"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4).

Few refrains are more often repeated in disparate texts then this grand pronouncement of eternal life available by faith. Paul, like a prosecuting attorney, foreshadows the broad strokes of his argument to the Romans "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).

From the very first family to inhabit this earth we can see two fundamentally different approaches to God. Cain disobediently brought of the fruit of his working the ground, as an offering to the Lord. But Abel, in faith, brought a lamb. "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect" (Genesis 4:4-5). So we note that approaching God by works done in the earth is unacceptable, but the offering of a substitute, appropriated by faith, is accepted.

The Old Testament law was given to point men to Christ and highlight our inability to keep all God's commands: "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). But some fell prey to the temptation of seeking eternal life through the keeping of the law. Paul condemned this: "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith" (Galatians 3:11-12).

Justification by faith was the rallying cry of the Reformation. But still today, men have devised various systems of religion to gain them respectability on earth and acceptance with God. Against this error, the refrain echoes again: "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:38). DW