The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Habakkuk 2:2-4central passage of the sermon, quoted and examined in multiple translations
2 Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.
3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay.
4 Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.
Paul restating 'there is no one righteous, no not one'
1 Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God.
3 For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God?
4 May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”
5 But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.
6 May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
8 Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.
9 What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.
11 There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”
13 “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”;
14 “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood.
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways.
17 The way of peace, they haven’t known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
21 But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,
23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;
26 to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
27 Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28 We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
30 since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.
31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness
1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
5 But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
6 Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,
7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”
9 Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.
12 He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
13 For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.
15 For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
16 For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
17 As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.
18 Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.”
19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
22 Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,
24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,
25 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Mark opened a second week on a single half-verse from Habakkuk, one that has occupied his thinking for more than a decade: "the righteous shall live by his faith." He traced that phrase through a stack of English translations and then broke it into its three parts, putting them back together at the end. The goal was to show that the phrase carries more than one legitimate reading, and that the tension between those readings is the point.
What was said
The sermon picked up where last week left off. Habakkuk had complained to God about senseless violence going unanswered. God replied that He was in fact acting, raising up the Babylonians as judgment, and that Habakkuk should write the vision down plainly so that anyone who reads it can run. Then comes the turn: "Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith." That contrast between the proud, puffed-up person and the righteous one is the hinge the whole sermon rests on.
Pastor Mark walked through roughly a dozen English translations of that single line, noting where they differed. Some said "faith," some said "faithfulness," some tried to use both. Some called the opposing figure "proud," some "impudent," some "bloated by self-importance." The point was not to pick a winner but to show that the Hebrew word behind it, and the Greek word pistis in the New Testament quotations, genuinely carries both senses: the subjective trust a person places in God, and the objective faithfulness of God that makes that trust warranted.
He then broke the phrase into three parts and examined each one. "The righteous" is the subject. Scripture says there is no one righteous, not one, but Paul argues in Romans and Galatians that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. So righteousness here is a declared status, not a self-generated one. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, and those he gives grace to are the ones he calls righteous.
"Shall live" is the verb, and in the Hebrew it carries more than bare survival. The imperfect tense describes an action that starts at a point and extends forward from there. It can point to daily life in God, walking out righteousness through the Spirit, or it can point to eschatological security, passing through the final judgment because Christ's righteousness has been credited to the believer. Pastor Mark argued both are present.
"By faith" sits in the middle in both Hebrew and Greek, and that position matters. Depending on which direction you read it, the phrase is either about justification, being declared righteous by faith, or about sanctification, the righteous person walking out life by faith day by day. He pointed out that the three New Testament quotations of the line split along those lines: Romans and Galatians lean toward justification, while Hebrews and the original Habakkuk context lean toward sanctification.
To hold the two readings together, he used an M. C. Escher drawing of two hands, each drawing the other. Either hand can look like the primary one depending on how you look at it, but Escher drew both. In the same way, God is the author of this phrase, and He constructed it so that both directions of meaning are real and neither cancels the other out. Jesus is described in Hebrews as the author and finisher of faith, meaning He both originated it before the world began and will complete it in eternity, while in the meantime believers are given the privilege of walking out their part of the story.
The sermon closed with Ephesians 2:8-10. It is by grace, through faith, not from ourselves, the gift of God, not by works. But verse 10 adds that we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. That verse, Pastor Mark said, is where justification and sanctification land together: saved by grace through faith, and then sent out to walk it out.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Jonathan mentioned that Habakkuk challenged God directly about senseless violence and evil seeming to win, and said many of us prayed something similar this week. When have you found yourself in that same place with God, and what did that conversation look like?
God told Habakkuk he was already acting, just in ways Habakkuk could not understand or would not have expected. Has there been a time when you looked back and recognized God was working in a situation that felt silent or even wrong while you were in it?
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. How are you? Are you here?
Yes. Raise your hand. Can you hear me? Yes. Is this thing on?
How about standing up? This Memorial Day weekend traditionally start a summer, but it's to remember those who have fallen in service of the country. We're going to sing God of our Fathers, hymn number eight zero nine. The hymnals are actually not under your seats anymore, but they're up here if you want em. We're going to start with sort of a, what do you call that opening?
A trumpet? We don't have a trumpet. We're going to start with some sort of a a blast here at the beginning and between verses but God of our fathers. Wow. There's a lot in there.
America the Beautiful. This this is sort of an aspirational hymn. It is a hopefulness that God will provide what will be needed for us all to go forward. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements here.
First off, there is no Monday night service as it is Memorial Day. So, please do. Y'all celebrate that. Old West Days is going on in Jackson too. We're going to do no Monday night service this week and there's no Awana because of summer.
So, we're not doing Awana. Tonight will be a very very rare circumstance that the church is not full of people on a Monday night but no Monday night service. Sound booth volunteers. If you have a specific kind of a gifting or wiring for doing technical type stuff like this, we would love for you to admit it to us. We could use some help on Monday nights and maybe on Sunday mornings too.
But Sunday Sundays and Mondays, Blake does a fantastic job. Blake has taken a job where it's not allowing him to be here as much. He's always been like Cal Ripken. He just shows up, does his job, you know? Just been doing it like the iron horse.
He keeps on going but we do need a little bit of help there. So, Nick and Blake would train you in what you needed to do. Prayer group meets Wednesday mornings at 07:30 in the morning. That's a great group. We get together to pray for missionaries and concerns within the church family, but also in your family.
If you show up, we'll pray through whatever the requests are and you get to know one another and what's going on in the life of the church. First, be in the Bible. This is the little blurb that we sent out. It's a chapter of scripture every single day. Right now, we're in Romans.
This week, I did Romans four. I think Phil Baxter did Romans three. Steve, you had five? I got for you. Yeah, I'm he's following up that Romans five.
Oh, what? That's Romans five one through five is Tanya's favorite passage of scripture. That's a good one. We're we are entertaining new writers if you would like to and you feel like, you know what? Maybe I ought to do that.
The first paragraph is just a little introduction to who you are. Then, we read the scripture and then we have a little notes on it and application. That's all it is but it's every morning and so, if you want to do that, would you tell me afterwards or tell Brad Yates and we'll get you in the rotation for being one of the people to write that. Brad edits it. I I don't usually get an advanced copy of it but I love to see it in my inbox every morning.
Vacation every morning and during the week. It's five days a week. Vacation Bible School, the theme this year is Christmas in July. So, it's going to go June 27 to July 1. Start 9AM to noon.
And if you want to sign up a child for that or if you want to sign up as a volunteer, you can do that online, on the church website. Is there anything else? I feel like there might be something. The clickity clicker is not clicking. I can announce that out loud.
You will see that in a few minutes. I think that's it. How about when I look into your holiness? This is hymn number six forty nine. If you'd stand with me.
I'm thankful to be here this morning, I'm thankful y'all are here with me. God, thank you that you are holy and that we can look to you, Lord. I've I've read that we we tend to drift towards what our image of God is. And Lord, I pray that we would become like you are, more loving, more merciful, more forgiving, more helpful, and more righteous. Lord God Almighty.
When we look into your holiness, may we be drawn into it. Amen. Think we'll sing this twice. Let's sing it one more time now that you know it. It's a profound song.
But Jesus, we just want to thank you. Number seven ninety one. Have a seat. It's time for the ushers to come forward and would you pray with me? God almighty, we're thankful to be here this morning.
Overwhelmed, Lord, in a lot of different ways. Those of us who have been paying attention to the news this week, Lord, are overwhelmed in a in a difficult way. The burden seems very much like last week's focus of the sermon that Habakkuk had in his day. It feels, Lord, like we are surrounded by senseless violence. It feels, Lord, like it's that evil is winning.
It feels, Lord, like what's going on is not in any way good. God Almighty, you've asked us to be thankful in all circumstances, not for all circumstances. But Lord, you also can be trusted. In Habakkuk last week, you were speaking to him and saying that I'm doing something that you don't understand. Lord, Lord God Almighty, would you change us in the way you'd have us change?
Would you change this world in the way you would have it changed through these difficult circumstances? God, would you help us? Others of us, Lord, may be overwhelmed by the goodness of God and the release given to the captives this week. I know of two people that I believe surrendered their will to your will and humbled themselves before you and made their peace with you. God almighty, what an amazing, amazing thing to have been given the gift of abundant and eternal life that can start now, that people can get up from the throne of their own lives and hand it over to you and you can become, and you do become, their sovereign king.
Lord God Almighty, may we live in complete and utter humility recognizing that all that we do have was given by you. Lord, we're sharing back with that which you've given to us to provide the gospel, the hope of the gospel, the word of God, but also the help of God. Lord God, would you meet people's needs by the monies that go in this plate? Would you marry the two, the priority of proclamation, Lord, with the holistic approach to humanitarian aid taking care of people? We want to be actively pursuing both things as you lead.
In Jesus' name, would you use these funds to do your will among us and through us this morning. Amen. It's on now. Okay. Thank you, Judy.
So, all know, I'm about to kind of start off this. I'm working through my nerves a little bit. You all know that I've been in a New Testament study for a long, long time. Last week though we broke away from that to talk about the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk, a minor prophet.
Minor prophet is just three chapters long. And it fits so well, I think, with what we're going through in the world today that it just felt like God was motivating that. And then out of that, I mentioned last week, there's one verse. Actually, it's one half of one verse that struck me as something we really need to kinda dig into more. I've been enthralled with this little, phrase for twelve years probably, something like that, ten or twelve years.
I had in seminary a class called homiletics 6,300. Homiletics 6,300 is the preaching course. And I avoided it like the plague because there is nothing that I hate more than standing in front of people and public speaking. So I did not take the preaching class the first year, second year, third year. And then when I got to the fourth year, y'all somebody from here asked me to come out and be an intern.
And I did a summer of preaching and I went back and took all the preaching courses because it is hard. It's not an easy thing to do. But in those courses, I happened to be in the class with a teacher who had been preaching for fifty something years and with nine other students. There were 10 of us in the class. And those nine other students are amazing thinkers for the most part.
All of them are just really, really bright. Theological acumen was just like that. And they were smart people. And I realized I was an art major from way back. I realized that I was an intuitive feeler in the group in a group of a bunch of sensing thinkers.
And so everybody else in the place, he gave us a paragraph of scripture and said, come up with a three point sermon, you know, keyword study on this passage. Man, they could do it in fifteen minutes. They'd have the thing just outlined and a good prayer for the end, and I can't do that. I've got to ruminate on. I got to think about it for a while, and I got to really consider it.
And I I do consider the grammar and all that sort of stuff. But a lot of times when I'm presenting to y'all, I present a paragraph or more, two or three paragraphs sometimes. I usually try to go far enough for it to be encouraging before I finish. Okay? That's the idea.
Sometimes I will leave a discouraging message in your lap to let you deal with it for the next week, but most of the time I try to cover a passage that gives you enough context. So last week, if you want to go back and you missed last week, you want to go back and listen to the context for this verse, you can go back to Habakkuk. Read the whole thing. It's only three chapters long. It's not complicated.
It is a dialogue between Habakkuk, prophet. We don't hear of him anywhere else in our canonical New Testament or Old Testament. We don't hear about him in the Bible anywhere. But he had except for in this little book of Habakkuk. And it's a a dialogue with God.
Habakkuk speaks and then God speaks in two cycles. Habakkuk speaks, God responds. Habakkuk speaks, and God responds. To begin with, Habakkuk says, Lord, why is it that all the time we're surrounded by absolutely senseless violence and you sit and idly don't do anything? And that's a good question.
How many of you all have prayed that this week? It feels like, Lord, that evil is winning. Right? And so that's what Habakkuk was saying to God. And God answers back and he says, Habakkuk, something is going on in your time which you wouldn't even believe that I am doing and you wouldn't believe it even if I explained it to you.
And then the very next verse says, I am acting. I am raising up the Babylonians, and y'all are going to be whipped and then taken into exile. It's not great news, But that causes Habakkuk. That's the first cycle. Second cycle, Habakkuk says, Lord, they're even more evil than we are, but you're supposed to know better.
Doesn't that make a difference? You're my chosen people and I have provided all that you've ever needed, and yet you act just like they do. They may be worse than you, but you're supposed to know better. And so God's response when Habakkuk speaks out the second time about him being idle and not doing anything, His response the second time starts out like this. This is God's response in the second cycle.
And I think this is the turn. This is the place in Habakkuk where it goes from Habakkuk being raising his raising his voice, if not his fist at God and saying, if you're almighty, you should be acting. And then God says, but I am acting. You just don't understand my ways. And so he says, but they're worse than we are.
And he said, write down this vision Habakkuk. This is the way he responds in the second cycle. Write down this vision. Write down exactly what I tell you. Make it plain.
Make it plain on tablets so that the one who reads it may run. Okay? Give him a warning. Give him a chance. Make the vision plain on tablets so he may run who reads it for still this vision awaits its appointed time.
It's coming and it hastens towards its end and it will not lie. If it seems slow, Habakkuk, wait for it. For it will surely come and it will not delay. It's in my timing, right on time. Then this is the next sentence.
Remember that it is God speaking. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by faith. So the people that they're talking about, Habakkuk is saying, oh, it's senseless violence among our own people all the time. And God says, yep.
And I'm raising up the Babylonians to judge that. He goes, but they're worse than we are. And he says, behold, his soul is puffed up. It's not upright within him. Knowledge puffs up.
Power puffs up. Worldly influence, fame, glory, whatever, all puffs up. He his soul is puffed up. It's not upright within him, but but strong, destructive. The righteous shall live by his faith.
So that's the English Standard Version. That's what I used last week. But the righteous shall live by his faith. God is talking. Remember that.
I love this phrase right here because the more you study it, the better it gets. It is profound. It's very, deep. And you're not going to get to the end of this because you'll you'll come up with a new angle. I I went through this with Carl earlier in the week.
I told him the same I used the same slides. I used the same scripture. And he sat through the service this morning, the first service, and he said, it hit different this morning. It landed differently because God is using he's using it to transform us. Okay.
I've got a bunch of different translations, like 10 or 12 different translations in English of the Hebrew. I don't speak Hebrew. I didn't even really do all the Hebrew classes, but I want to use this. Behold, as for the impudent one, this is a New American Standard. Usually I use New American Standard.
All across any New Testament sermon, I usually use New Testament sermons in ASB. But I hit this one when I was looking up Habakkuk and I decided to change over to the English Standard Version just because I didn't like the word impudent, honestly. Behold, as for the impudent one, I don't feel like it's a common word but we know exactly what it means. We know it's not good. But behold, as for the impudent one, his soul is not right within him.
But the righteous one will live by his faith. Okay. So we can see that impudent is not righteous. It's unrighteous. If we pay attention to the NIV, it says, see, the enemy is puffed up.
Now the enemy, there's no word in there that says the enemy, although the context does tell us that the enemy, the Babylonians, he's puffed up. He's pretty full of his military power and his desires are not upright. He's just taking what belongs to other people and see, the enemy is puffed up. His desires are not upright. But strong, destructive, the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.
Now it says faithfulness there. It said faith in the first one. Faithfulness and faith. How do those relate to one another? Why would you translate one one way and one the other way?
Well, says subjective versus objective. I'm a grammar nerd too. Sorry. Behold, KJV. I love a KJV.
His soul which is lifted up is not upright within him. It's puffed up. It's arrogant, impudent, puffed up. It's not upright within him. But the just shall live by his faith.
The New King James, behold the proud. Okay. Now I understand proud. I know what that is. Behold the proud.
His soul is not upright within him, but the just shall live by his faith. The New Living Translation, very dynamic translation. More of a paragraph by paragraph than word for word. It says, look at the proud. Check these folks out.
Look at the proud. They trust in themselves and their lives are crooked. It's not a word for word, but it gets at the hint it gets at the gist of it. The they trust in themselves. They are puffed up.
They think they know everything And their lives therefore are crooked because they're not trusting in God. The righteous though will live by their faithfulness to God. There's faithfulness again. It's interesting. It says their faithfulness.
New revised standard version. Look at the proud. Their spirit. They use spirit and soul usually use spirit instead of soul in the new revised standard, but their spirit is not right in them. But the righteous live by their faith.
Holman Christian Standard Bible. I'm almost through. I got about five more. Look. His ego is inflated.
He's without integrity. That's a pretty dynamic translation too. His ego, he's puffed up. He's without integrity. His soul's not upright within him, but the righteous one will live by his faith.
The message. I love Eugene Peterson as a pastor. He has a pastor's heart. He cares deeply for people. I heard an interview with him.
He's passed on now. But I heard an interview with him after the Sandy Hook shooting. It was the most pastoral thing I think I've ever heard about how to deal with evil. Look at that man. He's bloated by self importance.
He's full of himself but soul empty. But the person who is in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, he's really alive. Very dynamic translation. That's not exactly what it says, but that does get the message across. The person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing, the righteous.
That's that's how he translates the righteous. He's fully alive. Shall live by faith. Shall live. Look at the proud.
This is the amplified Bible. It actually calls itself the amplified Bible. It's not even claiming to be a translation but more of a paraphrase. The amplified classic Bible says, look at the proud. His soul is not straight or right within him.
But the rigidly just and uncompromisingly righteous man, it uses both, shall live by his faith and in his faithfulness. It uses both faith and faithfulness. So I know y'all have lots of different translations out there. I doubt any of you is carrying around with you a Young's Literal translation of the Bible. It's cumbersome and it's dated, but it is a good translation.
And so a lot of times when you're going, what does that really say? You might want to go back to the Young's Literal translation. Lo, behold. Look at this. A presumptuous one.
One who presumes they know it all. Not upright is his soul within him. It actually pays attention to word order and that sort of thing too. And the righteous by his steadfastness liveth. Okay.
Alright, young. The righteous shall live by faith is what we're going to talk about. And I'm going to examine it individually by the way that it's broken down in colors right up there. And then we'll put them back together at the end. So to begin with, the righteous shall live by faith.
Actually, that's the Hebrew. If there is somebody who's in here who's a Hebrew student and I'm not, if you want to holler out how to say this, go right ahead. But the righteous by his faith shall live. It is that. Okay?
But the righteous by his faith shall live. Now the by his faith is by his faith or is it by his faith? Can be either. It's it's restated in the Greek New Testament. And actually the blurb that went out this week that's our normal Sunday bulletin, some of you all read it.
And I had in there included these Greek New Testament restatings of it. Those are Romans one seventeen, Galatians three eleven, and Hebrews ten thirty eight respectively. So that's what those are. And in both Hebrew and Greek, it is this way. It's the by his faith is in the middle.
We say the righteous shall live by faith, but it's in the middle. And that's interesting because it corresponds differently. If you were to look these up in Romans, that one, it says, but that little old day up there is but the righteous by faith shall live because it's up it's referring back to something and it's disjoining with that. Hadekaias, the righteous by faith shall live in Galatians. And then in Hebrews it says, but my righteous one.
I like that. Because think about this. If your righteousness is derived from yourself alone, it is self righteousness and therefore unrighteous. Because it's just the way it is. Ours is a derived righteousness.
Hebrews makes that very plain. How did Ephesians move? My righteous one by faith shall live. So the more I study this simple phrase in seminary and since then, the more profound it has been become for me. So I want to break it down into these three and then put them back together.
The righteous. So first of all, it serves as the subject of this phrase. It's not a sentence. It's just half of the sentence in Habakkuk. It it is it stands on its own, it's an independent clause or phrase.
The subject of the phrase is the righteous. It has to do with uprightness and it is contrasted with the proud. So it has to do with righteousness or justness. Because some translations will say, but the just shall live by faith. The ones who are just shall live by faith.
And just saying that, if I say, the righteous, some of y'all, like me, are skeptics by nature. And you hear it and you go, but the scriptures say there's no one righteous. No, not one. Says it in Psalms. Says it in Isaiah.
Paul restates it multiple times. There is no one righteous. No, not one. Romans three. And that's true to begin with.
But Paul is arguing when he says that in Romans and when he says it in Galatians, just as Abraham believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness. What it takes is trusting God, believing God. And when it said, Abraham, leave the place that you know and go to a place that I'll show you. And it says, and Abraham believed God and it was counted to him or imputed. Imputed has nothing to do with impudence by the way.
Okay. There are different routes, different languages, not not the same. But he it was credited to him as righteousness. So Abraham was righteous because God said so. Because he believed God.
If you look at Romans, for what does the scripture say? Thank you Paul for reminding us. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And the scripture was fulfilled. James even gets on board and agrees with Paul and God.
And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. So though we are not by our nature righteous, God can declare us righteous when we humble ourselves before him. The proud is contrasted with the righteous. The proud is proud and God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble.
And the ones he has given the grace to are the ones that he calls righteous and they are, therefore, righteous. First John goes into the action part of this in three seventy. He says, little children make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he, God, is righteous. We not only can be declared righteous, but we can.
It is possible as human beings to walk out the righteousness of God led by his spirit, empowered by his spirit. We can walk out righteousness. Okay. So that's righteousness. Now shall live.
The righteous shall live. This serves as the verb of the phrase. It is in the future. It's actually an imperfect tense where there's a difference. Serves as the verb of the phrase.
It's imperfect tense. So usually what that means is it's an action that at some point, something happens and then that action extends from that place forward into eternity future forever and evermore. Okay? It's just from this point, this happened and now it goes forward. So that is the living of life from, let's say, salvation unto glorification.
You're just shall live. Does does that make sense? Okay. You're still with me? The grammar stuff's not throwing anybody?
Okay. All right. So it's action that extends forward from a certain point. Or it can be, since it's future tense, it can be eschatological security. So end time security, in the eventual judgment, yes, you'll see me through the judgment because I've trusted in Christ.
Because you've declared me righteous, I will live eternally in heaven, pine sky by and by, for sure incorruptible hope, whatever you want to say about future security. That's that it can be that too. The Hebrew background of this verb though doesn't just say surviving like living versus living or dying. It is living or dying but living, this verb kind of means thriving and experiencing and enjoying life in God. So abundant life.
Does that make sense? Okay. Right. So shall live. I think we covered that.
And then by faith. This is where it gets interesting. So if we're looking at this, the word for faith in the New Testament is pistis in Greek. And this finds itself and like I said, this this is more in Greek than it is in Hebrew, but this finds itself in both languages. In both languages, it's centered between the subject and the verb, and it can modify either one.
So it can be the righteous by faith. Why are you righteous? Because you've trusted God. He declares you to be righteous. The righteous by faith shall live.
In the judgment, they shall live. It also can be modified verb. So by faith shall live. So it can be the righteous. That's the one that God has declared righteous.
By faith shall live means walking it out. Walking it out day by day. Does that make sense? So one of them tends to agree more with justification and the other one tends to agree more with sanctification, but it's still the same words, same order, same thing. I'm just saying depending on how you look at it.
And in the New Testament when it's quoted those three different times, one time it's the same as it is in Habakkuk. It's more about sanctification. Hebrews and Habakkuk are more about sanctification. Sanctification. The process of dealing with evil in this world.
But in Galatians and Romans, there's no doubt Paul is arguing for justification by faith. Isn't that cool? That it's both ways? I like that. So pistis, faith or faithfulness.
Wait a second. Faith and faithfulness in English, I look at those and I think they're two different things. How are going to deal with this? Pistis means both faith and faithfulness. And like I said, preaching in seminary is hard.
First of all, you got the professors there that know everything more than you do and they're the ones teaching you that stuff. It's hard. But it's also hard because you're you're you're struggling with all this stuff. All of these things where you go, which is it? I want you to nail it down.
Well, our subjective faith in the faithfulness of God makes all the difference in eternity. If I put my faith, and I used in the first one. I don't keep up with sports. I don't know if this is a good example or not, but I have heard that the Cleveland Browns, they're just perpetually not going to win. Right?
They're not going to get in the big game, and they're not going win when they do. So you can put all your faith in the Cleveland Browns. But unless they are faithful to winning those games, it doesn't matter what you believe about them, does it? You can be wholly misguided by putting your faith in something that is not faithful and true. So faith, belief, trust, confidence, fidelity or faithfulness.
The faith, belief, trust, confidence is more like faith. And then the fidelity and faithfulness is more the faithfulness. Subjective, my own faith, has to be in something that is objectively faithful and true like God. Are are you with me still? Are your eyes crossing over yet?
Now we know from Hebrews eleven one, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. That's great. I love that verse and I think about it a lot when I go, wow, this is hard. Because the world wants evidence. They want an ontological proof of God or they're not gonna believe.
Well, without faith it's impossible to believe God because faith is the substance of things that are hoped for, not hope the way that we use hope, but hope like an absolute certainty that has not yet come to pass. The evidence of things not yet seen. That verse doesn't it goes a long way with anybody who's believed the word. But it doesn't go anywhere with the world because they want evidence, not faith. So if I'm looking at that let me let me go back to for a second.
Pistis is that which evokes trust and faith. Okay? That which evokes trust and faith. If there is a reliability about something and our experience shows that the sun comes up every morning, that seasons eventually get here. Right?
You can explain it all kinds of ways you want to, but the fact that it just is consistent application over time, we can we can with some level of confidence say, that's going to happen again tomorrow morning. That which evokes trust and faith, faithfulness, reliability, fidelity, commitment, especially in the case of deity. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's misunderstood because we are finite beings trying to understand him. But as we humble ourselves like Habakkuk did and ended with a hymn of praise, as we say, you know what, God?
I don't understand what's going on, but I trust you no matter what. I'm trusting you to allow me to know just what I need to know to walk out the steps that you would have me walk out. That which evokes trust and faith. So the football example didn't help. You can believe in something and it be not worthy of your belief, and it doesn't help you at all.
But if you believe in God Almighty who is true and faithful, it does help. It makes the difference in eternity. So pistis, again, is the state of believing on the basis of that reliability of the one trusted. It is trust. It is confidence.
It is faith. So it is both faith and faithfulness. And in seminary, and when you're translating, trying to translate, generally, you want to come up with one answer. I mean, a translation is making a decision. And we saw all of those English versions.
We saw them trying their best to nail it down. And we saw some of them that put faith and faithfulness in there. And we saw some that said, the one who's walking it out. It's it's it's an interesting, like I said, very profound verse. I think that this is really good.
We know that it is by the grace of God because there is no one righteous. No, not one. There's no one who seeks after God and there's no one who deserves to be credited with the righteousness of God. But he has made his way and he says that if you will humble yourselves and ask, you will receive grace. For it is by grace that you've been saved and that is through faith.
It's through pistis. It is through your subjective placing of your belief, trust, and faith in the faithfulness of good and almighty, gracious, and loving, merciful God. For by grace you've been saved through faith and that is not of yourselves. It all starts with God. It is the gift of God.
It's not of works lest anyone should boast. Nobody in here has any thing to boast about. If you know God, it's because he showed you the way. It's a gift. Okay.
So here we are. We're getting close to the end here. I'm gonna ask you a couple three questions maybe. So based on what we've seen so far in my study and you're hopefully you're thinking through it too. Is the righteous one, is it the one who God declares to be righteous or is he the one who does what is right?
Yes. How about this one? Does shall live mean daily in this life, walking it out, walking out righteousness, shall live? Does it mean daily in this life or forever in the next? Yes.
And does pistis, does that mean the faith of man or the faithfulness of God? Yes. And it doesn't matter how you take this. You can pick and choose any direction from either of these and that's within the range of meaning. But if you practice looking at this and go, I have been declared righteous and I will live in the judgment.
I'll pass mustard because of what Christ has done, and it's only because God has imparted to me faith in his own faithfulness. Right? That's that's a mindblower. But if you think about it going, I can walk out my faith day to day in the rigors of this life and the difficulty of facing a world that does not understand us, that just wants to have their way all the time. I can pass through this life following after the direction of God who speaks and loves and provides for me.
Amen. Yes. The righteous by faith, that's how you get to be righteous, shall live. And then the righteous, those who have been declared righteous, by faith shall live. Amen.
They can walk it out. And I know that the church is under fire. It feels like it's under fire more than ever before sometimes, but you can still walk this out in humility. When you raise yourself up in pride, your spirit is not right within you. It takes humbling yourself or being willing to be humbled by God.
So here we have a drawing. I mentioned I was an art major. I'm not a huge M. C. Asher fan.
He's got a lot of stuff that's mind blowing and he's got all kinds of different drawings. But this one, this one is a left hand drawing a right hand. Or is it a right hand drawing a left hand? Yes. If you look at it and you go, Which one is that?
I mean, does the right one look more realistic than the left one? Does it seem like well, I'm right handed so that seems more natural. That left handed one looks a little funny. I'm not sure. The way that it goes though, M.
C. Escher drew both of those hands. Does that make sense to you? So the righteous by faith shall live and the righteous sorry. The righteous by faith shall live and the righteous by faith shall live.
That's left hand and right hand. Do you get that? God was the one speaking. He's the author of this. He is the artist that drew this.
He is the creative creator, and he uses language in such a way that in Hebrew and in Greek and in English, these things relate to each other in such a way that they can be understood. Isn't that amazing? Almighty and infinite God expresses himself in a way that can be understood. And it might be to you that what you see in this is sanctification by all means. Habakkuk and Hebrews agrees with you.
And you might see in this, well, God is the one who just saves, and it's on the basis of me just trusting what he says is true. It's about justification. Yep. It is. And that's good.
When we look at this paradox, that apparent paradox is resolved when you consider that above and beyond all of this, the actual artist created this drawing, M. Escher, but God Almighty created this thing to work the way that it does. And it is, in a way, beyond us and just mind blowing. But God is not the least bit confused by it. Jesus is the creator.
He's not the least bit confused. We look to him. He's the author, the pioneer, the first of our faith. He walked it out. Is he seated at the right hand of the father?
He is. Did he walk out his faith through the power of the Holy Spirit? Did he accomplish all that God had for him? He did. It was both.
So he's the author and the finisher or the perfecter of our faith. I think that's the last slide up there. We're going sing the doxology. I think we're going to do it with instrumentation this Sunday. If you would join me, stand.
Considering that God is the or Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Think about this. He authored it before the foundation of the world. He will complete it in the eschaton, right? Eternity future.
But during the meantime, he's given us the privilege and the opportunity to write part of that story, to draw some of that story. Now he's established that he's got it down for us the way he wants for us to walk it out. I think the benediction will hit that note. We get to write part of that story by the way that we live out our lives. And so how is it that we will do that?
Well, the righteous will live by his faith. So would you stand and sing the doxology with us? And we're gonna sing the amen at the end like we mean. Okay. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly Amen. And for the benediction this morning, we're gonna go beyond eight and nine. Ephesians two eight and nine. We're gonna go and reach and hit 10 too because I think it covers exactly what the righteous shall live by faith considered in every different direction will cover.
Think about this. It is by grace. It is the unmerited favor of God Almighty. That is what how you have been saved. Not because you deserve it.
It's by grace that you've been saved. How do you access it? Through faith. His faithfulness and your faith. He gives it.
It says though in the next verse there, and this is not from yourselves. It doesn't start with you. Just because you believe it doesn't make it true. It is true. Your belief makes a difference.
It's the gift of God. It's not by works so that nobody can boast. We are God's poiema, his handiwork, his workmanship, his masterpiece, if you will. We are his handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, walk it out, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Lord God Almighty, may we live by faith every day.
In Jesus' name, may we see others come to you because we're walking out the things that you have for us to do. In Jesus' name, amen.
