Always an Addict: They say once we’re an addict then we always have addiction issues. Alcoholics understand this, even those who have gone through treatment and have abstained for years. One drink is sometimes all it takes to be right back where they started.
It is also said that relapse is a part of recovery. Why is this so? It all gets down to human nature and our natural tendency to turn away from God and go our own way, whether intentionally or just because we stumble and fail.
Always an Addict: Holy Spirit helps overcome addiction
People who follow the Lord Jesus Christ will admit that they were saved by the grace of God and not by their own works. Overcoming sin, whether an addiction to a substance or to a behavior, is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Humans do not possess the ability or the power to deal with their own sin issues. It seems like a stacked deck. We want to walk down the right pathway, but we wander off somehow and find ourselves in the weeds. We determine to do better.
The American way is to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. But there are things in life that are just bigger than that, things we cannot overcome on own own, but need the strength of a much higher power. We need to first admit there’s a problem and then conclude that the solution does not lie with us.
Substitute the word addiction for sin
The Apostle Paul understood human nature and his letter to the Romans is clearly evidence of his wisdom and understanding, brought to him by the Holy Spirit. If you read the letter to the Romans and every time you see the word sin, just substitute addiction.
Paul was addicted to being a Pharisee and zealously sought to make sure others were obeying The Law. His encounter with the risen Christ changed all that. It’s like he came full circle in his life—from the Pharisee who persecuted Christians to the Apostle who wrote much of the New Testament.
Still, as Paul came to grips with this, he was a sinful man and certainly not exempt from the temptations of life. All too often he gave into those temptations and repented, but that didn’t mean they didn’t arise again. Luckily for him and for us, he had a high priest who understood and guided him by grace.
Most addicts fall of the wagon
Addicts who fall off the wagon, regardless of what addiction or compulsion they have, may often find themselves in moments of mental anguish over their actions. It’s not like God is standing by and waiting for the sin to occur. It’s more like there is a wave of conscience that flows immediately after the sin has taken over.
The Holy Spirit reminds us of His love and salvation, while we try to hide in the shadows not wanting to be seen. In a very real way, God saves us from ourselves, but only if we allow it.
Always an Addict… sin takes over
Paul was fully aware of God’s law. He studies the Torah and was highly educated in the Jewish tradition. But like so many Pharisees, he did not understand grace and mercy. Instead he felt it was his calling to punish those who broke The Law, even though he himself was breaking it at an alarming pace.
That’s what addiction is like. When we aren’t paying attention, it rises up and takes over. It isn’t just addiction to drugs or alcohol, it’s addiction to anything. Think of what gets in the way of a full and complete devotion to God and you’ll begin to understand that we are all addicted to something.
It is not necessary to identify any specific problem, because we all have our own shortcomings and each of us needs to draw close to God to manage them.
Paul describes human nature
Paul’s dissertation in Romans is a brilliant study in human nature. We can look at the seventh chapter of Romans for some insight into Paul’s life and struggles. The Pharisee, the keeper of The Law, truly understood where things went wrong.
When he turned to Jesus, he dies to The Law and the entire focus of his life changed. He saw The Law differently. Christ freed him (and us) from the consequences of The Law.
So, my brothers, you also died to The Law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by The Law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from The Law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4-6)
We cannot live under our own power
The Law is not just a set of rules and regulations. Following The Law, to meet God’s perfect standards, is impossible. The Law shows us the futility of living under own own power. So is The Law wrong in showing us that we have no excuse and nowhere to turn except to God?
7 What shall we say, then? Is The Law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through The Law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if The Law had not said, “Do not covet.”
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
12 So then, The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. (Romans 7:7-12)
Always an Addict: Should we blame The Law when we fail?
If we fail is it the fault of The Law? Did God give us a set of standards to follow that were impossible and cause us to sin?
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18 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.
19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:13-25)
God is reaching out to us
No matter our lot in life, no matter what circumstance surrounds us, God is there reaching out with a strong hand and a forgiving heart.
In Christ we have a high priest who understands. We have a savior who dies on the cross for our sins. In Christ we have arisen Messiah, who walked out of the tomb, giving us hope of the resurrection and eternity with God.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
Addiction remains
Christ is our salvation. The limitation of the human condition remain. The addictions remain, but God offers His hand. It’s not a get out of jail free card, but it is an invitation to have a relationship with the one who created us. We all need God’s guidance and strength. On own own, we’re just human.