Living by Faith
Habakkuk 2:4
presents two different ways of living in strong contrast. The way of the wicked
is unbelief and defiant disobeying of God’s revelation. The other is the faith
in God and obedience to His Word. One is submissive to God, and the other is
arrogant unbelief. One says, “I don’t need God. I can take care of myself.”
The other says, “But the righteous will live by his faith.”
The prophet wrote:
“Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the
righteous will live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
The “proud one” is puffed
up, swollen with pride. The Hebrew expression is figurative of pride and
arrogant self-sufficiency.
This is the strong contrast
the prophet is drawing out in this chapter. The wicked is puffed up and has no
desire to do what is right in God’s sight. “He is greedy as the grave and like
death is never satisfied” (v. 5, NIV). Sheol or death is compared to a
voracious appetite that can never be satisfied.
The other choice is living
by faith in the one who keeps us, not only from the moment we first trust in Him
as our Savior, but in every moment of every day of our lives. “But the
righteous will live by faith.”
This verse in Habakkuk asks
some important questions for Christians today. Who is this righteous person?
How did he become right in God’s sight? What is the function of faith in the
righteous person’s life? How do you live before a holy God?
Habakkuk emphasizes, as
does the rest of the Bible, that we are not righteous. We are unrighteous. We
are sinners. We cannot earn a righteous standing before God because we are dead
in our sins and trespasses. We cannot earn a right relationship with God
through good religious works, prayers, charity, fasting, etc. “But the just
shall live by faith.”
Since no one can attain
perfect goodness, how then can we stand right before God and be acceptable to
Him?
The just person, or person
right in the eyes of God, has ceased in his own efforts to attain this right
standing before God. He has turned to Jesus Christ instead for the
righteousness that God freely gives. It is God’s gift to the believing sinner
in Jesus Christ. A Christian is a person who is trusting in Jesus Christ alone
for a right standing with God. He or she is not someone trying to earn
salvation by good works, but instead has received what God has done for us in
Jesus Christ. The very foundation of our Christian life is not what we can do
for God, but what He had done for us in Jesus Christ. Our entrance into the
Christian life is not by working but by a spiritual birth. We receive God’s
gift by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. “The righteous person will live by
faith” (Rom. 1:16-17).
What is saving faith? It
is believing God and acting upon that belief. Faith expresses itself in
obedience. It is faith in action. It is not just a mental assent; it is
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as the person who died in our place and turning
from unbelief and following Him. It is a commitment that begins in simple faith
and continues through out your life.
The apostle Paul stressed
in his letter to the Galatian church that we are not saved by faith and then
proceed to live by a different principle. He admonished, “The righteous will
live [continually] by his faith (Gal. 3:11-12). This is the daily life of the
Christian and all the days of his life on the earth. “The righteous shall live
by faith.” The only way to live the Christian life is to “live by faith.”
Martin Luther put this
great truth in his own words. “Before those words broke upon my mind, I hated
God and was angry with Him because, not content with frightening us sinners by
the law and by the miseries of life, He still further increased our torture by
the gospel. But then, by the Spirit of God, I understand those words – ‘The just
shall live by faith!’ ‘The just shall live by faith!’ Then I felt born again
like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God.”
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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