The Just Shall Live By Faith
While I was seeking the Lord this morning and asking him for his wisdom for a new post, a word came to me and it was “and the just will live by faith“. Well, as you can imagine, I stopped for a moment to ponder what this means. So, I asked the Lord for wisdom to know what he meant and he led me on a journey to research and find out where this statement is in the bible. Well, I have recently started to read the book of Romans, and it’s found there but it is actually referencing a scripture from the old testament book of Habakuk. So, I went and read that book to understand it’s original use and meaning.
For those of you who have never read much of the old testament, I would urge you to start because anything spoken of in the new testament comes from somewhere in the old. This is one of those nuggets that the Lord is showing me. Now onto our discussion…
The book of Habakuk was written less than 700 years before Christ was born. He was a prophet lamenting to God about the evil, injustice, violence and moral decadence going on right in front of his eyes. Much like the world today, he was crying out to God to ask why does he let all this bad stuff happen and is silent. The Lord answered him.
Even though the world we live in today is increasingly evil, we are to live by our faith, uprightly, Godly, holy, keeping our eyes on Him who can keep us from this evil and preserve us through it. So, how do we accomplish this you ask? To answer this question, I went directly to the source and searched through the teachings of Jesus throughout the 4 gospels to find it.
GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
The first thing that hit me was while reading these verses in Luke 11: 1-13. Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray and this is where we get the Lord’s prayer, which is found in it’s full version in Matthew 6: 9-11.
Here is the passage from Luke 11: 1-13 (ESV)
1) Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
2) And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
3) Give us each day our daily bread,
4) and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
5) And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,
6) for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7) and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’?
8) I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
9 ) And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10) For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
11) What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
12) or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13) If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!“
That last part of verse 13 is the key: the Father will give his Holy Spirit to those who ask him. The key to living by faith is that you need the Holy Spirit to enable you to do that. Without him, you can do nothing. We can’t accomplish anything for God on our own, it’s by his power that we walk in faith. If you are trying to live the Christian life and feeling like you’re failing, maybe you need to ask for more of his Spirit to fill you and strengthen you.
Living by faith, being one of the just (righteous, Godly, holy) is not optional in the Christian life. I found a wonderful message on this subject at this website and I implore you to read it. It deals with living in these last days with a “form of Godliness but denying the power thereof“. It seems that’s the way MOST Christians are living their lives these days. But what does Jesus say on that subject? The answer is in Matthew 5: 20 “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no way enter into the kingdom of Heaven.”
That is a powerful statement to the fact of how we are to live as Christians. It’s also a warning to ALL of us that we better heed.
THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL LIVE BY FAITH
We read this in the first chapter of Romans. It’s Paul writing to the church in Rome regarding how they should live, what kind of people they ought to be and a rebuke to all of mankind who turn their back on God’s laws.
Romans 1: 16-25
16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19) For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20) For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
21) For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22) Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24) Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25) because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
I wanted to finish this post with these scriptures as they speak loud and clear to everyone today. It’s so easy to see all around us. Just read through some of the posts on social media and listen to the news and you will hear it loud and clear. All of mankind is rejecting God and his laws, in one way or another. There is so much misinformation and outright lies being passed off as the truth and people are not opening their eyes or ears to understand it’s happening because they don’t want to hear the truth. Please let this be a warning to you that you heed. Time is short. God will not continue to let this world mock and scoff at him much longer. We see it all around us, the world is seeing the signs of Jesus coming to punish unbelievers. We as Christians need to live our lives as we ought so that our lights will shine like the sun in the darkness that is covering the world. The Christian life is to be lived in POWER not in words. We are called to be holy like God is holy. If you are not living like that, I urge you to repent and turn back to God today.
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