Faith in Jesus Christ is the 13th Step to break free from addictions

I just realized after reading a part of Romans 6 that faith in Jesus Christ is the 13th step. If you follow 12-step philosophy about how to break addictions or strongholds, there is a phenomenon called the 13th step. When you reach the 13th step, you break your addictions to the point where you no longer identify yourself as a person who was addicted in the first place. You have a new life.

If you have believe you have been truly saved by Jesus Christ and you identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, then you have a new life and body. Faith in Jesus Christ gives you a new life as a person who never had the addictions and strongholds of your old life. 

But this type of belief in Christ can only come to a person who believe that grace and faith in Christ has truly changed them. For some believers this will be an all-at-once process. For other believers, this change will take time. A part of our life will be changed, and another part will need to be changed. But if we have faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, then we know that we will be guided to change the parts of our life that have not been changed. It make a take a lifetime, but we know that we will have victory with God on our side.

Day 201 Bible Readings for July 21 – Romans 6: 3-4 (ESV)

Hosea 1 & 2, Romans 6: 1-14, Psalm 106: 23-32

Romans 6: 3-4 (ESV)

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Verses 3 and 4 from Romans 6 shows Paul reminding us that once we have faith in Christ and were baptized into the faith, we are also baptized into how Christ died. Jesus was crucified on the cross and his physical body died, and he was buried and laid in a tomb. Three days later, Christ was resurrected by God his father and lived a new life. I believe Paul wants us to identify with how Christ died so we know as Christians that when we have been born again, it is like a physical death to our old self. When we are saved, we have a new life. Our old self died like Christ and was resurrected by God. If we believe this, then our relationship to sin is changed. We can no longer sin in the same way because we are different people who have been given a new life.

Does this mean sin will never be in our life when we become a Christian? No, because we are still in a physical body. But if we really believe we have a new life when have been saved by Christ, then our nature has truly changed. Sin can longer control us as it did before our new life with Christ. We have been set free in Jesus from sin, who gives us strength and grace to battle with sin.

Day 200 Bible Readings for July 20 – Amos 8: 11-12 (ESV)

Amos 8-9, Romans 5: 12-21, Psalm 107: 10-22

Amos 8: 11-12 (ESV)

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.”

Verses 11 through 12 from Amos 8 is the prophet Amos telling us that not hearing the words of the lord is worse than not having enough to eat and drink. And even when we seek the word of the Lord, we will not find it. I was moved when I read these verses from Amos 8 because I had an experience with losing thousands of dollars worth of lectures I bought and paid for when I recently transferred them to a new computer drive. I was devastated by the loss because of the money I had spent, but I also realized that this was a lesson from God. I had been so worried about losing these physical things that I had collected, and when I did lose them, I realized that it wasn’t the worse thing that could have happened to me. I had lost money for sure, but I knew I could with time rebuy these lectures again. God taught me that losing physical things is nothing compared to losing my faith in God.

Day 199 Bible Readings – Romans 5: 1 (ESV)

Amos 6 & 7, Romans 4: 16-25, Romans 5: 1-11, Psalm 107: 1-9

Romans 5: 1 (ESV)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Verse 1 from Romans 5 gives us Paul’s first benefit of the argument he has been making to the church in Rome that he wanted to visit. Paul’s argument is that the only way of salvation is to be justified by grace through faith. We are justified by grace through faith because Christ died for our sins. We have peace with God because Jesus paid for our sins in full by his death on the cross. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we will no longer battle with God because of our sinful nature. But this peace with God doesn’t mean peace with everything else in our life.  We will still have troubles with the world, with our desires, or with our sinful nature. Life will unfortunately always be a battle, but our battle with God is over and we die we will live forever with Christ.