12 Christian Steps of Sinners Anonymous & Biblical References
Week 6
1. We admitted we were powerless over sin… that our lives had become unmanageable. “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanctity. “… my grace is sufficient for you, for my POWER is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of GOD as we understood Him. “… If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our selves. “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40)
5. Admitted to GOD, to our selves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)
6. Were entirely ready to have GOD remove all these defects of character. “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.” (Isaiah 1:19)
Are you READY to give up the world?
Procrastination is the space between conviction and action.
What is keeping us from following Jesus’ command?
Are you ready to relinquish control of your life to God?
As long as sin has a toehold in your life, your effectiveness as a witness of his glory is limited.
Romans 6:1-14
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?(This refers back to verse 5:20 where it talks about the creation of the law was to draw the stark contrast between sin in it’s entirety to God’s holiness. The law pointed out the depths of sin so that grace could be really understood. However the conscious decision to go on sinning in the attempt to exemplify the grace shown to us is erroneous.) 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.(living with Christ isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It includes persecution, unpopular opinions and scorn. This becomes our obligation that we should bear with happiness.) 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.(and the result of this is the responsibility to live as if. Live as if God were right next to us. Because he is. We are dead to our old self, but not to God.) 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.(We need to outwardly become what the inward change in our life has created.) 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.(All parts of your existence are to be used to his glory. Any action that is to the contrary could be seen as the old self in it’s death throes trying to fight against the new self directly.) 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Sin is such a powerful thing that Paul makes a point to personify it. Our old self is a slave to sin however the new creation God has made in us is a slave to righteousness. At salvation we are on an even playing field. Your transgressions have been washed away and there is no reason to linger on thoughts of past misconduct.
John 3:19-21
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.(Human nature is one opposing God’s will. Our inherent decision making process is one that is devoid of God. This becomes increasingly apparent as society “evolves”.) 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.(Be it shame or inability to accept a “new” moral code for our life, we are resistant to the hand of God in our life. No one wants to be exposed for their shortcomings and transgressions. The err in logic there is that our old self can no longer hold any power over our new self. When we became a new person in Christ, the old person died. We can reminisce on the things we did wrong and utilize those things for the advancement of the Gospel. That is God taking power over our old self and using it for his glory. That is the only utilization of our new being that God has. The shame felt from failure is gone.) 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.(This is the exemplification of the thought that once we become a new being, our old existence and it’s shortcomings are in the light. The light will help to illustrate the grace God has shown us. The bigger the sinner, the greater the grace, the better the witness of his saving grace.)
There is no part of our existence that is hidden from God. We would like to think that God will forgive us of all of our sins, but we can hold on to a couple of strongholds in our life. The things we really don’t want to give up because they are intrinsically part of us. The fun things, or the things that will be difficult for us to give up. This is putting God in a box. Saying that he can have dominion over everything that we put in the box, but the stuff outside the box is off limits. When you limit God, you are essentially limiting yourself.
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