Chapter 14
“tHE
jUST sHALL lIVE bY fAITH”
“But
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for,
The just shall live by faith.”
(Galatians 3:11)
“The just shall live by faith.” God’s people in this
world live by faith, trusting him, believing his Word. That has always been the
case and shall continue to be the case until time shall be no more. Trusting
Christ as our Savior, we trust him as our Lord, living by faith in him. Benjamin Beddome captured
the meaning of these words in one of his hymns.
“‘Tis faith supports my
feeble soul, in times of deep distress,
When storms arise and
billows roll, great God, I trust Thy grace.
Thy powerful arm still bears
me up, whatever griefs befall;
Thou art my life, my joy, my
hope, and Thou my all in all.
Bereft of friends, beset
with foes, with dangers all around,
To Thee I all my fears
disclose, in Thee my help is found.
In every want, in every
strait, to Thee alone I fly;
When other comforters
depart, Thou art forever nigh.”
Clearly, Paul’s doctrine in this text is an
undeniable declaration that justification can be obtained from God only by
faith in Christ, without the deeds of the law. God’s elect were justified
before the law was given just as we are today, by grace through faith, trusting
Christ. Abel, Noah and Job, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Joseph, Moses and
Aaron trusted Christ just as we do today, believing God’s revelation concerning
his Son, and obtained justification by faith in him. Since the law had not yet
been given, it is not possible that obedience to the law had anything to do
with their justification.
Many were justified during
the legal dispensation. No one was justified by his obedience to the law, even
in that day. The law was not given to justify, but to condemn. The law never
made anyone holy, except in a ceremonial (typical) way. The law’s only purpose
was to lead us to Christ, shutting us up to faith in him alone for redemption,
righteousness, and grace. All the types and commandments of the law were given
to reveal both our need of Christ as our Substitute and the blessed efficacy of
his work as our sin-atoning sacrifice. Therefore, it is written, “The just
shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith.”
The apostle Paul here quotes, by divine inspiration,
the prophet Habakkuk (Hab. 2:4). In fact, this statement, “The just shall live by faith,” must have been one of Paul’s favorite passages. He quotes Habakkuk’s
words three times in his epistles (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). The fact
that the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of these words four times in Holy
Scripture certainly implies that there is much in them that we need to learn
and remember.
If we carefully read the
context from which this quotation is taken and the context in which Paul was
inspired of God to use it, it will become obvious that the Holy Spirit’s intent
is to teach us that as we experience justification by faith in Christ, so too
we experience sanctification by faith in him. Clearly, this is what Paul is
teaching (as we have seen) in Galatians 3.
That
faith by which we live is the gift and operation of God’s grace in us. It is
not native to man, but the gift of God, the fruit of his Holy Spirit (Gal.
5:22; Eph. 2:8-9; Col. 1:12). The operation of faith in the heart produces
love; and love produces obedience. These gifts of grace are not the cause of
life before God, but the fruit of it. These things do not produce
righteousness, but flow from it. In the spring we feast our eyes on the
beautiful roses and flowers blooming around our homes, with their fragrances
filling the air; but no one imagines that the flowers cause the plants to live.
We know that it is the living plant that brings forth the flower and its
fragrance. So it is with the believer. It is the grace of God that gives us
life; and the life we live in faith, righteousness, and sanctification is the
fruit of his grace. Love for and obedience to Christ are the fruit of grace,
not the cause. They neither give us life, nor maintain it. They are the result
of life given.
The Spirit of God here
(and throughout the Scriptures) teaches us that faith is the distinctive principle of the
believer’s life. By faith we embrace the Savior and live upon him. In Habakkuk
1 (vv. 2-3) the prophet cried beneath the heavy weight of his burden, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou
wilt not hear!…Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance?”
Then, at the end of the chapter (vv. 13-17), he asked the Lord to explain himself
to him, to explain to him why he would choose to use the Chaldeans to punish
Judah? His question is, “How is it you, O Lord, God
who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, will execute your wrath upon
Judah by a people even worse than they?”
These were not the questions of a rebel, or a
reprobate unbeliever, but the questions of a faithful man perplexed by God’s
providential works. We might not be honest enough to put them into verbal
expressions; but they are questions that frequently disturb us too. Are they
not? Habakkuk’s questions remind us of David’s great struggle in Psalm 73.
God’s Answer
We must admit that we have struggled
with the same questions. The earth is filled with glaring inequity. The wicked
do seem to prosper while the righteous suffer. After raising these
questions, Habakkuk resolves to wait for God's answer. We would be wise to do
the same, and to lay the answer to heart.
In chapter 2 Habakkuk stands upon his watchtower to await God’s answer, and the Lord gives it to him in a vision. He does not tell us what he saw; but it must be assumed that the rest of his prophecy is the result of the vision God gave him. I say that because God commanded him to write out the vision and make it plain (vv. 2-3); and the declaration of God’s vision was first and foremost a word of instruction, reproof, and assurance to Habakkuk and to us (v. 4). Let us hear the instruction, bear the reproof, and rejoice in the assurance. ― “The just shall live by his faith.”
The first thing
we learn is that God is running things in this world right on schedule (2:3).
Our time and God's time are not measured by the same clock. Israel offered
sacrifices for centuries in anticipation of Christ, the coming Sacrifice, by
whom sin would be put away. The Jews, in unbelief, fell into idolatry and were
cast off by God, because, they refused to live by faith. They stumbled over the
Stumbling-Stone (Rom. 9:33-10:4). Going about to establish their own
righteousness, they refused to submit to the righteousness of God, never
realizing that, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth.” “The just shall live by his faith.” But they
refused to believe and perished.
Yet, ''when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
You can count on it, not one thing willed, purposed, predestined, and/or
promised by God will fail to be accomplished, and accomplished in exactly the
way and at the precise time God has ordained. A thousand years are as a day in
God's sight. He never gets in a hurry, and he is never late.
This is God's
answer to all Habakkuk’s questions and his answer to our own questions as well.
― ''The just shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4). As I mentioned at
the beginning of this study, this great statement made by God to Habakkuk is
repeated three times in the New Testament, all by the apostle Paul. Each place
describes a specific aspect of Christ’s all-sufficient and infallibly effectual
work on behalf of his people as our Surety and Substitute.
The first New Testament quotation is
found in Romans 1:17. It follows Paul’s declaration, ''For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth” (Rom 1:16). Then he says, ''For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just
shall live by faith'' (Rom 1:17).
In Romans 1 Paul
is standing, as it were, upon the threshold of his great Epistle on
Justification, in which he shows us how sinners are made righteous and just
before God, not by works, but by grace. In the Book of God we are given an
inspired record of his wondrous work of redemption by Christ, a record of
redemption accomplished by the righteousness and blood of his darling Son.
Faith believes God’s witness, says, “Amen,” to the testimony of God concerning
his Son, and believing the record God has given concerning his Son, believing
God, we receive righteousness, free, unconditional, irrevocable and eternal
justification. I repeat: faith does not make us righteous. Christ did that at
Calvary (Rom. 4:25). Faith receives the atonement and the righteousness brought
in by it (Rom. 5:11). Like our brother Abel, believing God, offering God the
blood of his own Son, we obtain witness that we are righteous (Heb. 11:4).
The second quote is here, in Galatians
3:11. ― “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith.” Here, Paul is saying
much the same thing as he wrote in Colossians 2:6. ― “As ye have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” The Galatians were
being tempted by false preachers, Judaizing legalists, to forsake Christ and
the grace of God altogether (Gal. 5:1-4). These false teachers tried to
persuade them that, having been saved by grace (justified by grace), they must
now keep themselves saved and make themselves perfect, that they must sanctify
themselves by their own works.
Paul is not
confusing justification and sanctification, but clarifying them. In the context
(3:1-10) he is clearly addressing the matter of sanctification. He is telling
us that both are found in Christ, that both are received by trusting Christ,
that both are works of grace received by faith. He is saying, “If you could
make yourself perfect by works, you could justify yourself by your works. But
that is evidently impossible, “for the just shall live by faith!’”
In Galatians
3:11 Paul is talking about the believer’s walk of life in this world. Just as
we are saved by faith, we continue in life by faith.
We see Habakkuk’s words again in Hebrews
10:38. Here the Holy Spirit is talking about perseverance and the assurance of
it (Heb. 10:39). When the night is darkest, faith pierces the darkness and,
seeing the light of God’s promise and grace in Christ, refuses to quit. Faith
embraces and clings to Christ.
Back in the book of
Habakkuk, the prophet of God tells us that judgment is coming. Every proud
rebel shall be destroyed. But, even in the midst of the providential calamities
of divine judgment in time, and when the great and final day of wrath shall
come, those who live by faith have their eyes on One who is the Anchor of their
souls, knowing that he is in his holy temple (2:14, 20). ― "For
the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the
waters cover the sea."
Certainly, this is talking about that last day, when judgment is over and God makes all things new. It is equally certain that this is talking about this gospel age, in which the gospel of God’s free, sovereign, saving, grace and glory in Christ is spread over all the earth, even as God destroys the nations by the great whore of false religion, Babylon.
Still, there is more. If you
have a marginal translation, you will see that the words of Habakkuk 2:14 might
be translated, “the earth shall be filled by knowing the glory of the Lord.” That is to say, “We who believe
God, who live by faith, knowing the glory of God in Christ, see the fulness of
God’s purpose in all things through all the earth” (Rom. 8:28-39). This is
exactly what our Lord declares to be the case in John 11:40. As it was upon Mt.
Sinai that the whole earth was full of the glory of God (Hab. 3:3-4), so it is
now. If only we had eyes to see it, the whole earth is full of God’s praise.
One day soon, all things shall show forth his praise.
Even when God
marches through the earth in wrath, with his glittering sword drawn, he is
riding upon his “chariots of salvation” (Hab. 3:8), and goes forth for
the salvation of his people by Christ, his anointed (Hab. 3:12-13).
We are justified
by faith; we walk by faith; we will be delivered by faith. This is the vision
God gave the prophet of old. Habakkuk declares, “God is working out his eternal
purpose of grace for the salvation of his people. In wrath, he does remember
mercy. He is making himself known. He is preserving his church and kingdom.
Blessed be his holy name!” In consideration of all these things, the Holy
Spirit tells us four times, “The just shall live by faith.”
Habakkuk’s Faith
Knowing this, the troubled,
heavy-hearted prophet closes his song and his prophecy with a marvelous
declaration of determined faith, bowing to the wisdom, goodness and grace of
God’s adorable providence, even when it appears dark and difficult (3:17-19).
"Although the fig tree
shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive
shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the
LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and
he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine
high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments."
That is exactly what is meant by these
words, “The just shall live by faith.” May God the Holy Spirit, whose
words these are, teach and give us grace, constantly, to live by faith.