Most of you have heard this phrase before: “The righteous shall live by faith”. It’s the kind of phrase people make t-shirts and write music about it, but what does it really mean?
This Sunday, we will be talking about a passage in Galatians 3:16-22. This passage addresses the covenant God established with Abraham, hundreds of years before the Israelites received the Law. Paul calls Abraham “the man of faith”, and on Sunday we will say more about how faith, not works, brought him righteousness. Christiane and I have had some good conversations about the tension between faith and works, many of us struggle with, sometimes our entire lives.
I (Christiane) was talking to a friend of mine at the beginning of this week, whose father is physically ill. She was asking for prayers, not just for his physical illness, but even more so for his spiritual health. Despite being a Christian his whole life, her father was being tormented with the thought of not being ready to face Jesus, in case he succumbs to his illness. He kept referring to his faith as ‘weak’. Being afraid to see Jesus and not getting the ‘stamp of approval’ he thinks it’s necessary in order to be in God’s Presence for eternity.
Unfortunately, he is not alone in his thinking. Many people have this idea of God, sitting in heaven, meticulously judging every move we make, and every thought we have. Some even say, sometimes in jest, that our reward in heaven gets bigger with every good deed, or that the chances of getting hit by lightening increases with every bad one. It’s hard to shake the transactional view of salvation in America. Everything in our culture is about working hard and getting what you deserve.
This way of thinking is not cognizant of the Truth of Scriptures. We have to remember that Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of Heaven and established a way of living that is counter-cultural. So again, what does it mean to live by faith?
Right before our Sunday passage, Paul says in Galatians 3:11:
“Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Paul quotes this phrase, which comes from Habakkuk’s book, again in Romans 1:17, and so does the author of Hebrews (10:38). The prophet Habakkuk received this directly from God, in response to his complaints about iniquity all around him. In chapter 2, verse 4, the Lord says to Habakkuk:
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
In our very individualized culture, ready to reward our accomplishments, it is not exactly surprising to see this phrase used as some sort of personal call to action. We might think that somehow we need to ‘produce’ faith, in order to live by it.
We are either unaware or altogether forget the context in which God speaks. We forget the heart of God. We forget how He has already prepared the way for us to be one with Him. We forget who we are, and even more tragically, we forget who God really is.
“for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith”. Gal 3:26
It is the work of Christ that gives us adoption as children of God. As we acknowledge who He is, we come more in alignment with who we are. When we decide to abdicate our self-reliance, we learn to depend on God. It is not about having ‘weak’ or ‘strong’ faith. It is not about all the things I get right. It is all about the Righteous One, the One who gives us the faith we need to live one day at a time, and in the process, imparts His righteousness upon us. When we say ‘No’ to our “puffed up souls”, and come in humility (total dependency) before God, then our hearts are set right.
Making the choice to trust God, especially when we don’t understand what’s happening around us, is how we align ourselves to the truth of who He is. It is how we live by faith.
In the beauty and grace of a relationship with the Triune One, we get to rest and rejoice in Him.
Habakkuk learned this. That’s why his book ends with this incredible psalm. We pray we can also sing it with assurance!
