By Faith

DEVOTION
GALATIONS
BY FAITH
Gal 2:18-19
18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
NIV
If I start now allowing myself to adhere to all those rules of some church or denomination or I should say start submitting to them now after for so long preaching against them, then all I do is prove I am nothing but a sinner. If I start thinking by living up to those rules will qualify me for a position in the Kingdom of God, I put myself back thousands of steps. I cannot go backwards. I have taken a stand based on salvation through Jesus Christ and him alone and I will not ever allow anyone to convince me I need to be a good person in order to be saved, or that being a good Christian has anything to add to getting into the Kingdom of God. Not that I want to be a bad person, or go back to the way of life I practiced before I was a Christian, that is for sure. I absolutely died to that way of life. I gave it up completely. I turned my back on it and will never go back to it. I know without and doubt that if I stayed the way I was I would already be physically dead and heaven only knows what would be of my soul, or spirit. I have to think that both the old way of life and the way of life subjected to all the rules and regulations man has devised and imposes on followers of Christ are nothing more than living without God. So many denominations spend so much time defining and defending their particular belief system, or doctrines and dogmas they have lost sight of faith in Christ and simply living for God. I cannot do that. I cannot concentrate my efforts on meaningless dribble. Now do I attempt to live in manner which pleases God? Without question! What pleases my Lord God the most of all? Faith! He knows I cannot be perfect, he does expect me to be holy or set myself apart from the life of sin and without faith in him. What I know is, I was a sinner lost and without hope of eternal life, and now I am found, I am saved from perishing and I have the hope of eternal life in the everlasting presence of my Lord. I am going to spend all of eternity within the new city of Jerusalem, a paradise of God, created by him for me. I am because of Christ and Christ alone. What a grand thing! What an absolutely incredible future awaits me, all because of Jesus. I cannot rebuild, I cannot go back, I cannot live any other way than by faith.