Romans 7:22-23 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

While we are born again, a new creature, we are still flesh. I have the mind of Christ. I have my own flesh, which has not changed. Its nature has not been translated, at least not yet. I have to live with it. If you feel that struggle and cannot understand why God has allowed this to continue, I can offer only one answer.

Jude 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

The last line of our shortest epistle in the bible contains the answer.

We are achievers. In the beginning God gave us dominion over the whole earth, but not over our own selves.

Nehemiah 9:5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

Would we exalt Him if we could do it ourselves? Would we give him honor and glory for anything that we might do if we did not recognize the futility of this duality we live with every day? Would we need a savior if we could do it ourselves?

The fact that He saved us does not mean we no longer need Him. We need Him now more than ever because we are now painfully aware of just how inadequate we are in this life.

2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

These that turned back to their old life were disciples of Christ. They were disciples only in the sense that they followed Christ, heard what He said, and saw the miracles He performed. These are disciples whom I associate with the introductory offer.

You know the meaning of introductory offer, the terms and conditions of the offer are limited in scope and time. At some point the offer expires and you must buy into the program. So what would this look like in our churches?

People show up and declare they follow Christ. They come to church and hear the sermons, have fellowship with church members, attend church functions, and might even be part of a ministry or two. At some point Christ is going to ask of them something they cannot accept. In John 6 to the Jews that followed Jesus it was “Eat my body, drink my blood.” These Jews that followed Jesus just could not follow that command.

These are the sacraments of sacrifice, accepting that Jesus Christ came from God, was crucified, buried, rose from the grave and is seated on the right hand throne of God. It is positional, it is submission, and it means Christ is Lord and your life is not your own. At some point this introductory offer has to be replaced with a new life in Christ.

Many play at church but are not members of the body of Christ, they have not entered into communion. It is only in this communion with God that our lives are truly changed.