Living in the flesh = being chained down by the law.

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:12-15

We have been set free by the grace of GOD! How come then we continue to live in the flesh? We are not controlled by the flesh, for the flesh chains our souls like the souls of slavery, and yet we continue to go back to the evil master that controls our lives. How silly is it to be set free from slavery and then adopted by the most loving and compassionate Father who will give you everything you have ever dreamed, and then forsake him and willingly go put your chains back on? It is ridiculous to think we will be happier in the chains of the flesh (although we might be for a season) but what is a season compared to an eternity of living for him? Nothing at all. We have been set free, Jesus, he who had no sin, became sin on our behalf so we might be able to come into a fellowship with the Father, and we have spit in his face.  Paul states (Romans 7) that the very thing he does not want to do, he does. This is so true in our lives, time after time we say "Jesus today I am starting to live for you, the sins of the past are gone from me, I have broken the bond" Or have we, isn't it vein to tell God we broke the sin that once controlled our lives? Especially if we never even asked him to help us, and one day we just decided to give it up. I tell you this, you will fail and fail miserably, because God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle, but you will be tempted and unless you ask GOD himself to set you free, you never will be free. 

Jesus took us away from the law, Jesus gave us a way to be in full fellowship with him, such as Adam and Eve in the garden, and yet time and time again we forsake his name, we sin in his presence, and we don't even bear fruit for him. Can we really say we are Christ followers when all we do is forsake him and bear no fruit? Surely not! We cannot use Jesus as our "Get out of hell free card" for this is not the purpose of him dying on the cross! Or do you not care that Jesus was punished brutally for ALL of our sins, every single one of them, and you may think that is the reason we sin, and I tell you, it is not ok to sin even though  you are forgiven. Do you think GOD would honor such a thing? "Dear Jesus please forgive me for this sin I am about to commit, but I know you already forgave me so it is ok for me to spit in your face and forsake your name just for a few minutes, because you always take me back." YOU LUKE WARM CHRISTIANS! In no way is that honoring to the one who saved us! Think of the faith of Abraham and how he almost sacrificed his son to honor GOD! What do we do everyday to honor GOD? Do we even take more than two minutes before each meal to thank him for providing? Or more than a 30 second prayer before we go to sleep? Without him we do not live, without him we are once again chained down by the law.

So here it is, no more sugar coating. Jesus was slaughtered for your sins, and you can't even take 15 minutes when you wake up to spend time with him! You need to spend much more time with him than that, but when did we become so proud and so self righteous that we decided we can do it ourselves?

I challenge you to begin living for him

Witness to someone this week.