"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)
Jesus accomplished a perfect work at the Cross, and this work accomplished manifold, manifest victories for everyone who believes on Him.
Part of a life of growing in grace is learning more about all that Jesus did for us at the Cross!
One of the most profound and yet still misunderstood or not even known victories? That when Jesus died on the Cross, we died with Him. We received a new life in Him:
"For Christ, who is our life ..." (Colossians 3:4).
Part of that legacy is that we are dead to sin! There may still be sin in my flesh, but I have a new life, His life in me!
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
Whatever feelings or thoughts that may course through my flesh, those thoughts and feelings are not me. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).
For the longest time, I was still seeing the sin in my flesh as something that I had to own, take account for, and control.
How can I take control of something that I am dead to? Exactly! This revelation has brought me unparalled peace. Thank you, Jesus.
Now I look at how I was brought into such terrible bondage, and in large because of the perverse lies of the cult that is Alcoholics Anonymous.
AA teaches people that they are born alcoholics, and that there is no cure. What a crock! Alcoholism is the abuse of alcohol, a lust of the flesh like any other.
And there is a reason why this perversion is pervasive in others:
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)
We need a massive revelation of the Love of the Father! This love is God sending His Son to die for us, to be our mercy seat, and to the life through which we live! (1 John 4:9).
What an incredible love!
Why would I be defined by my sin! I am defined now by His Son!
"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
That's our new identity! That is our new self! I am not an alcoholic, a homosexual, a thief, a criminal, an adulterer, a sinner. We are made the righteousness of God in Christ! (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Consider how Jesus referred to the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery:
"When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the
woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man
condemned thee? 11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I
condemn thee: go, and sin no more." (John 8:10-11)
Jesus did not call her "sinner, adulteress, bad girl, evil woman," etc. He called her "woman." He restored her dignity. In fact, before Jesus gave her the gift of no condemnation, He had stooped down to her level (John 8:6) and wrote out the crimes and perversions of the religious leaders who had attempted to trap Him.
How marvelous and wonderful is Jesus. He takes away our sin, gives us the gift of righteousness, no condemnation, and restores us to dignity in Him.
Alcoholics Anonymous teaches people to reckon themselves alive to sin, to stay in their flesh, to assume that they must take control of their bad thoughts and feelings. That perverse lie leads to the Romans 7 experience, in which Paul admits that the good he wants to do, he does not do. The evil he wanted to avoid, he ended up doing. At the very end, he cries out in despair:
"24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?" (Romans 7:24)
"O wretched man that I am!" Man's problem is not what he does. It's who he is. We are dead in Adam. But when we believe in Jesus, we are made alive in Christ, and thus dead to sin!
Alcoholics Anonymous is evil. They teach people to see themselves and everything they do through the lens of their sins, their failures, their addictions. That is wrong! God our loving Father sees us in Christ, and we are dead to sin. We may still have the flesh, the sin principle, the sin life in our bodies, but we do not have to be overcome with sin:
"Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness." (Romans 6:18)
We are free from sin! It does not define us! This revelation is so wonderful, so powerful! And yet even to this day, the Church does not teach this, does not preach this!
And there's more to this.
For the longest time, I used to think that I had to take care of bad thoughts, bad memories, bad responses. When someone offended me, or when I felt fear in my body, or anger rising up, I constantly felt that I had to do something about it. If someone offended me offhand by saying something, a sense of shame used to well up in me, as though I should have, could have, would have said something to correct that rude remark.
Those pressure points of "should have, would have" are all forms of condemnation. Today, because I know how complete God my Daddy loves me, even accepts me, those slights, those hurts no longer bother me. When we are established in His righteousness, indeed no weapon can prosper against us.
None! No one can say something, anything that could offend us. Even if temper rises up, even if lustful feelings emerge, even if we want to see more or hear more than we should, the love of Father rushes right in, and all that hurt, hate, and harm melts away.
This is so wonderful. This creates so much peace! I LOVE IT!
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