Crosswork.org

Audio Link

Christians like non-Christians are plagued with many of the same sinful addictions.

The following is a small sampling of the evils that enslave many Christian’s lives:

Sex-addiction, shopping addiction, food addiction, gambling addiction, drug and alcohol addiction.

Proverbs 23:29-35 gives the Holy Spirit’s revelation on the power and consequences of the one whose life is dominated by wine.

Pro 23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

Pro 23:30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.

Pro 23:31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly;

Pro 23:32 At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.

Pro 23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.

Pro 23:34  Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:

Pro 23:35 “They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"

The good news for Christians i.e. the gospel part II, is that our heavenly Father has provided the cure for all addictions through the cross/work of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

The uniqueness of Christianity is found in the doctrine of God’s sovereignty.

In other words, Christianity is not man-centered. The touchstone of Christianity is the will of God not the will of man.

The eternal sovereign will of God decreed that He would deal with man solely on the basis of federal headship.

Moreover, through this doctrine of federal headship God would legally and logically cause man’s mind to objectively look away from himself for both the ground of his condemnation and the ground of his justification.

Consequently, God in His sovereignty alone created an outside of you legal, objective problem so that He alone could provide an outside of you legal, objective solution in Christ alone in order that He gets all the glory and credit for your salvation alone.

This doctrine alone is the death blow to all heart-centered subjectivism because man’s will and behavior is no longer the cause for God condemning man or for Him justifying man.

In this Biblical doctrine alone the Christian is logically made to look to what his federal head did as his representative in order to understand the sovereign imputed effects that his representative had on his life. In Romans chapter 5 we learn that God in His sovereignty credited all of humanity with the one sin of Adam as the legal ground of their condemnation. In other words, the ground of your condemnation before God has nothing to do with you.

However it has everything to do with the action of your legal federal head. God in His sovereignty alone choose to credit the one sin of Adam to your account and to treat you as if you had personally committed that sin.

Rom 5:18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

Rom 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Similarly, God credited the righteousness of your second federal head the Lord Jesus Christ to your account and the Father now treats you accordingly.

God’s first Adam by means of God’s will alone got you into your sinful mess and God’s last Adam the Lord Jesus Christ got you out of your sinful mess by His cross/work alone.

Please tell me what this means with reference to my addictions to my sinful habits.

The purpose of introducing Romans 5 is to demonstrate the sovereign nature of your relationship to God based on all that He accomplished for you in Christ cross/work alone when you were His enemy. And your dependence on Christ finished work to pay for all your sins and provide for you a perfect, legal, objective, outside of you righteousness.

Furthermore, this sovereign grace relationship establishes the foundation on which God will continue to sanctify His blood-bought children.

In other words, God relates to you through Christ alone. God in His sovereign free will choose to have Christ pay for all your sins when you were His enemy.

Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Rom 5:10  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

The message is – if He took care of your greatest problem that is God removed all your sins through the cross/work of Christ so that you will not be punished in hell for all of your sins will He not provide for your addictions, i.e. all of your problems that you will possibly encounter in this life?

2Pe 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

2Pe 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Purpose: To learn that we are to come to Christ alone for the cure for all of our sinful habits and not to trust in any idolatrous man-made programs for our growth in Christ.