From the "How it Works" Section of the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous:
"This is the how and the why of it. First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most Good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom."
There is no greater blasphemy that to treat God as some imperious, distant figure who gives directions from afar.
"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1: 17)
You can give something from a distance -- but Jesus Christ the Lord, He came in the flesh, bringing grace and truth.
"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5: 6-8)
God came to us in the power, person, and presence of His Son, and His Son was sent to die for us, to make us righteous in Him, to reconcile us to His Father and our Father!
Granted, the writers of the "Big Book" also points out that God is our Father, we are His Children. But who is this possible? Blind faith is not acceptable, for even Jesus did not impose such an empty standard on his believers:
"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake." (John 14: 11)
So, how were we "adopted" into the Holy Family:
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)
By the Power of the Holy Spirit, the promise released to the whole word and to every believer because of Christ's final atonement at the Cross, the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer, granting us eternal life, eternal sonship with the Father. Through the Holy Spirit, we are transformed from sinners to saints, from dead to living, from alienated to accepted in the Beloved:
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5: 17 - 19)
We cannot become sons of the Father just by believing. We enter into Sonship by the grace of God:
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
"Not of works, lest any man should boast.
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2: 8-10)
Beyond these wonderful revelations, Jesus Christ Himself before His Passion and Crucifixion wanted to be more that merely a Director, or even a Parent:
"That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." (John 17: 21-23)
Jesus wants to be one, united with us. He wants us to know that God the Father loves us as much as He loves His own Son!
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 5-6)
We receive the adoption as children, but we believers are also accepted IN the Beloved, Jesus Christ! God sees us with His Son, so much so that He sees His Son, not us. That's why Paul writes to the Corinthians:
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 20-21)
Paul was not even telling the Corinthians to "get reconciled", but rather to accept that they already ARE reconciled, and made the righteousness of God in Christ.
Later Paul writes to the Colossians:
"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3)
God sees His Son, as we are in Him. Our relationship with God through Christ Jesus by the Power of the Holy Spirit is far more than principal-agents, or even Father-Son, but we are one with Christ, in Christ. That's why John writes in his First Epistle:
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3: 2)
and later
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
The false and foolish teachings in the "Big Book" do not compare with the standing that a believer has in Christ Jesus!
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