Living by Faith
12/7 Reading Portions: 2 Chronicles 7; 2 John 1; Habakkuk 2; Luke 21
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
12/7 Reading Portions: 2 Chronicles 7; 2 John; Habakkuk 2; Luke 21
Habakkuk 2:14
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
BEHOLD
We have before us a monumental truth. This verse was pivotal in the life of Martin Luther, eventually moving him to oppose Roman Catholic indulgences and other corruptions. The general gist of Habakkuk’s prophecies presents God’s judgment upon sin committed by God’s people. Habakkuk speaks of God raising up the Chaldeans, a more sinful nation than Israel, to bring God’s judgment upon Judah. This was so startling a revelation, the LORD even said,
“For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” Habakkuk 1:5
Behold, some 400 years after this prophecy, we find a greater gospel fulfillment of this verse in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Messiah. When Jesus came to Israel in the fullness of the time (Gal 4:4), scribes, lawyers, Pharisees, Sadducees, and chief priests were puffed up, lifted up in their own conceits against the Lord Jesus. Although these religious Jews believed they were upright, their righteousness was superficial at best and hypocritical at worst. They had no faith in God, neither in God’s Messiah, because they placed their faith in their own efforts. The soul of the Lord Jesus as a Man was genuine. He was perfect and upright throughout. Nevertheless, He suffered the wrath of God as if His soul was puffed up and He was not upright within. He was the epitome of righteousness and lived by the truth that He must go to the cross to die for men’s sins. By way of the cross, Jesus was Author and Finisher of faith (Heb 12:2, KJV); and He lived so thoroughly for that faith He founded and perfected, whoever had trusting faith upon the person and work of Jesus Christ, would have Christ’s righteousness accounted to him or her. Moreover, that person would be empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit to live by faith in Christ; and all this, by God’s grace (Eph 2:8-9). Hallelujah! What a Savior!
The Lord Jesus had suffer’d for
The sins of you and me;
Though His life was holy and pure,
He died to set men free.