The Just Live According to Faith

Habakkuk 2:1-4

1 I will stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me,
And what I will answer when I am corrected.

2 Then the LORD answered me and said:

"Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.

4 "Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.

Habakkuk prophesied against the proud ones of God’s people.  He stood firm on his watch as a messenger of the word of the LORD as he speaks faithfully here from the watchtower of God’s fortress of sovereign strength and protection.  He was patient as he awaited God to speak to him and willing to be corrected when he sinned.  Habakkuk was not a proud man, but a humble and obedient servant of his Lord and God as an example to you and I to follow in serving our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by the enabling power and wisdom of God the Holy Spirit.  As the man of God waited, the LORD spoke at last to him and instructed him to write it all down (like Moses did with the commandments) to make His certain words more visible to all then and now.  It was to be sent by runners to read the message to all who heard it just as the gospel is read and spoken even now to herald God’s work in Christ until the end of all time no the ensuing judgment.  These verses are quoted in this context in Hebrews 10:37-38 as the Coming One who is Jesus the Christ would be heard as His words were broadcast to all who heard that they might be saved and live according to their God-given (Ephesians 2:8) faith in Him.  Those in the time of Habakkuk were implored to wait for this message of life obtained and sustained by faith which would come in the proper time (Galatians 4:4-5) as planned by God from the beginning (Genesis 3:15).  There would be no delay past the appointed time as spoken here by saying it would not tarry.  God sent Christ at ex the right time in history to bring this good news of deliverance by faith from God’s just due wrath on our sin inherited from Adam in our spiritual DNA.  Our works could never be complete or perfect enough to cover what only the blood of a perfect sacrifice could do if we receive it by trusting God’s work alone (Hebrews 10:12-14, 11:6, John 6:29).  The proud fall short still by refusing to trust Christ and attempt to earn salvation in their own feeble efforts of unrighteousness (Isaiah 64:6) and not the work and righteousness of Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:8-11).  The gospel is the vision of grace to salvation by faith which was foretold and that we now have broadcast to and through us!  The just now live by faith alone through Christ alone to the glory of God alone.