I hate AA.
This cult teaches people that they have to continue making amends for all the sins, the failures, the follies, and the fallouts in their lives. They have no rest.
In fact, one passage in the Big Book declares that in AA, it is a life of action and still more action. There is no resting on one's laurels.
There is never a sure sense of forgiveness for anything.
I would confess my deepest sins, perversions, crimes, bad thoughts in my head, and yet there was never a sense of liberty, a sense of "It Is Finished."
This lingering sense of shame would never go away from me. Ever.
And yet ...
The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) when we confess our sins--that does not mean that we must keep on confessing.
For the Jewish mind throughout the Old Testament, the confession of sins was a basic acknowledgement that we have sin, that a sin nature has been imputed to us because of Adam.
Today, we are in Christ, friend from the sin and condemnation of Adam.
Check out what 1 John Chapter 2 reads, for those who still believe that 1 John 1: 9 means continual confession of sins to be forgiven:
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye
sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous: 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:1-2)
Notice that John does not say to "my little children" to confess sins to be forgiven. Remember also that throughout Paul's writings, not once does Paul charge his readers, the fellow believers in the body of Christ, to confess their sins to be forgiven.
Our minds need to be able to rest in the grace of God, that through His Son Jesus all our sins have been purged, paid for, and put away.
We find this revelation in Isaiah:
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)
The word "stayed" is first mentioned in the verse below:
"And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made
him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with
corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?" (Genesis 27:37)
God is our sustainer, our provider. We need never worry about how we will get through our days, what we will do in the face of lack, because our Lord Jesus is watching out for us.
The second mention of "stay" appears in this verse:
"And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the
tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands
upon the head of the bullock." (Exodus 29:10)
Here, the priests put their hands on the head of the animal sacrifice. The animal would take the sins of the man offering the sacrifice, so that the animal would be punished for the sins, and the man would leave the altar of sacrifice knowing that his sins were atoned.
Today, we have Jesus, who not only atoned, i.e. covered for our sins, but His sacrifice put away all our sins forever!
"11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to
come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to
say, not of this building; 12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by
his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of
an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:11-14)
The blood of animals atoned for sin, but the blood of Jesus purges our conscience, that we no longer feel the need to have to do something to make ourselves right with God!
And there's more:
"4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins." (Hebrews 10:4)
and then
"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for
ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10:12-14)
We have forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. We need never feel that we must punish ourselves or worry that we need to still pay for the wrong things that we have done.
For a long time, I would still have lingering panics about how I felt. "What if? What if?" still clouded my mind, and I would remember how I had felt in years past, and how I could not get out of that sense of upset and alarm for the longest time.
That is the truth warfare which plagues all of us, including Christians.
Paul was not mincing the fact that we have warfare all around us.
But our weapons against the attacks of the enemy are powerful!
"(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5Casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" (2 Corinthians 10: 4-5)
We find peace, we find full prosperity, because in our minds we have rest. We know that all our sins have been perfectly paid for at the cross, and we need never wake up and wonder every day if I still have to do something more to make sure that before God I am justified:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
