What does First B Jackson teach about living by faith?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on living by faith starts with a single phrase from Habakkuk 2:4, a verse that both Pastor Mark and Pastor Ray have returned to across years of preaching. The phrase, 'the righteous shall live by his faith,' carries more weight than a quick reading suggests. Pastor Ray worked through the Hebrew and Greek to show that the word at the center of the phrase holds two meanings at once: the trust a person places in God, and the faithfulness God has already shown. Pulling those meanings apart, he argued, does damage to the phrase. They belong together, and that is what living by faith actually looks like.
Pastor Mark showed from Habakkuk's own story why that double meaning matters so much in hard circumstances. Habakkuk brought his sharpest complaints directly to God, which itself showed a baseline trust even in the middle of his doubt. God's answers did not make the situation easier to understand. They called Habakkuk to keep trusting a God whose purposes run deeper than any single moment of suffering or confusion. The righteous person lives by faith not because the circumstances look good, but because the God being trusted is reliable.
Pastor Mark also pressed this into the New Testament through Galatians 2:20, where Paul says Christ is actively, presently living in the believer. Because of that union, the faith by which a believer lives is not only their own. Where the believer doubts, Christ does not. The gospel, he said, is not only for people who do not yet know Jesus. It is still good news for those who do, and it is the ground on which daily faith stands.
Taught from Habakkuk 2:4 · Galatians 2:20-21 · Galatians 3:11 · Romans 1:17 · Hebrews 10:38
The passage taught · 1 John 3:7
7 Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- May 29, 2022 The Righteous Shall Live by Faith A close study of Habakkuk 2:4 and what it means that the righteous shall live by faith, tracing the phrase through Hebrew, Greek, and the New Testament.
- May 22, 2022 Trust in the Lord No Matter What The preacher walks through all three chapters of Habakkuk, showing how one prophet's raw complaints to God became a model of trust in God's sovereignty amid injustice and suffering.
- August 26, 2012 Crucified With Christ and Yet I Live A verse-by-verse look at Galatians 2:20-21 showing how union with Christ's death and resurrection is the foundation for living a genuine life of faith.