Live By Faith

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

Habakkuk 2:4

The word from Habakkuk is thrice quoted in the New Testament as the divine representation of salvation in Christ by faith alone. But that word is oftentimes very imperfectly understood, as if it ran: “Man shall on his conversion be justified by faith.” The word includes this, but signifies much more. It says that the righteous (just) shall live by faith: the whole life of righteousness, from moment to moment, shall be by faith.

We all know how sharp opposition which God in his word presents between the grace that comes by faith and the law that works demands. This is generally admitted with reference to justification. But that distinction holds just as much of the whole life of salvation. The righteous shall live by faith alone, that is, shall have power to live according to the will of God. As at his conversion he found it necessary to understand that there is nothing good in him, and that he must receive grace as one that was powerless and godless, so must the believer just as clearly understand that in him there is nothing good, and that he must receive his power for good every moment from above. And his work must therefore be every morning and every hour to look up and believe and receive his power from above, out of his Lord in heaven. I am not to do what I can, and hope in the Lord to supply strength. No: as one who has been dead, who is literally able for nothing in himself, and whose life is in his Lord above, I am to reckon by faith on him who will work in me mightily.

• Andrew Murray, The New Life, as referenced in the KJV Devotional Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, 2011 Edition.