Just Live By Faith

(How Shall We Live?)

Part 1 – Setting the Stage: Habakkuk’s Cry

It is a privilege to worship with you today and open the Word of God.

Our text is Habakkuk 2:4:

> “The righteous shall live by his faith.”

Those few words have shaped world history. They fueled Paul’s gospel, sparked the Reformation through Martin Luther, and still speak to believers living in anxious times.

But to feel their weight, we need to start where Habakkuk himself started—with a heart full of questions.

> “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and You will not hear? Or cry to You, ‘Violence!’ and You will not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2)

Can you hear the ache? Habakkuk looked around and saw corruption, violence, and leaders who seemed immune to justice. Courts were crooked. The innocent suffered. It felt like God was silent.

If we’re honest, we know that feeling.

You pray for a child who has wandered far, but months become years and nothing seems to change.

You work for honesty in a system that rewards shortcuts, and injustice keeps winning.

You watch the news—wars, shootings, refugees—and wonder, “Lord, how long?”

Habakkuk is our companion in that tension. He doesn’t pretend everything is fine. He brings his complaint straight to God.

And God answers—but not in the way Habakkuk expects.

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God’s Surprising Reply

Instead of promising quick relief, the Lord says (1:5),

> “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”

God’s plan will unfold through a rising empire, Babylon—a pagan power far more ruthless than Judah. The cure seems worse than the disease.

Habakkuk wrestles again. “Why, God, would You use the wicked to punish those more righteous than they?” (1:13).

This is not a neat Sunday-school story; it is a real conversation with the living God.

Habakkuk chooses to wait.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost,” he says (2:1). “I will look out to see what He will say to me.”

It is while he waits—watching, listening, wrestling—that the pivotal word comes:

> “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but the righteous shall live by his faith.” (2:4)

This is the hinge of the book.

God contrasts the arrogant (the Babylonian conqueror, and anyone who trusts his own power) with the faithful one who trusts God’s timing and character.

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From Habakkuk to Paul to Luther

Centuries later the apostle Paul quoted this line in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 to explain the gospel:

> “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Paul wasn’t taking it out of context. He was reading Habakkuk rightly: the righteous person survives and flourishes not by self-reliance but by trusting God’s promise, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Fifteen hundred years after Habakkuk, a young monk named Martin Luther read Paul’s words and felt the walls of guilt and fear crumble. He discovered that justification is not earned by penance or indulgence but received by faith in Christ alone. Luther later wrote, “Before those words broke upon my mind I hated God; but when I grasped the truth that the just shall live by faith, I felt myself reborn.”

Through faith in Christ, every deficiency of character may be supplied, every defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.

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Living by Faith Today

Now the question moves from history to us.

How shall we live by faith when the world still feels like Habakkuk’s—violent, unjust, and confusing?

Living by faith is more than a moment of conversion. It is a daily posture of trust.

When prayers seem unanswered, faith waits with expectancy.

When culture rewards pride, faith chooses humility.

When the future is hidden, faith holds fast to God’s character.

Faith doesn’t mean passive resignation. Habakkuk kept watch; he kept the conversation going. Faith is active reliance—leaning on God’s promises when sight and feelings give no encouragement.

Faith takes hold of Christ with the hand of love, and presents Him before the Father, saying: I will accept the Saviour You have promised.

That is how the just live—today

as in Habakkuk’s day.

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Part 2 – Faith as a Lifeline in Uncertain Times

Habakkuk teaches us that faith is not a sentimental feeling but a sturdy lifeline anchored in God’s character.

When God’s answer was not what he expected, Habakkuk did not walk away. Instead, he climbed the watchtower of trust.

> “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me.” (2:1)

Waiting in faith is hard work.

It means choosing to believe that God is both good and sovereign when the evidence seems thin.

Many of you know that struggle.

You’ve prayed for a spouse to return to Christ, or for healing that has not come.