would get so worked up in looking at myself. The truth is that we must allow more of His grace and truth to permeate our lives, to continue working in us. Even when we fail -- and that has been a challenge for me at times, since my upbringing taught me to make myself better, when in truth the Spirit of God transforms us (2 Corinthians 3: 18), and our souls prosper as we walk in the truth of the Gospel (3 John 2-4).

We need to see more of Jesus, and we need a greater understanding of all that He is done for us at the Cross, and when this great knowledge grows in us, we see more of his more-than-conquering power manifested in our lives.