The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

In spite of all our talk about the mercy of God, and in spite of the fact that we confess all the time that we are saved by grace, the faith by which we live much of the time is based not on grace, but on an ancient creed which has come down through the generations, was held by many believers in Israel and is held by many in the church today, a creed by which we measure the circumstances that we're in and often evaluate the people around us and their worth, the belief that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. These words from our Lord's own mouth can only mean one thing, that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it, from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead in it, death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The picture we have of God here is that of one who is absolutely just, and who on the basis of a justice, which is without error, pronounces judgment. That God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked at the end of the age has been made clear by our Lord, and by all Scripture, moreover, the conscience of every human being who has ever lived bears witness to the truth of it.

We know there will be a judgment. Every atheist knows it, every agnostic knows it, and it's bold, a judgment at the end. But when we take this principle that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, and apply it not to the end of the age, but to our present circumstances, we run into terrible confusion.

Suppose my life has been going well, I've got lots of money to pay all my bills, I haven't had the sniffles for three years, my kids are doing well, and I ask myself why. God rewards the righteous, punishes the wicked. Then I have this friend, poor guy, he's just been having a bad time of it.

He's been sick quite a bit, his finances are in shambles, his children are having problems. How come? Simple, God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? The disciples asked Jesus.

Obviously, somebody's being punished for something, that this man was born blind. In Somalia at this moment, on the Horn of Africa, tens of thousands of people at this instant are starving. And we don't see much about it in the newspapers.

We get all kinds of information about all kinds of other things, but people are dying in the droves and no information about it. How come? Maybe they're doing something wrong. Italy, people are shivering with cold by the thousands right now, we hear quite a bit about that.

Maybe they're making a mistake, because after all, they're probably doing something wrong too. Now don't jump on me, wait till I get through. Whereas in our country right now, for all our problems, at least the supermarkets are still jammed with food, and the grain elevators are pretty well crammed to the top.

So this means we're doing something wrong. So take the principle that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, in this age, at this time, works lovely as long as things are going well for us and bad for the other guy. But now, suddenly, the tables are turned, and we begin to taste what it is to suffer privation and hunger.

Tragedy starts coming down over our heads, and some pious soul comes up and shakes an accusing finger at us, and declares that we must have secret sin in our lives. The prophet Habakkuk was brought up on this teaching, that in this life, in all circumstances, God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. And that made quite a bit of sense as long as Israel experienced peace.

But now, the Chaldean armies are sweeping in and raping and plundering and killing. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear? Or cry to be violent, and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou make me to see wrong, and look upon trouble? Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on wrong. Why dost thou look on faithless men, and art silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? Habakkuk's faith was shaken because it was based on a principle which doesn't seem now to be working.

If God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, how come he allows the wicked to swallow up the man more righteous than he? So, Habakkuk decides he's going to find out. He's going to stand before God and get some kind of answer. I will take my stand to watch and station myself on my tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

And the Lord answered me, Write the vision, make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time. It hastens to the end.

It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come.

It will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by faith. Doesn't work the way you thought it did, Habakkuk.

In this age, it is not God who rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. In this age, the principle of life for everyone who looks to God has to be the righteous shall live by faith. But who are the righteous? The eye of God searches the earth, looks into the depths of every single heart as if it's the only heart he's looking at, sees everything, misses nothing, forgets nothing.

Now who are the ones who God declares, after he has seen into the depths of their hearts, to be righteous? If God measures righteousness by the purity of our hearts, by the good that we've done, and if God immediately causes punishment to come to the wicked and reward to come to the righteous right now, in this age, right now, if we have to pay exactly and absolutely for what we've done, and for the things we've left undone, and for the idle words we've spoken, and for our cowardly silence when we should have said something, if we receive from the hand of God right now exactly what we deserve, where would we be? Praise God that this is not the hour of judgment. This is the age of grace in which instead of sending to us the hell we deserve, God offers to us heaven as a gift if we will but turn away from our own ways and open our hearts to his redeeming light. This is the age in which God imparts to the penitent a righteousness which is not their own.

There is none righteous, no, not one. God has imputed all, has consigned all under disobedience that he might have mercy on all. And now he gives to those who repent and turn to him his own righteousness coming from the blood of Jesus and from the spirit of Jesus.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And we become the righteousness of God in Jesus by repenting and throwing ourselves on his mercy. Now God looks down on our hearts and not only declares us righteous as he sees the blood covering them but also begins now to make us righteous by moving upon us in the power of his spirit and drawing us into such a union with Jesus that we begin to take on his nature.

And we all with unveiled faith beholding the glory of the Lord are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another by the spirit of the Lord. But as the blood of Jesus covers our sins again today as we come to his table to eat his flesh and drink his blood and as the spirit of the Lord draws us into the very merciful and kind and forgiving heart of the Father may God deliver us from the idea that this righteousness which God gives to us as a gift will now cause our circumstances to smooth out and pretty soon we'll all be rich and flying around in near jets. This is not the age, thank God, in which God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.

This is the age in which God calls those who receive his righteousness and are clothed in his righteousness to live by faith regardless of how things go. The righteous shall live by faith in all circumstances good and bad. So things are going well.

We worship God. We trust God. We serve him.

But we don't make the mistake of interpreting our good fortune as a proof that we deserve all this, as evidence of God's favor because we've been so good. Rather we receive the sunshine from God and thank him for it and enjoy it and make the most of it but we don't attach our hearts to that sunshine because we know there will also be some rain. And if things are going badly for us right now, we continue to do God's will and to serve him and to worship him and to trust him and we don't make a mistake of interpreting our bad circumstances as a sign of God's disfavor but we know that God is with us even in the rough times.

Still with us, so it's raining. The real sunshine is still inside. The righteous shall live by faith.

And if it should be that we are being chastened and corrected by whatever we may be suffering at the moment, God is still with us. He's chastening us and correcting us as a heavenly kind loving father chastening his daughters and sons. So one thing we can be absolutely sure of in this age is that we will have God's presence.

It's the only thing we can be sure of. Lo, I am with you always to the close of the age, says Jesus. What possible blessing can be added to the presence of God, to having Jesus actually in our lives all the time? And if everything else should be taken from us, we'll still have him.

And if we have him, we'll get along very well with or without the Learjet and the rosy circumstances. We'll rejoice in God when the sun is shining and we will rejoice in God when the storms are blowing. That's what Habakkuk learned to do.

Listen to how he ends his book. Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the field yield no fruit. The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like hind feet.

He makes me to tread upon my high places. Habakkuk learned to leave the rewards to the day of judgment. And he learned, even in difficult times, hard times, awful times, that he could still rejoice in God and find his strength in God.

May God help us to do the same. For in this age, there is only one principle that works. The righteous shall live by faith.