Pastor's Power Points

The Just Shall Live by Faith

This phrase was first penned by the prophet Habakkuk as he recorded God’s message to the proud – those who were arrogantly deluded in their self-sufficiency with no acknowledgment of the Creator.  Human pride absent submission to divine revelation leads man to view himself as the supreme being (or at least act that way).

The apostle Paul quoted Habakkuk’s statement to explain the power of God’s revealed truth for the accomplishment of righteousness in man.  This accomplishment is the objective of the gospel – the good news of our rescue, redemption and reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.  In Christ alone is life and this life is attained and experienced by faith. Paul said: it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God….

“Life” is not just a matter of existence, but a matter of being in right relation to the Author of life.  Life is reconciliation and sonship; death is alienation and separation. So in the phrase the just shall live by faith, the live-by-faith part has two elements: having life and living life. Having life is a necessary prerequisite to living life. In other words, one cannot live by faith until one has life by faith. To have life by faith is one’s position in Christ trusting the indicatives of God’s revealed truth. To live life by faith is one’s action in Christ – one’s movement toward Christ (likeness), submitting to the imperatives of God’s revealed truth. The latter is necessarily rooted in the former or it cannot be called “life.”  Apples are the outgrowth of an apple tree. One cannot clip apples to a white birch and call it an apple tree. To live by faith for Christ one must be alive by faith in Christ. Conversely, when one is alive in Christ, he is free and endued to live for Christ – all by faith. Live with confidence in God.