In AA, You Still End Up Playing God

So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help.

 

This is the how and why of it. First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom. (AA, pg 62)

 

The Bible gives us greater hope than merely blaming us for our problems:

 

"12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." (Romans 5: 12-14)

 

It was Adam's sin which cursed all of mankind. It was the sin of one man which brought sin into the world and into all men.

 

Now, we are not stuck in the sin of our first father Adam, because God the Father wants to adopt us through His Son:

 

"15But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 15-17)

 

Jesus the second Adam came to live as a perfect man to be the perfect sacrifice, that we may be mad the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21), and through the gift of righteousness receive His life (Romans 8: 15) and the spirit of adoption (Romans 8: 15)

 

Now, the Bible presents us God in His fullness, and for all our intellect, and all our capacities, we simply cannot take in how great He is in our efforts, in our readings, in all our times. It will take eternity and then some for us to appreciate how great He is!

 

Just as any cult has some truth in it, so too AA brings us some truth, in that we must quit playing God, or stop trying to be God in our lives. However, the AA program ends up forcing people to play God.

 

How could it be otherwise? If we insist on relying on our own conception of God, are we not in the end play-acting with the true knowledge of the Creator/Redeemer Yahweh who sent His Son Jesus to be our savior and our High Priest Forever?

 

If we do not receive Himself as our life, then we have no choice but to rely once again on our own efforts. We will still wonder about the future. We will still fear, wondering if God is there for us, or if He will see us through our hard times and troubles. Because men have no understanding of flesh and spirit, people end up relying on their flesh all the more, creating the very sins and sorrows which they sought to break free of.

 

If a person's sobriety still depends on what he does, how many meetings he goes to, how many times he takes his inventory, or anything else that we do, then our life and health depends on us. Not much of a higher power, I have to say. There can be no such thing as a higher power. Either we trust in God Almighty, as revealed in His Word, or we trust in ourselves. There can be no mixture on this matter.

 

This program creates nothing but bondage, because the idea of God working in our lives means nothing if God is merely our understanding of Him. We need to acknowledge that God is beyond anything that we can understand, and that He moves far ahead of our needs, and wants, yet grants us beyond what we can ask or think (Ephesians 3: 20-21)