Scriptures in Habakkuk 2: 4; Romans 1: 17; Galatians 3: 11 and Hebrews 10: 38 lay out the centrality of this verse, “the Just shall live by faith.” It is pertinent for us to ask who is the Just and how are the Just to live by faith?. Seeing that this scriptural verse is the road map from the moment of our new birth till the day we go home to be with the Lord or the Lord returns for His church. It is important for us therefore to have a full grasp of its meaning and what it entails. We will let scripture interpret scripture to give us the spiritual insight that we ought to have. As it is written in Isaiah 34 verse 16: “Look in the scroll of the LORD and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is His mouth that has given the order, and His Spirit will gather them together.”
Who is the Just. A Just is a person who fulfil all the laws. Someone who is innocent of the law. Someone who is upright. A person who need no repentance (Luke 15:7). Apostle Peter called our Lord Jesus the Just One in Acts 7 verse 52 (And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One) and also in 1 Peter 3 verse 18 (For Christ also suffered once for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit). Acts 3 verse 14 also lent to this: “But you denied the Holy One and the Just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you.
In Christ, all the laws are fulfilled. Romans 10 verse 4 says: Christ is the end (fulfilment) of the law.
We establish thus from the scriptures the meaning of the Just and who is the Just One. Jesus Christ is the Just One because in Him all the laws were fulfilled. It is only one who is innocent of the law that can forgive those who are guilty under the law. The account is given in the book of Mathew chapter 9 of a paralytic man who let down from the roof by his friends to the place where Christ was teaching. When He saw their faith, He said: “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven.” To put paid to their murmuring, He said in verse 6: “So that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin”, He told the paralytic man, “rise up and take up thy bed and go to thy house.” And the man rose up. The bible infers in Romans 5 verse 1 that God has made Christ Jesus unto us our justification, because we have been justified by faith in Christ Jesus and now have peace with God. It takes a Just man to be the Justifier of others. So we establish from scripture that Jesus Christ is the Just One and He is the Justifier of those who comes to Him by faith. Jesus Christ is the Just One and as many as believed on Him, and in His death and resurrection, are justified and made Just.
The road map for this community of people justified through faith in Christ is that they shall live by faith. There is no two-way about it, it is mandatory. Book of Galatians chapter 3 verse 11 says: “It is evident that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God”, it has to be by faith in Christ Jesus. The road is straight and narrow and the scripture also says in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 38: …but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him. To live by faith in Christ and remain faithful to God is the path we all must take. In Christ Jesus, the Just One and our Justifier, all the laws and the prophets are fulfilled in Him (Luke 24: 27). He lives by the Word of God, He is one with the word of God, and He is the Word. If through faith in Christ Jesus we are justified and faith comes by hearing the word of God, it means that we must continue in the same path. The path is laid out for us in Christ: we believe the word of God, we come to Christ Jesus by faith in the word, we continue in the word till we become one with the word and become a living epistle for all to read. Said Christ in the Gospel of John 15: 7: “If you remain in Me and my words remain in you…” It amounts to a still birth if we claim to remain in Christ and His words remain not in us. What in essence is in front of us, is this; to live by faith is to live by the word of God. This finds a corollary in Joshua 1 verse 8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth and thy heart. But in it thou shall meditate day and night and observe to do them that you may prosper and have good success.”
So what does it entail for the Just, that is every believer who have been justified through faith in Christ, to live by faith?.
*To live by faith is to believe the word, to trust the word and hold in reverence the God who has spoken the word. It is a life of faithfulness to God. The Just who live by faith, who live by every word of God, do not meddle with the affairs of the world because nothing in the world is worthy of their affection.
*The Just who live by faith, because they believe in the word, speak the word (2 Corinthians 4: 13). And because the word they speak and declare are spirit, and they are life, they cocoon themselves with the power of the Spirit and the Life of the Spirit. The Just have to order their conversation aright and in so doing, they are shown the salvation of God (Psalm 50: 23).
*Furthermore, he that believes will not make haste (Isaiah28: 16). Scripture also says that through faith and patience we obtain the promises (Hebrews6: 12). The Just who live by faith are not hasty. They also do not procrastinate because they are not in between two opinions. Their hearts are fixed, trusting in the LORD (Psalm 112:7).
*The word of God is to be a thorough companion for the Just. It shall not depart from their mouth, in it they meditate and observe to do them. The word thus become a lamp to their feet and a light to their paths ( Psalm 119: 105). Their paths is as the shining light (Proverbs 4: 18). The word of God ultimately stands them out, they become a success. The Just are to be the light of the word as they patiently continue in and live by the word. It entails they have to be a standard.
*The Just shall live by faith is a life of transformation. It entails that their minds are constantly renewed by the word of God. They add knowledge of Christ to their faith walk and through this knowledge they partake of God’s divine nature.
The Just shall live by faith does not mean that they wait for things to drop on our laps. It is not a life of docility, rather it is an active life of work and diligence. Faith without work is dead (James 2: 17). We see the testimony in the life of Just men of old who lived by faith: “who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again…” The word of God is quick (living) and powerful (Hebrews 4: 12), the Just living by the word of God cannot but be quick and powerful. The outcomes of living by the word of God are clear and clearly indicated in Psalm 19 from verse 7.
It converts the soul
It make the simple wise
It gives joy to the heart
It illuminates the mind
It ensures enduring purity
It establishes us in righteousness
Living by the word of God is worth the while. We must see it as more precious and sweeter than any earthly things. Job says of the word of God in Job 23 verse 12: “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”
The Just shall live by faith is a call to everyone who believe in Christ Jesus and have accepted Him as Lord and Saviour to live by the Word and be one with Him. Being one with Christ is the essence of the Just living by faith
The scripture says anyone not having the Spirit of Christ is none of His (Romans 8: 9). Scripture says also in Hebrews 11: 19 that without faith it is impossible to please God. To please God is to have the Spirit of Christ. How do we have the Spirit of Christ.? Our Lord Jesus said, the words that I speak, they are Spirit and they are life. If we remain in Christ and His words remain in us, and we continue to do them, then His Spirit and His life is in us, then we are one with Him. How else will the Just One, our Lord Christ Jesus, be justified, that is proved right, by His children who are made Just by faith in His death and resurrection, without they continuing in the faith?. We have a similar biblical principle in Luke chapter 7 verse 35: “Wisdom (Christ Jesus) is justified, that is proved right of all her children.” Rather erroneously, most believers have taken the verse, “the Just shall live by faith ” to mean that being born again, is all about decreeing a thing, and it will be established, and they cared not to prove right the One who has justified them. So when they do not have what they say, they conclude that their faith is weak or it is not the will of God.
The teaching of the scripture is clear: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added to thee.” The kingdom is God’s and the righteousness of the kingdom is Jesus Christ and those justified through faith in Him and being conformed to His likeness. Nothing pleases God more than for His creation, created in His likeness to be one with Christ Jesus and sitted with Him in heavenly places in Christ rather than they having everything in this world and be separated from Him for eternity. It is better for one to enter the kingdom of God lame, blind, halt than to have the whole body intact and go to hell (Mathew 18:8). If our focus is right, God is not a man that He should lie, He will freely give us all things together with Christ Jesus. Whatever a man gives up to seek after the kingdom and His righteousness, he will surely have a hundred-fold returns in this lifetime (Mark10: 30). But then our focus should not be in the hundredfold returns, but rather on being one with the LORD. Christ in us, is the hope of glory (Colossians1: 27). Being one with Christ is the guarantee of eternal glory because that is what our Lord Jesus prayed the Father for in John 17 verse 24, that where He is, there we also may be. The whole purpose of the Just shall live by faith is the eternal salvation of our souls.
