Yet most people, and especially in churches, contend that without the rules, without the Ten Commandments, we are just giving people a license to sin.
Paul countered that concern immediately:
"1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein." (Romans 6: 1-2)
And then, Paul writes:
"11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6: 11-14)
When we are under grace, in that everything is granted and given to us because of all that Jesus has done, then sin shall not, cannot rule over us.
If we find ourselves struggling in any area of our lives, we struggle because, in effect, "we" or our flesh, our self-effort, I struggling.
Sin is more than what we do, but where we are, and who we are in:
"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)
Where many Christians, including myself, failed to understand was that sin is deeper than what we do. We are born into sin, because of Adam.
Yet just before people start jumping up and down shouting unfair, let us rest and receive the promises offered to us because of the Second Adam:
"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.)"
We can reign in life because of Jesus!
Because we are now in Christ, rather than in ourselves, we are freed from the curse, from the demands of the law. Instead of trying to be blessed, we receive His blessings and release them in turn.
We are freed from all the demands of the law, which includes the Ten Commandments, because of Jesus:
"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. 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:4-6)
We are freed from all these silly, and yet fatal rules, no longer in bondage:
"8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2: 8)
and then
"20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21(Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." (Colossians 2: 20-23)
There were so many rules under which I put myself in bondage.
I felt that I had to feel a certain way, that I had to be thinking a certain way, that if I was not thinking about God, that would make me separated from Him in some way.
The trauma and pain that I was living for so long, I had no idea what to do. For so long, I never realized that He had taken care of everything, that He was dedicated to continue taking care of all things.
I had so many of these conditions which I had placed on myself, much of the time because my understanding of the Bible was so flawed, and the reason for this? I was trying to read the Bible in conjunction with the Twelve Steps and the AA Book "Alcoholics Anonymous."
Those were crazy times, to say the least. I was chronically frustrated, trying to create the very life which God was so freely giving me through His Son.
There was no sense of hope, either, because while I had believed that Jesus had died for my sins, I was convinced that I had to maintain my holiness by confessing (working those damned fifth and tenth steps, for example)
There is no hope as long as we think that we still owe someone (or Someone) something.
In AA, the debt is never paid, because members are expected to continue taking their inventory, never resting in a sense of completion.
When Jesus died on the Cross, we He cried out "It is Finished!" (John 19: 30)
He finished every requirement of the law. His blood cleanses us from all sin (present tense, read about it in 1 John 1: 7). To this day, Jesus remains a full and forever propitiation, or payment, more specifically mercy seat for all our sins (1 John 2: 1-2)
We are freed from all demands of the law, and any other rules, because we have died with Christ, and in Christ we now live.
Like many man-made cults and religious sects, Alcoholics Anonymous merely seeks to place as many people under a new set of rules, when such rules are not longer necessary. When you know that the ruler is watching over you and blessing you in all things, there is no need on your part to work for what He is already working in you to will and to do for Him (Philippians 2: 12-13)
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