The Just shall live by Faith

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 2 October 2016

The situation which Habakkuk faces is the imminent invasion of the southern kingdom of Judah by the Chaldeans, which is another name for the Babylonians. This invasion eventually happened at the end of the sixth century BC, and Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The Lord revealed to Habakkuk beforehand that Judah was going to be punished for her sin.

Unlike Joel and Zephaniah and Amos, Habakkuk does not even mention the possibility that destruction could be averted. He does not call for national repentance. It is too late. Instead, he predicts the destruction of Judah, and beyond that the doom of the Chaldeans themselves. And he tells them that the only way to preserve your life is by faith.

So even though destruction is decreed for the nation, there is hope for individuals who hold fast their confidence in God. The full doctrine of justification by faith, as Paul taught it in Romans, is not yet here. But the picture is here. So let us survey this prophetic book, and then focus on how it unfolds in the New Testament as “justification by faith.”

Judah's Wickedness and Judgment

Habakkuk cries out in 1:2–4 that Judah is full of violence and perverted justice. Verse 4, “Therefore the law is powerless and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” Amos had warned the northern kingdom that injustice would bring judgment, and that did happen in 722 BC. Now here is the southern kingdom of Judah, 130 years later, guilty of the same offenses.

So in 1:5–11 God foretells what he intends to do. Verse 6: "For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.” God uses nations like a sword to chastise his people. And God still does that right now.

But verse 12 expresses the confidence Habakkuk has that God will not utterly destroy his people, "Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction." God is using the Chaldeans against his people, but it is not for annihilation but for correction and judgment.

The Chaldeans' Wickedness and Judgment

Then in 1:13–17 Habakkuk shows that he laments that the proud (1:11) and violent (1:14, 15) and idolatrous (1:16) Chaldeans should themselves escape the judgment of God. They certainly are no more righteous than Judah (1:13), even if God is using them to do his work of judgment.

Now, in Habakkuk 2, he awaits the divine response to his protests. In 2:2-3, the Lord answers him in a vision. We are not told what he saw but what Habakkuk says is based on what he received in that vision. The word regarding Judah in verse 4 is this, “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just will live by his faith.” There is hope for those who will hold firm their trust in God as the calamity comes.

But the word regarding the Chaldeans in 2:6–19 is a five-fold woe. Verse 6: “Woe to him who increases what is not his.” Verse 9: “Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high.” Verse 12: “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed.” Verse 15: “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor that you may look on his nakedness.” Verse 19: “Woe to him who says to wood, awake; and to a silent stone, arise!” (Idolatry)

In other words, the great power of the Chaldeans will, in the end, come to nothing. Why? Because as 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters covers the sea.” Habakkuk need not fear that a rebellious nation will have the last say. The earth is the Lord's, and He will fill it with his glory.

Habakkuk 2 closes with these words in verse 20, “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” Let all the nations be still and know that he is God. His glory will fill the earth, not the glory of the Chaldeans. So God assures him that the pride of the Chaldeans will come to a woeful end (2:6–20) and that any in Judah who humbly trusts God will gain his life (2:4).

Habakkuk's Song of Praise and Faith

Chapter 3 is Habakkuk's response to what he has heard. But it is more than his own personal prayer. It is intended as a psalm to be used in worship. When it says in verse 3:1, “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth,” means that the prayer is to have musical accompaniment with a spirit of excitement and triumph.

This is confirmed by two things: 1) the very last phrase says, "To the Chief Musician, with my stringed instruments,” and 2) the use of "Selah" at the end of verses 3, 9, and 13. The reason this is important to see is that Habakkuk wants us to be able to sing this prayer with him. It is here to show us how we should face the judgment of God. How should the godly prepare for this tribulation and calamity?

We should ask the same question. Tribulation is coming upon the world, as Jesus said in Matthew 24:21. How should we prepare for it? How shall we endure it? First in Habakkuk 3:2 he prays, “O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid, O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.”

Habakkuk feared of the judgment of God. So he prays that in the midst of His wrath, God still will have mercy on him. Then in 3:3–15 he sings of the greatness of God's power, and especially his power to save. Verse 13, “You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your Anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked, by laying bare from foundation to neck.”

The prophet knew God's power from His work in the past, and so he counted on God’s ultimate victory in the future. So verse 16 says, “When I heard, my body trembled; my lips quivered at the voice; rottenness entered my bones; and I trembled in myself that I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, He will invade them with his troops.”

And finally, in Habakkuk 3:17–19, he breaks out into this wonderful song of faith, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.”

In other words, no matter how severe the tribulation when the Chaldeans invade the land, Habakkuk will never stop trusting God. Even though God himself has roused this “bitter and hasty nation" (1:6), Habakkuk is confident that in wrath God will show mercy to those who trust Him and rejoice in Him alone when all else fails. And this is true today, no matter how difficult your life is, when you trust God, He will save you!

The Main Point

Now the main point of this little book is negatively : Proud people, whose strength or ingenuity is their god (1:11, 16; 2:4, 19), will come to a woeful end, even though they may enjoy prosperity for a season either as God's chosen ones in Judah, or as the victors over Judah. All the proud, whether Jew or Gentile, will perish in the judgment.

But Habakkuk stresses the positive side of his main point, namely, "the just shall live by his faith." He states it as a principle in 2:4, and then he celebrates it as this great song in Habakkuk 3:16–19, which says that even when all the fruit and produce and flocks and herds are destroyed and my very life is threatened, yet will I still rejoice in God. When Habakkuk says that, he shows us what he means by faith in the phrase, “The just shall live by his faith.” He means banking all your hope on God no matter what happens.

Amos had said to Israel, "Seek good, and not evil, that you may live. Remember establish justice at the gate, and it may be that the Lord of hosts will be gracious" (5:14, 15). So Habakkuk could have said to Judah: The just shall live by doing good! The just shall live by executing justice at the gate! But are we saved by just becoming better people by doing justice and loving mercy? No. We do good because we are thankful we are saved.

And unless we have the gospel, that part of God's message of doing good works will become dreadful legalism and a difficult burden to the conscience. When Habakkuk says, "The just shall live by his faith," he means two things. One is that all those who are made righteous are also the ones who have faith in God.

Having a right standing before God always includes faith in God. The other thing Habakkuk 2:4 says is that faith is what saves us from God's wrath. "The just shall live by his faith" means: faith causes people to be reckoned by God to be just, and faith is what secures their life and keeps them safe for eternity.

The Heart of the Gospel

Habakkuk's message is the heart of the gospel but it doesn't reveal how righteousness and faith are related. He simply says, "Righteous people have faith, and this saves them.” The heart of the gospel is further explained in the New Testament after Jesus came to save us. The righteousness which God requires comes by faith, and it is only possible for us sinners to have it because Christ died to redeem our sins.

Genesis 15:6 says, "Abraham believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.” The relationship between trusting God and standing righteous before Him is that God looks at our faith and counts us as righteous. The reason God can do that for us sinners is that Christ took the punishment for our iniquities on himself.

Already in Isaiah 53:11 this is made plain, “By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities." When God reckons a person righteous because Christ died for him and because he puts his trust in Christ, that is what we call justification by faith, and that is the heart of the gospel.

Those who do not believe God according to Romans 2:5, are “storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” On that day it will be clear to all how dumb it was for millions of people to live their lives as though the God who made this world for his glory would never call them to account for how much He was ignored and hated by them.

Acts 17:31 says, “He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.” Therefore, ask yourself: Would I be saved before a holy God if I died tonight? Am I ready to take my stand in the divine courtroom and hear the Judge pass an eternal sentence on me? There will only be two verdicts, either "condemned" or "justified," hell or heaven, eternal death or eternal life.

If you want to be reckoned righteous on that day, listen to Habakkuk 2:4, “The just shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk knew that everybody in Judah was a sinner. And he knew that the holiness of God prevents Him from ignoring our sins. Habakkuk 1:13 says, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.” So Habakkuk 3:2 taught that the only thing that could save us is faith in God's mercy.

Habakkuk couldn't understand how God would do that. But God had revealed it, and so he proclaimed it: the just shall gain their lives in the judgment by faith. Habakkuk knew that when he called them "just," they weren't sinless. He meant that those who are right with God in spite of their many sins are those who trust God for his mercy.

The New Testament Revelation

Paul said in Romans 3:24-26, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

When you put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, when you give up trying to lead your own life and establish your own worth, three things happen: 1) Your sins receive their punishment. 2) God's holiness is preserved. 3) And you receive your undeserved justification.

1) Your sin receives its deserved condemnation. On your deathbed you will realize that you will stand with all your sins before God. Sin must be punished. But God, who is rich in mercy, sent his Son to take our sin on himself and suffer for it. If you believe Christ, the death He died becomes your death. Your sins become his, and they have received their punishment through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

2) If His holiness had not been at stake, He might have just ignored your sin. But he maintained His righteousness by requiring an infinitely valuable sacrifice, the death of his own Son. A righteous God cannot ignore sin, unless there is an atonement, a sacrificial substitute. Therefore He sent His only Son, so that our sin might receive its deserved punishment, and God’s righteousness is preserved.

3) Finally, when you trust in Christ you receive your undeserved justification. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, even though we do not deserve this. It is a free gift from God for us, although for God it was not free, because He gave His only Son. And now we understand how in the New Testament, the just are reckoned justified by faith. Let us pray.