06/20/23

Walk the Talk

escalator, subway, metro, transportation, urban, people

In his devotional thoughts in My Utmost for His Highest, for February 19th, Oswald Chambers made the following statement: “We have to take the first step as though there were no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us, He will not; but immediately we arise we find He is there. Whenever God inspires, the initiative is a moral one. We must do the thing and not lie like a log.”

The thought applies equally to the real psychological and spiritual drudgery of progressive sanctification and the “progress not perfection” component of change in recovery. Chambers is not advocating a self-willed “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” spirituality, but pointing to how faith and works come together. After quoting from Isaiah 60:1 (“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”), he said: “It requires the inspiration of God to go through drudgery with the light of God upon it.”

We start with a clear recognition of our powerlessness over sin (or addiction), we have faith that God is more powerful than our sin (or addiction), we surrender our lives to God and then we begin to align our lives with His will. Our initial belief in who God is and what He promises is manifested in our ongoing efforts to live as we believe He has called us to live. After we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth, we are called to walk the talk. We must do the thing and not lie like a log. “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). Interestingly, this call to holiness in First Peter also includes the exhortation to be sober-minded:

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy. (1 Pe 1:13-16)

While the Greek term for sober-minded, nēphō, in verse 13 can have the literal sense of abstinent, here it means to be in control of one’s thought processes and not fall into irrational thinking. However, for the addict and alcoholic the term does have a literal sense: be free from every form of mental and spiritual drunkenness (i.e., passion, excess, rashness, confusion). In other words, don’t continue in your former way of life. Resist the craving to once again drink or use drugs. Be holy; walk the talk.

There is a threefold aspect to holiness that corresponds to the three tenses of salvation noted in Romans 5:1-2. That is, because we are justified by faith (a past completed action), we now have (present tense) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We also have access by faith into the grace in which we stand (present tense). Therefore, we rejoice in hope of the still-future glory of God.

All believers are positionally holy by virtue of their calling and they are summoned to live out their lives in a manner befitting their new position in Christ. With God’s help, they grow and mature “with the life of Christ as their pattern.” The third and final phase of holiness will only be reached when Christ completes the process of salvation upon His return, “when all His own will be like Him, seeing Him as He is, the perfect and glorious Son of God (1 Jn. 3:2).”

Although a believer in Christ must become engaged in this process, his involvement is not something praiseworthy. It is not a contributing factor to his acceptance by God, which is already his as a gift by God’s grace. It’s more that when he is adopted into the family of God, he should reproduce the family likeness and be like his older brother, Jesus. According to The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the starting point for this character development is realizing that the mercies of God call for an adequate response: presenting one’s body as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1). During this character development we will be tempted to remain conformed to the things of this world, but we are to be transformed–by the renewing of our mind–into a growing likeness to Christ (2 Cor. 3:18).

Similarly, there is a threefold transformation process in recovery, where soberness corresponds to holiness. We would then alter the Scriptural command to be holy in a relationship with Christ to: Be sober for we are sober. Addicts and alcoholics become members of A.A./N.A. by their desire to stop drinking and using drugs. And they are challenged to live out their lives in conformity to the principles of abstinence and sobriety embodied in A.A./N.A. With God’s help, they grow and mature “with the Twelve Steps as their pattern.” The end goal of such a life is to die sober; to live life on life’s terms without turning to drugs or alcohol.

In 1961, Louis R. told the story in the AA Grapevine how President McKinley once gave him a tip for watering his horse. He hadn’t known who McKinley was until someone told him. But he didn’t care as long as the man had given him whiskey-money. Louis was around nineteen at the time.

At an A.A. meeting on November 17, 1951 he raised his hand and asked the speaker if A.A. expected a man who had drunk all his life to stop drinking just like that. The speaker responded that if he’d done it, Louis could too. Louis said, “I figured maybe he was right, so I reached inside my shirt, took out the half pint of wine, and gave it to the man sitting next to me.” He never drank again. After ten years of sobriety, Louis realized he had a bad heart and knew he didn’t have too much longer to live, but he didn’t care. “The main thing I want is to die sober. And with the grace of God and the help of my good friends in Alcoholics Anonymous, I can do it.”

In the AA Grapevine article, “A Small Price to Pay,” an attorney reflected on his 28-year drinking career. With just a few years sober, he noted that some long timers he knew had slipped back into the mess from whence they came and died drunk and miserable. “I know I’ll die someday. But I prefer to die sober and happy, when my time comes.” He commented that eternal vigilance was the price of his freedom from the “thralldom” of his active addiction. “So if the form that my vigilance must take is active participation in AA and a continuing, honest attempt to work the program, that’s a small price to pay.”

Think of recovery as walking up a down escalator. The trick is to continue to walk up the escalator faster than it is moving down. It doesn’t matter how far up the escalator you have gone, even if you can no longer see the bottom from which you started. The moment you stop moving faster than the escalator is, you start going backwards; and eventually you will get to the bottom again. You have to walk the talk until the day you die.

If you’re interested, more articles from this series can be found under the link for “The Romans Road of Recovery.” “A Common Spiritual Path” (01) and “The Romans Road of Recovery” (02) will introduce this series of articles. If you began by reading one that came from the middle or the end of the series, try reading them before reading others. Follow the numerical listing of the articles (i.e., 01, 02, or 1st, 2nd, etc.), if you want to read them in the order they were originally intended. This article is 18th in the series. Enjoy.

12/27/22

In Love and Tolerance

“Bill’s Story,” the first chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, told of how Bill W. got clean and sober. He wrote: “An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature.” Yet there was a realization of the importance of carrying the message to the newcomer, in love and tolerance, from the very beginning. The weakest, most unpresentable members of A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) or N.A. (Narcotics Anonymous) are often newcomers.

Early A.A. met frequently so that “newcomers may find the fellowship they seek.” Genuinely feeling that “the newcomer is the most important person at a meeting” is a maxim within each Fellowship. N.A. said it this way: “The newcomer is the most important person at any meeting because we can only keep what we have by giving it away.” Within a 1946 Grapevine article, “Ours Not to Judge,” Bill W. said: “We have begun to regard these ones not as menaces, but rather as our teachers. They oblige us to cultivate patience, tolerance and humility.” Chapter seven of Alcoholics Anonymous, “Working with Others,” says:

Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail . . . Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.

The need for tolerance appears regularly throughout the A.A. Big Book. In the “We Agnostics” chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, the hypocrisy of pointing to religious intolerance when the alcoholic was intolerant towards religion itself was pointed out. The importance of tolerance for healing family relationships was noted. The essential requirement of tolerance in relating to others—within and outside A.A.—was underscored repeatedly. Succinctly in the “Into Action” chapter, Bill W. said: “Love and tolerance of others is our code.”

We find the same awareness in the N.A. Blue Book. In their “How It Works” chapter, N.A. noted that one thing will defeat them more than anything else in recovery, “an attitude of indifference or intolerance toward spiritual principles. Three of these that are indispensable are honesty, open-mindedness and willingness. With these we are well on our way.” As recovery progresses, principles such as “hope, surrender, acceptance, honesty, open-mindedness, willingness, faith, tolerance, patience, humility, unconditional love, sharing and caring” touch every area of their lives, leading to a new image of themselves. “Honesty and open-mindedness help us to treat our associates fairly. Our decisions become tempered with tolerance.”

Parallel to this thinking, In My Utmost for His Highest on May 6^th, Oswald Chambers said: “It takes God a long time to get us out of the way of thinking that unless everyone sees as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view.” Love and tolerance flow from a self-conscious recognition in A.A. that not only are individuals corporately members of the larger body, but they are also dependent upon one another. They need one another for sobriety.

A.A. and N.A. have been successful in maintaining solidarity within their respective fellowships by remembering that despite their open-ended criteria for membership (the only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking or using drugs), they are individually members of one another. This diversity of membership with minimal formal guidelines raises the potential for conflict over everything from how to apply the Twelve Steps in ongoing recovery, to where donations for service projects within the local regions and groups of the two fellowships should be allocated. These and other disputes exist within each fellowship, sometimes with heated and vehement ‘discussions’ of the issue.

But so far, the internal disputes have not led to the demise of A.A. or N.A. To the contrary, each fellowship has reported yearly increases in the number of groups established worldwide for more than thirty years. Nor has there been a disgruntled splitting of the fellowships, which seems more commonly to have occurred within the local churches and denominations of Protestant Christianity. I’d suggest this is because A.A. and N.A. are more effective in living out Romans 14:19 than the church today seems to be: “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding,” despite their diversity.

Paul’s warning in the next verse, Romans 14:20, has been too often disregarded by the church: “Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God.” In chapter 14 of Romans, Paul discusses the way in which the church in Rome can accommodate diverse opinions on how individuals should live out their lives as members of the kingdom of God. The two disputed issues Paul gave as examples were whether or not members of the church should be vegetarian; and whether individuals should continue to honor the holy days within the Jewish religious system. Paul’s response has an almost postmodern, live-and-let-live sense to it: Each person should be fully convinced in his own mind on the rightness of his position (Romans 14:5). But as John Murray pointed out in his commentary on Romans, Paul was not just acknowledging options here, rather he was giving a command:

The injunction to be fully assured in one’s own mind refers not simply to the right of private judgment but to the demand. This insistence is germane to the whole subject of this chapter. The plea is for acceptance of one another despite diversity of attitude regarding certain things. Compelled conformity or pressure exerted to the end of securing conformity defeats the aims to which all the exhortations and reproofs are directed.

What keeps this from becoming a self-styled sense of merely doing what was right in your own eyes (Judges 21:25) is Paul’s clear reminder that the church in Rome does not live for its own purposes, but for the Lord’s (Romans 14:7-12). In other words, he reminds them of their surrender to and calling in Christ; they are not their own (1 Corinthians 6:19b). Everything we do in life is in reference to this basic fact. Our daily lives are a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1-2): “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord” (Romans 14:8). The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith makes the same point, declaring that the chief end of humanity is “to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.” The Scriptural support given for such a declaration comes from both the Old and New Testaments:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. (Psalms 73:26-28)For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36) So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Co 10:31)

The context which permits Paul to exhort the church in Rome to “pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding” in their relationships with one another is that his command is grounded in recognizing that their primary purpose is to “live to the Lord.” Again, we can turn to John Murray and his comments on Romans 14:12:

It is to God each will render account, not to men. It is concerning himself he will give account, not on behalf of another. So, the thought is focused upon the necessity of judging ourselves now in the light of the account which will be given ultimately to God. We are to judge ourselves rather than sit in judgment upon others.

If a “weaker” individual has scruples about whether or not they should eat meat, the “stronger” person should not look down upon him or her. Conversely the “weaker” person should not judge the “stronger” person because they do not keep to the same restrictions. Keeping or not keeping certain holy days was similarly a matter of personal preference; and the keepers and non-keepers were not to judge or despise the others for their position. “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”

The proper attitude towards those with different ideas on how to glorify and enjoy God should be to avoid placing any stumbling block or hindrance in the other person’s way. Emphasizing the relationship between the two sides—abstainers and non-abstainers, keepers and non-keepers—Paul refers to them as brothers; members of the same fellowship body. If you think of your position as “stronger” because you don’t have the same scruples to avoid eating meat, “Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.” (Romans 14:20a) The kingdom of God is a matter of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Again, this freedom presupposes that the primary purpose for a believer is to live to the Lord; to worship and enjoy him forever.

Self-conscious recognition of the unity of individual believers should lead to their harmony in corporate relationships. Here there can be no distinction between Jew or Greek, strong or weak, “for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.” (Romans 10:12) Bill W. commented on the inclusiveness of A.A. by noting how one day he talked privately in his office with an A.A. member who was a countess and that night met a man at a meeting who used to be part of Al Capone’s mob. After retelling this anecdote in the Grapevine, the anonymous editor said: “In AA, our very diversity is a measure of our unity.”

Perhaps the ultimate example of how Twelve Step recovery and the epistle to the Romans correspond in their thinking about tolerance, unity and fellowship is when they each turn to the Golden Rule, what Jesus said was the second greatest commandment, loving your neighbor (Mark 12:28-31). In the Big Book chapter, “A Vision for You,” Bill W. commented how the newcomer would make lifelong friends in A.A., bound together by their common escape from disaster and shoulder to shoulder journey of recovery. “Then you will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. You will learn the full meaning of ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’”

At the current time in our culture and political climate, Christians need to see how loving others—even those we strongly disagree with—is a decree of Scripture. Paul commanded the Roman church to owe no one anything except the continuing debt to love each other, for then they will have fulfilled the law. Every one of the commandments was summed up in “‘You shall love you neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8-10). For more on the Golden Rule, see “Doers of the Word.”

11/1/22

Unity, not Uniformity

In a previous article, “Thoroughly Following the Path of Recovery,” I related the true story of a woman with five years of sobriety who responded to an amends letter written by the man who had killed her son in a hit-and-run accident. She said she could not describe the healing and gratitude his letter brought. She sobbed in her sponsor’s arms. “Thank you. I pray that you will keep on the path of sobriety and receive God’s love and forgiveness.” They were now in unity; they were brother and sister within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

There are no qualifications for membership in A.A. other than the desire to stop drinking. You are a member of A.A. if you say you are. This is formalized in what is known as the Third Tradition: “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.” This sense of unity and community is often referred to as the “We” of the Twelve Step program.

To illustrate this characteristic of recovery, addicts and alcoholics will point to the frequency with which the word “We” appears in the Twelve Steps, beginning with the first word of the First Step: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable.” The Twelve Steps of recovery are self-consciously a first-person plural process: We are one as long as we share the desire to stop drinking.

In Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, within his essay on the Third Tradition, Bill W. declared that no matter who you are or how low you’ve gone, A.A. won’t deny you its fellowship. But that wasn’t always true. In the early days, because of fear and intolerance, there was an abundance of rules. “Everybody was scared witless that something or somebody would capsize the boat and dump us all back into the drink . . . We built a fine-mesh fence right around A.A.”

Experience taught them that taking away any alcoholic’s chance at membership was to potentially issue a death sentence; or to condemn him or her to endless misery. “Who dared to be judge, jury, and executioner of his own sick brother?” Two examples were given to illustrate how the early groups came to abandon all membership regulations.

One individual suffered with an unnamed dual addiction, who nevertheless easily demonstrated that he was a desperate case who above all wanted to get well. Concerned with the stigma of the man’s second addiction, they were more afraid of what others might say than the trouble this “strange alcoholic” might bring. Then someone said that what kept running through his mind was the thought: “‘What would the Master do?’ Not another word was said. What more could be said?”

Another person was a confirmed atheist who thought that A.A. could get along better without its “God nonsense.” He proceeded to remain sober and be vocal about his views. Eventually he had a slip and began drinking again. No one attempted to reach out to him. Holed up in a cheap hotel room, he thought that this was the end. Even A.A. had deserted him. “As he tossed on his bed, his hand brushed the bureau nearby, touching a book. Opening the book, he read. It was a Gideon Bible.” He didn’t drink again after the experience in the hotel room and became a valued member of A.A. What if they had succeeded in throwing him out for his blasphemy? “What would have happened to him and all the others he later helped? So the hand of Providence early gave us a sign that any alcoholic is a member of our Society when he says so.”

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:3-5)

Paul’s exhortation here is for us to not become prideful, to not think more highly (hyperphroneō) of ourselves than we should. In contrast, we are called to think with sober judgment (sōphroneō). The play on words in the Greek is intentional as Paul seeks to emphasize that we should not make too much of our seemingly unique and important function within the body of Christ. As members of the same body, we are given different duties or service work for the overall good of the body.

In Greek, the root word né̄phō referred to someone who avoided intoxication or was unaffected by wine. Sōphroneō then meant saneness, rationality, sober judgment. In Stoic thought, it referred to the essential virtue of proper conduct that proceeded from modesty (1 Tim. 2:9). So, Paul’s use of the various forms of né̄phō reflects the ancient philosophical belief that by practicing a particular belief system (i.e., Stoicism or Twelve Step recovery), you could put the world into proper perspective and therefore overcome it (Titus 2:12).

In other words, walk the talk and you will be able to live sober, holy lives in this present age; according to the measure of faith given to you by God. “That they were to think of themselves with ‘sober judgment’ (v. 3) suggests how out of touch with reality their opinions of themselves were. Robert Mounce said in his commentary on Romans, “Since the metaphor suggests intoxication, one might say they were in danger of becoming ‘egoholics!’”

This measure of faith is not referring to a degree of faith imparted by God, which then determines the extent of sober judgment the individual can exercise. It also does not refer to saving faith, as if there was a greater degree or richer manifestation of it meted out by God to certain believers. Paul explicitly says the opposite here: don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re “more spiritual” than someone else. Rather, this measure refers to the specific faith given by God for the individual to fulfill his or her calling as a member of the body of Christ, since “the members do not all have the same function.”

Paul begins with an observation that it was the grace given in his function as an apostle within the body of Christ that permitted him to exhort “everyone among you” to think with sober judgment about themselves. John Murray said the role as an apostle did not make Paul more spiritual than others within the body of Christ. In effect, Paul is saying: “I’m no better than you are. And even the fact that I am telling you not to be prideful means only that I am acting on the grace given me as an apostle. I’m just another bozo on the bus.”

Just as each of us has a body made up of many parts with various functions, in Christ we who are many form one body, with each member belonging to all the others. The spiritual worship of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) is grounded in our individual bodies being one of the many parts of the one body in Christ. So, the individual parts of the body of Christ belong to each other as do the individual parts of a physical body. And they serve each other with differing functions, just as the individual parts of a physical body.

This reference to the ‘body metaphor’ (we though many are one body in Christ) is the only instance of its use in the epistle to the Romans, but not the end of the concept in Pauline thought. Paul uses it repeatedly in Ephesians, Colossians and First Corinthians. Christ is the head of the church, which is His body (Colossians 1:18). And since the church is his body, he nourishes and cherishes it (Ephesians 5:29–30). In 1 Corinthians 10:17 we find Paul’s use of the body metaphor in his discussion of communion, “we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” In Romans 12:5, he expands the notion that we who are many form one body by adding that we are “individually members one of another.” Believers are indeed members of one body (Colossians 3:15), which God causes to grow (Colossians 2:19).

This sense of unity in diversity, of one body with many parts (1 Co. 12:20), has certain implications and obligations. If one member denies it is a member of the body because it is not “a hand,” this denial does not make it any less a part of the body (1 Co. 12:14–15). Individual body members do not have the same function (Ro. 12:4). But they are arranged, as God desired them to be (1 Co. 12:18). We are also obliged to see that our community life in the body reflects God’s will. We are to “put off” things such as falsehood, and speak truth with our neighbors because “we are members one of another” (Ro. 12:5; Eph. 4:25). We are individually members of each other as well as in Christ. Together we have the same unity in diversity inherent within our physical bodies and when one member suffers, we all suffer; when one member is honored, we all rejoice (1 Co. 12:26). We are to put on the new self (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10), the armor of light (Ro. 13:12), and even the full armor of God (Eph. 6:11). And over all these virtues, we are to put on love, “which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14).

This fuller exposition of the body metaphor is certainly behind Paul’s reference to the one body with many members in Romans 12:3-5, but is not needed here to make his point. By His grace, God gives each of us a measure of faith to fulfill a specific purpose within the larger body of Christ. There is a reason for our life. We are to live out this calling with the same harmony of purpose found in the organs of our own physical body.

There are several ideas in this passage and others in Romans common to Twelve Step Recovery and the sense of unity within the Fellowship. The above notion of the “We” of the program is one. Recognizing that while there are many members of A.A., they are united together. The First Tradition of A.A. says, “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.” The A.A. “Big Book” says most members sense that real tolerance of other people’s shortcomings and viewpoints and a respect for their opinions are attitudes that makes them more useful to others: “Love and tolerance of others is our code.”

Recognizing the importance of love and tolerance to other members in the Fellowship of A.A.—to other members of your spiritual, sober “body” is another. From this is a realization of the necessity to put the needs of the Fellowship-body before your own. This leads to a growing recognition of the presence of God-consciousness as the individuals and group seek to practice sober judgment in all their affairs.

07/26/22

Doing My Utmost for Surrender and Sanctification

A pastor of the church I attended preached a sermon many years ago on Romans 12:1-2 and he started off by asking a question: “Do you know what the problem with living sacrifices is?” He answered his question with: “They are always trying to crawl off the altar.” I don’t recall the sermon he preached, but I have always remembered the wisdom of these words; particularly as they apply to surrender in 12 Step recovery.

In a previous article in this series, “Surrender and Sanctification Along the Romans Road,” I reflected on how Romans 12:1 (I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship) applied to recovery. Here we will pick up the discussion by continuing with Romans 12:2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

What is this living sacrifice supposed to look like? What form does this spiritual worship, this devotion to God take? There are three things to see in how 12:2 responds to these questions. First, the command is set in the negative. Paul is realistic in recognizing the continued presence of sin in the life of believers. In his commentary on the book of Romans, John Murray said that eight of the Ten Commandments were negative because of sin; and that the first evidence of Christian faith is when we turn from sin. We might add that the living sacrifice of progressive sanctification is a persistent struggle against our sin nature, which repeatedly attempts to crawl off of the altar upon which it was sacrificed. “Sanctification is a process of revolutionary change in that which is the centre of consciousness . . . It is the thought of progression and strikes at the stagnation, complacency, pride of achievement so often characterizing Christians.”

The second thing is the term for ‘world’ here–aiōn, means a unit of time within a particular stage of history. In this sense, it should be understood as a contrast between the present age and the age to come. “This age,” its wisdom and its rulers, will pass away (1Co. 2:6). Its wisdom is foolishness before God (1Co. 1:20; 3:18-19). The age to come is the time of the resurrection at Christ’s return, when he will rule over all things; those who are raised in Christ will be equal to the angels and will never die (Matt. 12:32; Eph. 1:21; Luke 20:34-36).

Murray is helpful in his observation that this age is temporal and transient. “Conformity to this age is to be wrapped up in the things that are temporal, to have all our thought oriented to that which is seen and temporal.” The age to come is eternal. So, Paul gives us a warning here, do not be conformed to the things of this world.

Thirdly, there is a contrast between being conformed to this world/age and being transformed by the renewal of our mind. To fully appreciate what Paul is saying here, we need to look at some of his vocabulary in the original Greek. The term rendered ‘conformed’ is used only one other time in the NT (in 1 Peter. 1:14) and has the sense being conformed to a pattern or mold. The term ‘transformed’ means to metamorphose or change the essential nature of something. Again, the term for renewal is rarely used, found only one other time in the NT, in Titus 3:5.

Paul is attempting to communicate the radical change brought about by this living sacrifice. It is not a conformity or alignment with the Logos, the inherent Reason or “god” of the universe as with Stoic philosophy. We are not to accommodate the things of this world; not even the general revelation of God in creation (Romans 1:19). There is to be a metamorphosis of our essential nature into the image of Christ by the renewal of our minds; a transformation only possible through the action of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The radical transformation required in the life of an addict or alcoholic is often one of the biggest stumbling blocks to their ability to establish and then maintain lifelong abstinence. The things of this ‘age’ include wine with dinner; beer and football games; parties and pot. Separation from the People Places and Things of this addictive age can mean losing a life-long friendship; never going to another rock concert; foregoing a raucous ‘pub crawl’ with friends to celebrate turning twenty-one. It can mean giving up a lucrative career as a nurse anesthetist because you have easy access to your drugs of choice. It can mean separation, and even divorce, from a life-long partner who refuses to give up their own drinking or drug use and follow you into an abstinent-based lifestyle.

It requires changes to the essential nature of how you live your life and look at the world around you.

In the exhortation to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, we see a further application of Romans 6:17, where Paul said that we were to become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which we are committed. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26) was a favorite saying of Bill W. There is a necessary correspondence between what we do and what we believe. The faith we have in Christ is inexorably related to the metamorphosis of our will and lives into the will of God. The preceptive will of God for us, found in God’s law, should be progressively evident in our lives. This is also called progressive sanctification.

Inevitably in our lives, the question arises about which potential option before us is God’s will? Guidelines for many such decisions are clearly indicated in Scripture. Regardless of the allure of another person, do not commit adultery. Despite the enormity of the hurt done to us by another, do not murder. But many others are less readily discernible.

Do I marry this person or not? Do I accept this job or not? Do I comply with seemingly unethical directions from my boss? If God has a good, acceptable, perfect plan for my life, what is it here and now in this immediate situation? What do I decide? How do I respond? Am I reading the situation correctly?

Paul’s answer is to ‘test’ your choice. Make a decision and give it a trial run; formulate a hypothesis and see if your ‘experiment’ confirms or rejects the hypothesis. The testing process will determine if a certain decision is genuinely God’s will. We learn by experience what the will of God is; and in the process of testing, confirm the goodness and perfection of that will.

In the AA Grapevine article, “A Life Without Problems,” a man with twenty-three years of abstinence from alcohol remarked at a meeting that by turning his will and life over to the care of God, he had no problems that day. He readily admitted that hadn’t always been true, having “four marriages, three divorces, nine jobs, fourteen addresses (across four different states), dozens of home groups, and a countless number of meetings” in his twenty-three years since joining A.A. Even into double-digit years of sobriety he clung to his problems, making them his identity. He resisted anyone who might offer a solution and fought “to stay in my comfortable zone of unhappy competence that I had established with my problems.”

After the meeting, he was asked how he did it. The answer he gave was that the Third Step swept them away. “I turned my will and my life over to the care of God, as I understand him (or don’t understand him, her, it or them). Now I have only one task, laid out in AA’s Eleventh Step: ‘praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.’” Even if there was only “the Random God of the Cosmic Dice Game,” that “god” would get better results than what he had achieved through self-will.

Quoting the closing words to Bill Wilson’s Step Three essay in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, he said that to turn your will and life over to the care of God, “we can pause, ask for quiet, and in the stillness simply say [the Serenity Prayer], ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.’” In this moment, regardless of what happened before or what may happen tomorrow, what is the very best thing you can possibly do right now? Either do God’s will forcefully or be willing to be proved wrong–even if it means experiencing temporarily painful consequences. “Do what you think is God’s will at each particular moment, and you will have no problems. At least, that’s the best I can explain it today.”

Although you don’t see this mentioned in A.A. approved literature, AAs and its founders read the Oswald Chambers devotional My Utmost for His Highest in the early pre-Big Book years. Early Akron A.A. meetings opened with prayer and a reading from the Bible or a devotional such as My Utmost for His Highest. Dr. Bob, his wife Anne, Bill W. and his wife Lois used it. Chambers regularly returned to the topic of surrender and being a living sacrifice in his devotional comments. Here are a few selections.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice,” to let Him have all your powers that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is the thing that is acceptable to God. (January 8^th)

The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice, otherwise a tremendous divorce will be produced in the natural life . . . The only way we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. (December 10^th)

Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the Will; when that is done, all is done. There are very few crises in life; the great crisis is the surrender of the will. God never crushes a man’s will into surrender, He never beseeches him, He waits until the man yields up his will to Him. That battle never needs to be re-fought. (September 13^th)

Notice the parallel themes to the following exhortation by Bill W. in his final words to chapter eleven of the Big Book, “A Vision for You”: “Abandon yourself to God as You understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us.”

07/5/22

Surrender and Sanctification Along the Romans Road

Roman Road in Pompeii; © bloodua | 123rf.com

In chapter 12 of Romans Paul shifts from his discussion of the theological basis for faith in Christ, to a more practical discussion of how this faith should be applied in daily living. The ‘therefore’ in verse 1 suggests that what is to follow is based upon what came before. But not only does this verse refer back to the mercy discussed in Romans 11, of God bringing salvation to both Jews and Gentiles, but also to all the mercies throughout the first eleven chapters of Romans. These mercies include those we’ve looked at along the Romans Road: the mercy of God’s redemptive work Christ (Romans 3:23-25); the resulting mercy of the free gift of eternal life (Ro. 6:22-23); the mercy that this gift is available for all who believe in the person and work of Christ (Ro. 10:9-11); and the great mercy of being at peace with God (Romans 5:1).

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

In his commentary on the book of Romans, Robert Mounce said, “These ‘mercies’ provide not only the basis, but also the incentive for all moral effort on the part of the Christian.” So, we are to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. Sin should not have dominion over us (Romans 6:1-14). We are to walk according to the Spirit; not according to the flesh (Romans 8:4).

Greek philosophy often devalued the body. According to John Murray, “The ethical ideal was to be free from the body and its influences.” But this belief runs counter to a Biblical understanding of the importance of our physical nature. The degeneration of the body is the consequence of sin (cf. Genesis 2:17; 3:19; Romans 5:12), but the consummation of redemption anticipates the resurrection of the body (cf. Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 15:54-56). So, the renewal of our physical being is an integral part of the redemptive work of Christ. What was Paul trying to say here in Romans 12:1?

In First Corinthians (1 Corinthians 9:24-27), Paul urged Christians to discipline their bodies by self-control in all things. Here in Romans, he said we are to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. Sin should not have dominion over us (Romans 6:1-14). We are to walk according to the Spirit; not according to the flesh (Romans 8:4). Therefore, we are to present ourselves “to God as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13); or as he said in Romans 12:1, as a living sacrifice.

Paul uses ritual sacrifice here, common in both Jewish and Roman culture, as a conceptual metaphor to introduce how the Christian should live out their faith in Christ. An offering in Old Testament, Jewish ritual or Roman cultic practice was killed; its blood was shed. Paul turns the usual understanding on its head by saying that believers are called to a living sacrifice of their bodies.

Similar to our own time, in Roman culture there was a tendency to minimize or justify certain physical appetites as ‘normal.’ Coupled with the tendency to diminish the importance of the physical body, there was a real danger that some within the Roman church would seek to live a sinful lifestyle because they were under grace (Rom. 6:15ff). Paul was aware that if sanctification did not include the physical aspect of our being, it would be impossible to achieve. So here in chapter 12, he calls for the alignment and renewal of bodily appetites according to the will of God, and declares it to be an act of spiritual worship.

This living sacrifice is clearly voluntary, and suggests that free will has a role to play in sanctification. Surrendering our bodies as living sacrifices is a decision and we could choose to not do. As Robert Mounce noted, “Holiness of life rarely progresses apart from deliberative acts of the will. While sanctification is gradual in the sense that it continues throughout life, each advance depends upon a decision of the will.”

Living Sacrifice in the Third Step

Paul’s appeal to present our lives as living sacrifices to God in Romans 12:1 has a clear recovery parallel within the Third Step of Alcoholics Anonymous, which reads: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” Here we see the same dynamic of a call or decision to turn over the living sacrifice of our will and lives to the care of God, albeit to God as we understood Him. This god is not necessarily the God of Scripture, but the language of surrender in Step Three has an echo of familiarity to the Christian. In an essay he wrote on the Third Step, Bill Wilson said, “It is when we try to make our will conform with God’s that we begin to use it rightly.” If Bill had been referring to the God of Scripture, his comment could have been appropriately applied to the Biblical call to surrender in Romans 12:1.

Using the metaphor of a closed and locked door which opens only to the key of ‘willingness,’ Wilson said that looking through it, we see an inscription beside a pathway which reads: “This is the way to a faith that works.” Faith of some kind, even if it was only in A.A. itself, was possible to anyone. “But faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives.” Wilson added that the effectiveness of the whole A.A. program rested upon “how well and earnestly” the alcoholic worked the Third Step. Even the smallest beginning of willingness was enough. Once the key of willingness was placed in the lock and the door was even slightly open, “we find that we can always open it some more.” Self-will may slam it shut, but “it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.”

The program of Narcotics Anonymous believes “Recovery begins with surrender.” It’s Third Step Prayer says, “Take my will and my life. Guide me in my recovery. Show me how to live.” The relief of letting go and letting God helps an addict to develop a life worth living. This surrender gets easier with daily practice. “When we honestly try, it works.” But there is a caution that recognizes this is a living sacrifice: “Although we know that ‘turning it over’ works, we may still take our will and life back.”

Bill Wilson observed that simply by joining A.A., the person had made a beginning on Step Three. “Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one’s own will and one’s own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A.” But suppose that instinct of self-determination attempts to limit the surrender only to things involving alcohol?

“How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just what we shall think and just how we shall act.” We are confident that intelligence and willpower can control our inner lives and give us success. This philosophy of playing God sounds good, but it has to meet the acid test: “how well does it actually work?” The alcoholic learned through experience that self-sufficiency did not pay off. “Each of us had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will, and has suffered enough under its weight to be willing to look for something better.” Circumstances drove them to A.A. where they admitted defeat, acquired the rudiments of faith and are now faced with the decision to turn their will and life over to a Higher Power.

As the Third Step says, we make a decision to turn our will and life over to the care of God; we become a living sacrifice. Sanctification must include our body. Our sacrifice encompasses our whole being: body and soul. For the addict or alcoholic, this alignment and renewal of their bodily appetites with the will of God includes abstinence from all mind altering and mood changing drugs. They must make this surrender.

In his daily devotional, Oswald Chambers said surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the will. He said one of a few great crises in life is the surrender of our will to God, who neither crushes it into submission nor pleads with us to surrender it. He waits until we yield our will to Him. According to Chambers, “That battle never needs to be re-fought.” (My Utmost for His Highest, September 13^th).

05/10/22

Thoroughly Following the Path of Recovery

new green after a forest fire © pilens | 123rf.com

When discussing “Salvation” in the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, M.J. Harris said it had three tenses: the past, the present and the future. Trusting in the reality of our past deliverance in Christ, salvation can be understood as a past event. ‘Being saved’ is also an ongoing, present process as believers strive to manifest the reality of that salvation in our present lives (Romans 6:6, 12-14, 19). Yet the ultimate consummation of salvation lies in the future when Christ will return and redeem His creation. Christians are saved in hope with the expectation of the redemption of the body (Romans 8:23-24).

There is a similar sense of three tenses in recovery: a past decision to be abstinent, coupled with a present commitment to change, which results in the future realization of recovery. Abstinence may be a past completed action, but recovery is also a process of change that continues throughout the life of an addict or alcoholic. In this way, there is an eschatological sense to both salvation and recovery, where growth and change is a progressive process of striving for a fulfillment we cannot achieve in this life. Progress, not perfection applies equally to the journeys of salvation and recovery.

The Importance of Faith

(Romans 5:1-2) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

The three tenses of salvation are embedded in what Paul says here. Paul concludes that since we have been justified by faith (a past completed action), which he convincingly demonstrated in chapters one through four of Romans, we now have (present tense) peace with God “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We also have access by faith into the grace in which we stand (present tense); and so, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The past completed work of Christ results in grace and peace with God; and we rejoice in the future hope of the glory of God. No human being will ever be justified by works of the law (Romans 3:20). But now the righteousness of God through faith in Christ is available as a free gift for all who believe (Romans 3:21-4:25; esp. v. 3:24). Therefore, we rejoice, because what had seemed hopeless is no longer hopeless because we have been justified by faith.

While it clearly lacks the centrality of Christ, consider the parallels with this example of the three tenses of recovery.

J. B. boldly declared there was never a clearer example of faith in God than his. As an alcoholic, “Four walls and a bottle had become my world.” He drank until he was unconscious. He carried on conversations with “the man who wasn’t there.” He imagined little bugs crawling under his skin; and more. With the help of a friend, he came to the realization that he had been trying to run his own life. “I had always known there was a Higher Power, but I had forgotten God. He hadn’t forgotten me.” He was convinced that only a power greater than himself could cure him of his obsession for liquor. With complete faith, he turned to God. He admitted defeat and asked for help. He began to work the principles of the A.A. program.

I found peace within myself. I felt in harmony with, and became conscious of, the power of God. It is in the air we breathe, in the wonders of creation. . . . I changed on the inside, so life for me changed on the outside. I have faith in myself again. I became free of that pattern of running away from life and myself. I didn’t need an escape. My alcoholic problem had disappeared. . . . I am grateful and humble to be a part of something so big and wonderful; a spiritual program that is growing, and whose principles can be applied to all our daily affairs. It is simple. It is faith. (“When Faith Helped Me Most,” AA Grapevine, November 1952)

Suffering Leads to Hope

(Romans 5:3-5) More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Paul says that not only do we rejoice in our future hope of the glory of God, we also rejoice in our present sufferings or troubles. Our present peace is not just because of our future hope. Right now, in the midst of our troubles we can rejoice, because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. The Greek term for “character” here denotes something that has been proven by trial. Perseverance or spiritual tenacity in the midst of trials and suffering produces character, which leads to hope. There is a progressive spiral upwards that begins with the grace we obtained by faith and ends with hope that will not put us to shame.

The implication here is that we cannot be defeated; there is always hope in achieving the glory of God, if we remain faithful. Looking ahead to our future hope, confident of its fulfillment because we have been justified by faith, we endure in suffering. As we continue to bear up under trying circumstances, Robert Mounce thought we developed strength of character. “Christian suffering is a source of joy because its purpose is to build character in the believer.”

Christianity is not a masochistic rejoicing in suffering, but it is a confidence that when we rely upon Christ in the midst of our suffering, we cannot be defeated. But without faith, there is a progressive downward spiral: suffering brings about despair; despair leads to faint-heartedness; and faint-heartedness produces hopelessness. Hope leads to more hope; hopelessness brings about greater hopelessness.

In “Embers of Hope,” a man described the consequences of a decision he made to end his life on Labor Day, 2001. After drinking himself into oblivion, he set fire to his house and staggered into the woods behind his home. There he put a shotgun with a rifle slug under his chin and pulled the trigger.

An hour later he awoke, filled with disgust for failing to end his life. He’d only brought one shell and couldn’t go back home for more, because by this time there were twelve fire companies on the scene. So, he crawled further into the woods, hoping that he would bleed to death before anyone could find him. In what he said was “an act of Providence,” he had a moment of clarity and somehow found the strength to walk the distance he had crawled into the woods.

A photographer for a local paper who saw him at first thought he was some kind of a Halloween decoration, with his jaw blown away and his left eye hanging out of its socket. The doctors who treated him said it was a miracle he was alive; ten more minutes in the woods and he would have most likely bled to death.

In the hospital, I awoke one morning and standing next to my bed was the pastor from the local church in my community. He asked me in no uncertain terms if I had had enough yet and handed me a Bible and the A.A. Big Book. With tears streaming down my face, I reached out for the books. With a nod of submission, I started my journey into recovery.God has turned my shadow of death into another morning and A.A. is giving me the tools to live in this day. I am powerless over alcohol, and I firmly believe that what my human helplessness could not overcome, God’s divine enablement can. (AA Grapevine, June 2007).

The reason for us to have hope as we endure suffering is: “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” This love is God’s love for us, which does not waver and cannot fail. He has loved us with an everlasting love and continues His faithfulness to us (Jeremiah. 31:3). The Greek word translated as poured in Romans 6:5 has the sense of dying as a sacrifice (Matthew. 26:28; Mark. 14:24; Luke. 22:20). Paul is obviously thinking of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ through which we receive the Holy Spirit. This love of God has also been poured into our hearts; and what rules our heart, rules our behavior (Matthew. 6:21; Luke. 6:45). Again, the result is that we will be like Him. We shall be at peace with God and full of the glory of God. So we rejoice in our sufferings, as we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, because nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:39).

Often in recovery there is a tendency to focus efforts on addictive behavior, the wrong doing of addiction. Don’t drink and go to meetings. Don’t pick up the first joint, pill, fix or drink. Stay away from people, places and things associated with addiction. Although these behavioral changes are necessary, they are not sufficient for long-term recovery. Just not using drugs or alcohol (abstinence) and systematically modifying your addiction-related behavior is a shallow imitation of true recovery. Without concurrent attention to the wrong being of addiction, the addict or alcoholic will eventually resume active drinking or drug use. There has to be a corresponding change in the heart and soul of the addict or alcoholic; you must abstain from active drinking or drug use and then change the thinking, feeling and attitude patterns that were part of the addictive lifestyle. You have to transform, to metamorphose your mind (Romans 12:2).

On February 20, 2001, a man named ‘John’ was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The driver turned himself in and was incarcerated for vehicular homicide. Despite three previous citations for drunken driving, he had continued to drink. The night of the accident, he swore he’d never drink again; Again. But after a year of being locked up, it became “I will never drink and drive again.” One day he went to an A.A. meeting in prison, and realized it was three years to the day of the accident. He took that as a sign and has been active in A.A. and practicing the Twelve Steps ever since. He’d been contacted previously by John’s brother, and so after a year in A.A., he wrote another letter to John’s brother, saying that he belonged to A.A. and was practicing the Twelve Steps in his life. He hoped his story would reach another alcoholic, “and–in John’s memory–save at least one family from the tragedy I had put his family through.” Ten months later, he received a letter, which said:

I am John’s mother and will celebrate five years of sobriety on the twenty-second-of this month. I do not know what direction this letter will take–I leave it to God to guide me. Twenty-nine years ago, I gave birth to John and, in honor of the way he lived and the loving memories I have of him, I find the right thing to do is to reach out to you. John’s brother shared your letter of amends. I cannot describe the gratitude I felt and the healing that letter brought. I sobbed in my sponsor’s arms and let go of so much of what I had kept inside me. Thank you. I pray that you will keep on the path of sobriety and receive God’s love and forgiveness. (“A Letter from the Mother of the Man I Killed,” AA Grapevine, December 2006)

“Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. . . . It works–it really does” (Alcoholic Anonymous, p. 58).

04/19/22

Recovery Is a Life-Long Process

The greatest enemy to recovery is a sense of hopelessness and helplessness: if it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not I abstain from using drugs or alcohol, why abstain? There is a similar tendency in the Christian life, as we live out the ongoing war between the desires of the Spirit and the desires of the flesh, “for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17). The temptation to give up, to live like a captive to the law of sin (Romans 7:23) is ever present. And the needed response in both recovery and the Christian life is spiritual tenacity or perseverance.

The importance of spiritual tenacity was emphasized in My Utmost for His Highest, for February 22^nd, “The Discipline of Spiritual Tenacity”: “It is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire.” We need to work deliberately to manifest love, justice, forgiveness and kindness to others, relying upon “the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.” We are to persevere. My Utmost for His Highest was a devotional read in early A.A.

Because of the very real correspondence between sin and addiction, spiritual tenacity or perseverance is a daily requirement for the Christian believer and the recovering alcoholic or addict. In another article, “Born of the Flesh,” I noted that addiction was simultaneously “a disease of the brain” and “an infection of the human heart.” The scientific evidence of genetics and biochemistry explains the physiological aspect of addiction, but cannot fully account for how that is translated into abnormal behavior or why the tendency to fall back into active addiction must be guarded against for a lifetime.

Increasingly in our time, materialistic cause seems to dominate accepted views of human nature and disorder. Here the bodily, material aspect of humanity is emphasized. Our mental, emotional, and spiritual lives are thought to be simply by–products of our material constitution. Therefore, explanations of human behavior have a radically naturalistic explanation. The notion of freedom, the ability to choose how we act or respond to our environment is ultimately a myth from this perspective. Moral responsibility for our actions is not something the individual can claim. Physiology, society or the environment—or a combination of these sources—is ultimately responsible for our good or bad behavior. Ultimately there is no God or Higher Power and no sin. Morality is a socially constructed phenomenon; sin does not exist; and addiction is merely a brain disease. A wonderfully complex brain disease, but ultimately caused by bio-physical mechanisms alone.

But if we are psycho-somatic beings as Anthony Hoekema claims in Created in God’s Image, we are creatures with a body (soma) and soul (psyche). Then there is an interaction between the physical and psychological aspects of our being. Genetics and biochemistry can influence human behavior, but they cannot fully determine it. If you believe that we are more than a sophisticated complex of bio-physical processes, explanations for all human behavior—including sin and addiction—must have this dual causal sense without subsuming ultimate responsibility under the other. For more on Hoekema’s idea, see “Created in the Image of God.”

Now we come to a necessary presumption, the existence of God or a Higher Power. This God or Higher Power is a necessary part of Twelve Step recovery and Christian, Biblical belief. But it is an irrelevant nuisance at best if you hold to a consistent view of addiction as merely a brain disease. When there is a God or Higher Power, there can be a basis for morality beyond human, social consensus. Wrong doing or sin can then be a violation of what this God or Higher Power declares is right. Biblical, Christian thinking goes one step further and sees sin as wrong being as well as wrong doing.

Sin is thus never merely a voluntary act of transgression; it proceeds from something more deep-seated; the expression of a sinful heart. Here the sense of sin in Romans 3:23 (all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God) and Romans 5:12-19 is in view. We are sinful in this way because the sin of Adam is imputed (credited) to all of us. Rejecting the doctrine of original sin fails to appreciate the close relationship between the imputation of Adam’s sin to all of humanity and God’s plan for the accomplishment of salvation in Christ. In the New Bible Dictionary, John Murray and B.A. Milne said:

The history of mankind is finally subsumed under two complexes, sin-condemnation-death and righteousness-justification-life. The former arises from our union with Adam, the latter from union with Christ. These are the two orbits within which we live and move. God’s government of men is directed in terms of these relationships. If we do not reckon with Adam we are thereby excluded from a proper understanding of Christ. All who die die in Adam; all who are made alive are made alive in Christ.

So that which is born of the flesh (the physical body) is flesh (a depraved heart, given over to wickedness). Addiction is simultaneously a disease of the brain and an infection of the heart. And this bio-psycho-social-spiritual ‘disease’ precedes the addictive/sin behavior noted in Romans 7:18-19: “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

Like sin, addiction is wrong being as well as wrong doing. And the wrong being of addiction has an ongoing existence in the human heart that continually strives to re-engage the addict or alcoholic in the wrong doing of active drinking or drug use. So, it’s not enough to simply abstain from drugs or alcohol; the addict has to change: Abstinence plus change equals recovery. And this change process must be a lifelong pursuit.

Walking Up the Down Escalator

One metaphoric image that captures this truth is to say that recovery is like walking up a down escalator. The trick for progress is to continue walking up the escalator faster than it is moving down. It doesn’t matter how long you have been walking up the escalator, the moment your efforts to walk up are less than the down movement of the escalator, you start to drift back to where you started. You may even continue to walk up; but if the effort isn’t greater than the movement of the down escalator, you don’t even realize you are actually moving backwards. For more on this concept, see “Preventing the Relapse Process, Part 2.”

In the AA Grapevine article, “PO Box 1980,” was the story of an older man at a treatment center. He approached a counselor after a talk on relapse and said that until two weeks before that, he had been sober for forty-two years. For thirty-nine of them, he attended A.A. meetings. After he moved three years ago, he stopped going to A.A. when he found that he just didn’t like the meetings in his new area. He figured he’d heard all he was going to hear and learned all he was going to learn; that he didn’t need them after thirty-nine years.

On an ordinary day, when a couple of things went wrong, he thought he would feel better with a drink. “That first day I only had a couple, but the next day I drank until I passed out. I disappeared for two weeks and my grandkids came looking for me. They found me passed out in a closet and they brought me here.” Abstinence relieves the symptoms of wrong doing, but it does not cure the disease of addictive wrong being. Recovery is a life-long process.

12/14/21

The Common Grace of Recovery

Regardless of the influence of genetics, personal history, or environment, Twelve Step recovery is centered upon the hope that the addict or alcoholic can actually choose to establish and then maintain abstinence from drugs and alcohol. Powerless they may be over the influence these substances exert over them once the substance is coursing through their veins, but the individual is not powerless over the decision to ingest the substance. In order to recover, the addict or alcoholic must believe that they can really choose to not pick up a drink or a drug; and that they can surrender their life to the God of their understanding. They are powerless over alcohol and drugs, but not the decision to use them.

The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.

As explicit as this statement in the A.A. Big Book seems to be, the spiritual relativity of the Twelve Steps meant that “our Creator” could be a variety of things; and often meant the recovery program itself. Narcotics Anonymous said this explicitly in their basic text: “It wasn’t until we came to Narcotics Anonymous that recovery became possible. This program can do for us what we could not do for ourselves.” The author of “What We Could Never Do” in the AA Grapevine used language reminiscent of an individual testifying of their “born again” experience. They said: “The central fact of my life today is the absolute certainty that AA has entered into my heart and life in a way which is indeed exceptional.”

This postmodern avoidance of absolutes, especially about God, was firmly embedded in Twelve Step recovery from the beginning. The recovery program described in the A.A. Big Book was merely suggestive. Although God existed, you didn’t have to believe in him all at once; and could even fashion your own understanding of a “Higher Power.” The ability to imagine God as you understand Him has remained a hallmark of the spiritual worldview of A.A.

In a 1949 address before the American Psychiatric Association, Bill Wilson explicitly stated that A.A. was not a religious organization because it had no dogma. He also stated that the only theological proposition—of a Power greater than one’s self—would not be forced on anyone. There was a self-conscious avoidance of the absolute certainty with which the apostle Paul declared that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Even while acknowledging the parallels to religious conversion within the recovery program of A.A., Wilson said that too many people were afraid of being “God-bitten.”

In 1961, Wilson said the following in “The Dilemma of No Faith” for the AA Grapevine: “Our concepts of a Higher Power and God—as we understand Him—afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action.” He suggested that this was perhaps the most important expression in be found in the entire vocabulary of A.A. Every kind and degree of faith, together with the assurance that each person could choose his or her own version of it opened a door “over whose threshold the unbeliever can take his first easy step into . . . the realm of faith.” So, recovery does not require that you acknowledge and worship Jesus Christ as your Higher Power. At this point, Twelve Step recovery wanders off in a different direction from the Romans Road.

Confess and Believe

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)

Here is one of the classic summaries of the fundamental elements of faith leading to salvation. The confession of Jesus as Lord here refers to the position Christ has because he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, where he was given authority over all of creation (Ephesians. 1:20-23). The order Paul uses in verse 9 (mouth and heart) corresponds to the order of Deuteronomy 30:14, which he just quoted; but then he reverses that order (heart and mouth) in verse 10. Paul is not presenting a recipe or magical formula for salvation. Rather, he is emphasizing the central importance of believing in your heart for the process of salvation, for everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.

There is a principle in Scripture with regard to human nature that inexorably links heart and behavior: whatever rules your heart rules your behavior (Matthew. 6:21; Luke 6:45). So here we see that even in salvation, this principle applies: we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth. In his commentary on Romans, John Murray said: “Confession verifies and confirms the faith of the heart. . . Confession with the mouth is the evidence of the genuineness of faith.” This is equivalent to the discussion of faith in works in James 2:17-22. Faith without works (behavior that does not proceed from faith) is dead.

The Big Book described in chapters five and six how the program of recovery embodied in the first eleven of the Twelve Steps works. It ends with these words: “But that is not all. There is action and more action. ‘Faith without works is dead.’The next chapter, “Working with Others,” is entirely devoted to Step Twelve. It suggested the “works” for the practitioner of the Twelve Steps was carrying the message to others. The spiritual experience of faith in the first eleven Steps should lead to helping others. Step Twelve says: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry the message to alcoholics, and practice these principles in all our affairs.” Without citing the biblical origin of the quote, Bill Wilson relayed a saying that had relevance to his own recovery and almost played a role in the naming of A.A. itself.

Bill Wilson lived with Dr. Bob Smith and his wife Anne for about three months after he first met Dr. Bob in Akron, Ohio. Every morning they would have a devotional time in which Anne would read from the Bible. The book of James was a favorite; and Anne would conclude their devotional time by saying, “Faith without works is dead.” Not only was this a favorite quotation of Anne Smith, but the book of James was a favorite with early AA’s– “so much so that ‘The James Club’ was favored by some as a name for the Fellowship.”

Paul makes the same connection between faith and works in Romans 10:9-10. Faith, believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, without works, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord is dead faith. But “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Paul drives this point home in his repeated use of the Greek word gar, (commonly translated as “for”) four consecutive times in verses 10 through 13 of Romans 10. By doing so, he explains the declaration he just made in verse 10:9, that if you confess with your mouth (that Jesus is Lord) and believe in your heart (that God raised him from the dead) you will be saved.

Common Grace and Recovery

How do you obtain salvation? According to Romans 10:9, by believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. How do you obtain recovery? By a surrender to a god of your understanding, fashioned from the knowledge of God revealed in creation (Romans 1:19-25). You can use ritual and language with strong similarities to the ritual and language of those claiming a relationship with Christ, but it’s not the same.

You can be “reborn”; you can believe that your Creator has entered your heart and begun to accomplish things you could not do for yourself. But if this does not rest on the foundation of Jesus Christ it is not salvation in the Biblical sense. The spiritual and theological differences between the two are radical. Biblically speaking, a self-fashioned understanding of God is idolatry since you worship and serve some aspect of creation that manifests “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God” (Romans 11:33) instead of God himself.

In the “We Agnostics” chapter of the A.A. Big Book, Bill Wilson wrote that deep down inside us was the fundamental idea of God. Faith in some kind of God was a part of our human make-up. “Sometimes we had to search fearlessly, but he was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great Reality deep down within us.”

Humans beings are naturally in possession of rational and moral abilities. Because of the Fall, these abilities are used in ways that are hostile to serving and glorifying God. But this capacity for rationality and morality has not been diminished through sin. We are not irrational or amoral in this sense as a consequence of the Fall. Through sin we fell ethically and became hostile to God.

A Fallen, sinful person has no ability (they are powerless) to keep that hostility from becoming consistent and full blown. At it says in Romans chapter 7, we can have the desire to do good, but not the ability to carry it out. We are captive to the law of sin inside of us. But there is common grace, which is: “The means by which God keeps [us] from expressing the principle of hostility to its full extent, thus enabling [us] to do the relative good.”

Common grace is then a restraining force that keeps us from being completely hostile towards God, whether or not we believe in Him; whether or not we have a Romans 10:9 relationship with Jesus Christ. The addict or alcoholic is powerless over addiction because it is a manifestation of his or her hostility to God. Apart from the common grace of God within the Twelve Steps, they express this hostility in the horror of their active addiction—independent of their faith or lack of faith. Yet, through God’s common grace, even an atheist or agnostic can stop their previously active addiction.

A self-described atheist went on a week-long drinking binge after three and a half years of abstinence. Returning to her home group, she said she prayed twenty times a day to a God she didn’t believe in to please help her to not drink: “Please, God, if you are there, do not let me do it to myself again. After six months of believing I would never be able to stay sober again, I finally lost the obsession to drink.” She said it took her twenty years to “stop fighting God and to surrender.” She cleaned up her mouth; learned to have relationships; and “found a new friend in God.”

The ‘miracle’ of being relieved of the obsession to drink is accomplished through the common grace of God. And this grace is equally available to those who turn to the program of A.A. or N.A. as their Higher Power as it is for those with a Romans 10:9 relationship with Jesus Christ. God “makes his sun rise of the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:42).

11/23/21

Differing Paths

In the movie “The Last Sin Eater” (based on the novel by Francine Rivers by the same name), ten-year-old Cadi Forbes has an encounter with her Appalachian community’s “sin eater”—a human scapegoat who took the sins of the newly deceased upon himself in exchange for food and drink. She tried to tell the sin eater what the man of God told her; what was in his book (the Bible) about another sin eater . . . who ate everyone’s sin. Cadi was trying to help him see that he no longer had to be an outcast; he didn’t have to continue to be a sin eater. The sin eater interrupted and said that he refuses to read that book, because it may reveal that the twenty years of his life as a sin eater have been in vain. That is the dilemma for both A.A. and N.A. members and those who are called by Christ into relationship with Him. Although the truth of God is clearly seen, we seek to suppress it because of what it says about the impotence of our efforts apart from God.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:20-23)

Throughout chapter six in Romans Paul used slavery as a metaphor to compare the life of sin and the life of righteousness. Slavery was a common situation of life in Paul’s time. Estimates were that 85-90 percent of the Roman population was either slaves or the descendants of slaves. While they were viewed as “human tools,” slaves were still granted many legal rights.

They could worship as members of the extended family of their owner. They could marry, but the offspring of that marriage became the property of the owner. Slaves could also accumulate money on their own to purchase their freedom or to start a business once they were set free by their owners. While slaves could be architects, physicians, administrators and teachers, they were often hired out as day laborers in construction and industry. And they paid about two-thirds of their wages to their owners.

By the beginning of the first century the numbers of freed slaves had increased dramatically; partly because of the significant decline in the freeborn population of the time. No doubt there were both slaves and masters in many of Paul’s churches, including the church in Rome. According to Martin Hawthorne in the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Jewish slaves were particularly evident in Rome: “Jewish slaves had been brought to Rome by the tens of thousands from the time of Pompey’s conquest until the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.”

Continuing with the metaphor of slavery here, Paul observes that while we were slaves to sin, while sin was our master, we were “free” of any service obligations to righteousness. In other words, we could not serve two masters. We either serve sin and hate righteousness; or serve righteousness and hate sin (Matthew 6:24). But what benefit (or fruit) did we get from our slavery to sin, from the lawlessness and impurity of which we are now ashamed? There was no benefit; the end result is death. But now that we are free from sin and surrendered (as slaves) to God, the fruit (benefit) we receive is salvation and sanctification. According to Paul, there will be service to something in our lives. Which will it be? Slavery to sin results in lawlessness—which leads to death. Slavery to righteousness results in salvation and sanctification—which leads to eternal life.

The Greek word for wages in 6:23 was used outside of Scripture to refer to an allowance or salary paid out at designated times. Most often it referred to a minimal subsistence paid to soldiers, thus the use of the same Greek word in Luke 3:14, where John the Baptist tells soldiers to be satisfied with their pay and not to extort money to supplement their income. The recipient had a legal right to expect their “wages” and could bring legal action if they did not receive their justly due compensation. The context here suggests that all three aspects are part of what Paul is saying.

One sense suggests, “The subsistence which sin pays and offers is death.” Therefore, sin is a deceiver; it promises life and gives death. Secondly, it is not a single, final payment; but continues as the just compensation for sin. Thirdly, the legally owed payment for sin is contrasted with the free gift of God: eternal life in Christ. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament said: “Man has rights only in relation to sin, and these rights become his judgment. When he throws himself on God without claim, salvation comes to him.”

So, we see the radical difference between service to sin and service to righteousness in verse 6:23. The just compensation for sin is death, but righteousness leading to sanctification results in the free gift of eternal life in Christ. God freely gives to us what we cannot earn through our personal efforts; the deliverance from sin through eternal life in Christ.

So too are the consequences of alcoholism or addiction. The delusion or lie that an alcoholic can drink like other people, that somehow, someday the alcoholic will be able to control and enjoy his or her drinking “is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.” The wages of addiction are also death; jail, institutions or death as the saying goes in recovery. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous noted how many alcoholics pursue the illusion that they can somehow control and enjoy their drinking “into the gates of insanity or death.”

“No real alcoholic ever recovers control.” They are “restless, irritable and discontented” unless they have a few drinks. When they give in to the desire to drink again, the well-known stages of a drinking spree, remorsefulness for having drank, and a “firm resolution not to drink again” occurs as the just compensation for their drinking. “This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.” This downward cycle of alcoholism reflects of Paul’s description of the cycle of sin in Romans 7.

Paul knows that nothing good dwells in him, that is in his flesh. He has the desire to do what is right “but not the ability to carry it out;” he’s powerless. He does not do the good he wants to do, but does the evil he does not want to do instead. Although he delights in the law of God in his inner being, there is another law that makes him captive to the law of sin dwelling in him. “Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

The plan for recovery and the plan for salvation strike out in different directions at this point. Theologically, salvation aims high—for eternal life in Jesus Christ. Twelve Step recovery, seeking to be inclusive, does not require a belief in or surrender to Christ, and thus cannot give eternal life. If Christ is not the object of your faith, it isn’t “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16).

Saving faith must have Christ as its object. Faith in the god revealed through the 12 Steps must lead to faith in Christ who died for us. This faith in Jesus Christ is a free gift, available “for all who believe.” It is a manifestation of the righteousness of God by which he has passed over our former sins. “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

If you’re interested, more articles from this series can be found under the link for “The Romans Road of Recovery.” “A Common Spiritual Path” (01) and “The Romans Road of Recovery” (02) will introduce this series of articles. If you began by reading one that came from the middle or the end of the series, try reading them before reading others. Follow the numerical listing of the articles (i.e., 01, 02, etc.), if you want to read them in the order they were originally intended. This article is 10th in the series. Enjoy.

11/2/21

The Plan for Salvation and Recovery

“This is a Program of Total Abstinence.” (Narcotics Anonymous, 5^th edition, p, 81)

Addiction recovery based upon the Twelve Steps makes a distinction between abstinence and recovery, where abstinence is simply not using drugs or alcohol, and recovery is the result of combining abstinence with the change that occurs when an addict or alcoholic applies the Twelve Steps to their life. There is a ‘formula’ used to capture this, abstinence + change = recovery. This simple formula recognizes that mere abstinence without change is a ‘dry drunk’ that involves ‘stinking thinking.’ The desire to get high or drunk remains and will manifest itself in behavior and attitudes consistent with those the person did during their active drinking or drug use. A merely abstinent alcoholic or addict acts, talks, and feels like they did when drinking or drugging.

Change that is not based upon abstinence is not sustainable. It will not lead to recovery. Yet, you can sometimes achieve radical changes in addiction-related thinking, feeling and behavior without total abstinence. There can be a drastic reduction in the harmful effects of active drug and alcohol use. But for recovery, a change of heart and soul is needed—a progressive spiritual growth process that diminishes the need and desire for the mind altering and mood changing effects of drugs and alcohol.

Continuing to use drugs and alcohol, even in moderation, while working to change the need and desire for the high is like taking an antibiotic only until you feel better, and not for the full course of the required treatment. You only manage to diminish the harmful effects, which can return even stronger without a complete eradication of the original infection. Using drugs and alcohol is part of the problem; and simply diminishing the need and desire for getting high or drunk without concurrent abstinence cannot eradicate an addiction. Abstinence plus change equals recovery. As the Blue Book of Narcotics Anonymous says, “Complete abstinence is the foundation of our new way of life.” In other words, recognizing the need for ongoing abstinence is a prerequisite for recovery.

Terence Gorski, in Understanding the Twelve Steps, noted there were four tasks to completing the First Step. First, you admit that the use of alcohol or drugs has caused major problems in your life. Second, you admit the you are powerless to control the use of alcohol or drugs. Third, you admit your life has become unmanageable as a result of alcohol or drug us. And fourth, you admit that you are powerless to manage your life effectively as long as you continue to use alcohol or drugs. “When you have completed all four of these tasks, what decision do you have to make? What’s the only rational decision left. . . . You have to stop drinking.”

Things were starting to make sense. It was like a large jigsaw puzzle slowly being put together. The picture was beginning to appear. I started to feel good about being clean and having complete abstinence from all mind altering or mood-changing chemicals. (Narcotics Anonymous, p. 198)

Where does an addict or alcoholic go from here? If they are convinced by working through the First Step or living through the unmanageability of an active addiction that they are powerless over alcohol and drugs, they are right where addiction wants them to be. They have no hope; there appears to be no help. They crave another drink . . . joint . . . pill . . . fix . . . whatever. Their options are to die quickly or slowly; with or without their drug of choice. Psalm 86 says, “How long will your wrath burn like fire? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?” “Forever” and “no one can” are the only possible answers. But there is a Second Step: “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

I took my last drink one week into my second treatment. I was overcome by the obsession to drink after a hot day of fishing. The only thing I could find was a bottle of liqueur with about an ounce left in it. I guess I needed that last drink to show just how powerless over alcohol I was. In my heart, I surrendered. I couldn’t drink, and I couldn’t not drink. I hoped there was a Higher Power that could restore me to sanity, because I am sure couldn’t. (AA Grapevine, vol 62, no, 9)

The significance of this “Higher Power” is as essential for recovery as Jesus Christ is for salvation; but they are not the same thing. The ability to “worship according to one’s own understanding of the spiritual” was referred to as the saving grace of the 11th Step:

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Any kind of prayer and meditation is very difficult for many in early recovery. In the 11th Step there is a reaffirmation of “the freedom to worship according to one’s own understanding of the spiritual.” By the time anyone joins A.A. to address their alcoholism, he or she has been “out of touch” with spiritual things for a long time. For them to suddenly accept all that they had been rejecting would be almost impossible. “The principle of freedom embodied in the 11th Step opens the door to any individual seeking spiritual help by whatever path and through whatever concepts he himself prefers” (AA Grapevine, vol. 3, no. 4).

Although it is not the same path, this plan for recovery runs parallel to the plan of salvation.

God’s Plan for Salvation and Recovery

In Romans 6:1, Paul asked if we should continue sinning as a way to experience more of the grace and righteousness of God, then immediately answered with an emphatic denial: by no means! Through 6:11 he proceeded to describe our union with Christ; how we were baptized into His death (6:4) so that we too can walk in newness of life (6:4). Christ died to free us from sin (Ro. 6:6). Because if we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him and be free from sin (6:7-8). Just as Christ died to sin, once for all, and lives to God, we should also consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (6:9-11).

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:12-14).

When Paul exhorts us to not let sin reign in our bodies (Romans 6:12), he is telling us to abstain from sin. Because if we do sin, we open the door to be ruled by sinful passions (Romans 1:28-31). Since we are powerless over sin, we cannot control or resist our craving for more. There is no possibility for compromise. We cannot simply have a small taste of it every once and awhile. If we continue to sin, we will be ruled by our desire for it. In his commentary on Romans, Robert Mounce warned, “Sin continues in force in its attempt to dominate the life and conduct of the believer.”

Paul then more specifically exhorts us to not allow any part (or member) of us to be an instrument or weapon for unrighteousness; but to instead present our members as instruments for righteousness. See also Romans 12:1, where his exhortation is for us to present (the same Greek verb) ourselves as “living sacrifices.” There cannot be a corner or part of our being that is given over to sin. It will eventually lead to sin reigning in our “mortal bodies,” forcing us to obey its desires. In the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Martin Hawthorne said: “Union with Christ (Rom 6:2–11) compels behavior which is consistent with it (Romans 6:12–23).”

The fact that Paul commands us to not allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies means that it is possible for us to do so. Otherwise, it is a taunting mockery to command an individual who is powerless over sin to not sin. Such a command would only reinforce the despair and hopelessness of being under the dominion of sin (or addiction). Even though we have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), sin will not have dominion over us because we are not under the law, but under grace (Romans 6:14).

We are not doomed to the eternal powerlessness and unmanageability of sin if we believe that Christ can save us from our body of sin and death (Romans 7:24-25). There is a power greater than sin and therefore Paul can command us to not sin. According to John Murray in his commentary on Romans, “Deliverance from the dominion of sin is both the basis of and the incentive to the fulfillment of the exhortation.”

Again, the parallel to recovery is clear. The addict or alcoholic must fully abstain from mind altering, mood changing substances. They can’t “present” themselves again to drugs or alcohol. If they do, they open the door once again to eventual domination by or slavery to addiction and its passions. Surrender to God in the Third Step means that after we present ourselves to him, we are no longer subject to the slavery of alcoholism or addiction—as long as we remain abstinent with God’s help in working the Steps.

If you’re interested, more articles from this series can be found under the link for “The Romans Road of Recovery.” “A Common Spiritual Path” (01) and “The Romans Road of Recovery” (02) will introduce this series of articles. If you began by reading one that came from the middle or the end of the series, try reading them before reading others. Follow the listing of the articles (i.e., 01, 02, or 1st, 2nd, etc.), if you want to read them in the order they were originally intended. This article is 9th in the series. Enjoy.

Faith Seeking Understanding

Charles Sigler, D.Phil.

Tag: Romans Road